Love Makes the Social Media World Go 'Round

We buy gifts on social coupon sites, we order flowers online, we get to know restaurant specials Valentine’s day offers through Foursquare, and send Facebook e-cards to our beloved. This is an ironic video about Valentine’s day and social media, that underlines how the web 2.0 changed our our way of celebrating love.
Since brands have gone social, they also want to be present for their community for the most personal festivities. This includes engaging them in online debates to create buzz, helping them express their feelings on social platforms and of course selling their products directly through the actual promotion, or indirectly by raising brand loyalty. To completely capture the attention of the community, a brand must find a captivating idea coherent with the communication strategy, and then make it social. Here are five great examples of brands’ special Valentine’s day social campaigns that engage the community .

1. Tommy Hilfiger developed a show the love application on its website, where the user can choose between pesronalized love declarations like animations, or special Valentine’s day offers for couples from their underwear line.


2. Mattel made a huge campaign around Barbie and Ken beginning with a viral video and a microsite abd integrated with Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare for both characters. The famous ficticious couple that split up on 2004 Valentine’s day, asks its fan since 2011 to decide whether they should get back together.



On Barbie’s Facebook page, users can vote whether she should take Ken back or not, while on Ken’s Facebook profile, you can compete to become the genuine Ken, the great American boyfriend. On Twitter, both characters are actively tweeting and on Foursquare you can follow where they last checked-in.

3. Victoria's Secret has racy e-Valentines that urge folks to e-mail or send via a social network. Senders select from sexy pictures and expressions that Victoria's Secret posts on its website. Women have the option of including a photo of the Victoria's Secret gift they want.

4. Rovio Mobile created a special Valentine’s Day version of its best-selling smartphone game, Angry birds. The popular application also had Christmas-themed version, that will soon be released as a cartoon tv show. To promote the new app, Rovio Mobile developed a Facebook app where users can send special e-cards to their online network.

5. To promote its new comedy Mad Love, CBS, through Feb. 14, has a virtual gift app on the show's Facebook page that lets users send virtual hearts emblazoned with this: MAD 4U.