Brands are finally beginning to understand that dedicating resources to reaching consumers on social media — be it Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or another platform du jour— is not only beneficial, but necessary.
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But companies need to do more than simply pay for a Sponsored Tweet or have a Facebook fan page. At this point it is only the truly creative and innovative campaigns that get noticed.
You all saw Oreo's tweet during the Super Bowl blackout and Lay's 3.8 million-submission "Do Us A Flavor" competition on Facebook. Now it's time to meet the people who brought those campaigns to life.
We have compiled a list of the most creative people in social media. Our picks were selected from nominations by peers and competitors, and our own research.
While creativity is subjective, our ranking takes into account the type and size of clients (it's harder to be creative with large corporate clients than small startups), their history of innovation, respect in the field, and the ability to get talked about months, if not years, later. These people are ordered based on their contribution to the medium and history of influence.
30. Jonathan Nafarrete, director of social outreach at Blitz Agency
As brands begin to experiment with Vine, some have been more successful than others.
Playstation had one of the most impressive Vine six-second video campaigns we have ever seen. To introduce the video game "MLB 13: The Show" to the world, Playstation teamed up with Nafarrete (@Jonathan360) and Blitz to create the next generation of baseball cards on Vine.
Nafarrete and the Blitz team animated the faced (via Twitter avatars) of influential sports bloggers, baseball stars, and superfans and turned them into baseball cards for their favorite teams. The content was engaging, sharable, and created a lot of buzz for the game. (Read about the elaborate process here.)
He has also done work for Honda and Naked Juice.
Nafarrete is also known for his personal Instagram work for various brands.
Here's the baseball card Vine (click for animation):
29. Ginny Sidell, senior social strategist at DraftFCB Chicago
After working as an account supervisor at Edelman for almost five years, Sidell (@GinnyS) moved over to DraftFCB last year to take on social media strategy primarily for KFC.
In less than a year on KFC, she helped the chain's Facebook page grow more than 1.5 million likes and Twitter engagement has gone up almost 300%.
She scours the internet for any trends or fried chicken news/content to share with KFC fans, and identifies celebrities talked about the brand and engages with online. Sidell tweets creatively ("Eating KFC is like a hug in your mouth"), makes funny KFC ecards (garnering more than 1 million impressions), and even helps deliver KFC to influential followers in real time.
She gets how to build a brand's social media presence.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider