Product Launch

Learning Outcomes

Use social media to announce a product launch

A key reason businesses use social media is to bring attention to a new product or service. Using social media for this purpose is inexpensive, and companies can usually reach a large audience immediately. Using social media prior to a product’s launch can help generate excitement for the upcoming product and get the attention of potential new customers.

Canva, a social media marketing blog, describes various tactics when announcing a product or service launch. Here are a few notable items from the list:[1]

  • Design a hashtag. By using a hashtag, you can create a central “hub” for all posts about your new product. People posting about the product can also use this hashtag, which increases the reach of the product.
  • Organize a countdown. Countdowns can increase interest over a period of time. As you release messages on a schedule, it gives more people the opportunity to get excited and ready for the product by the time it is released.
  • Develop consistency across platforms. The look and feel of a Facebook post should be roughly similar to something on Pinterest or Snapchat. While this is important across all social media messaging, it’s particularly important when launching something new. If your messaging is inconsistent, people might get confused about what exactly is being released.
  • Have a clear call to action. As with good web design, a social media message should be easy to interpret. You want your audience to have all the information they need to either further interact with your social media campaign or have the information they need to get your product.

Mango

Let’s take a look at this tweet from Kendall Jenner on behalf of Mango (a fashion company):

Mango is doing a few things in this tweet to gain interest before launching a new product. By using a countdown, they’re growing interest (and providing a bit of mystery), so when the product launches, they’ll already have interested customers. They’re also using Kendall Jenner as a spokesperson to gain interest in their upcoming product. Kendall Jenner likely has a lot more followers than Mango, so she is able to get the company’s message out to more people. Additionally, her endorsement makes people more likely to be interested in the product once it launches.

When choosing which social media platform(s) to use for a product or service launch, you should consider the target audience and type of message. Assuming an organization has the capacity to manage a large social media portfolio, announcements of product or service launches should go out on as many appropriate platforms as possible. Some consideration should be given to “spamming” your audience, however, as well as thinking through any “niche” sensibilities around a given platform. Table 1 outlines some items along these lines:

Table 1. Comparing Social Media Platforms
Platform Niche? Mass messaging off-putting? Other considerations?
Facebook No No Has the largest user base and as such, should be everyone’s top focus; if you can only manage one platform for social media, it should be Facebook.
Instagram Somewhat Somewhat Overly self-promoting may appear disingenuous.
Twitter No Somewhat Limited to 280 characters; can use hashtag promotion.
YouTube No No Usually must link to another platform to reach wide audience.
LinkedIn Somewhat Yes Limit blatant company promotion; try to focus on recruiting or sharing job opportunities.
Pinterest Somewhat No Consider the gender statistics when crafting a message.
Snapchat Somewhat Somewhat Consider the generational statistics when crafting message.
Google Plus No No The platform has a comparatively small user base

Practice Question

  1. Jose, Maria. "10 tactics for launching on social media and generating buzz, inspired by companies who've done it." Canva. Web. 15 July 2018. ↵