Just when you though you’d seen or been involved with all the social media campaigns you could possibly think of, more buinesses get creative with their strategies, and come up with some truly unique and creative social media campaigns, which blow all others out of the water.

We’ve seen give aways, competitions, events and more, but with this list promising open heart surgery and online car races, we really are at a different level! Here are five campaigns that I have found particularly eye-catching, and most importantly, engaging!

1. @Gregburney

Although not techinically a business, the artist Greg Burney, came up with his unique social media campaign when he promised to draw the first 3000 new followers that he gained on his Twitter page. Beginning the day with a meagre 70, he gained 2000 followers after 24 hours, and the number kept growing! With almost 5000 followers now, Greg’s profile grew 8000% in a matter of days, and his campaign was deemed a success, and he (I assume) began drawing!

2. Crowdsourcing

Social media is more commonly than ever before, being used as a tool to avoid queuing (I know this sounds tenuous, but bare with me). By monitoring hashtags and tweets that mention a specific location, individuals and businesses alike can judge how busy an area, restaurant, shop, cinema screening or airport is by compiling how many people have checked into it, or talked about it at any given time. Crowdsourcing is a great method for cutting down waiting times, by giving you information on busy areas so you know where yo avoid. It can even stop individuals from missing flights, if they find an inordinate amount of check-ins and tweets from a particular airport (maybe many should be using this method for the start of the Olympics!).

3. Citroen

Utilising the Twitter network in an unusual way, Citroen had an all day race around the Netherlands that culminated in one lucky fan winning a DS5 car for their social media campaign. Dutch TV presenter, Froukje de Both (a big deal in Dutch TV) drove a Citroen car around Holland, whilst the co-driver read directions for the journey, from tweets sent in by Citroen fans who used the hashtag #ds5race. People tweeted Both directions to their location throughout the day, and the winner was the individual who first retweeted the final message from the car.

4. Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children

Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children utilised the newly Facebook acquired app, Instagram to promote awareness of heart problems in children. The director of digital media at the hospital took photos on his phone of a three-year-old girl’s open heart surgery. Tweeting and posting pictures on Facebook and Instagram regularly throughout the operation, the director increased awareness and support for those going through a similar situation of the girl and her parents. The live blog had an audience of 2,500 and the Facebook page received 218,000 unique views, proving that his controversial idea, was a resounding success!

5. Orange

One of my favourite social media campaigns, and one that was particular successful, was conducted by the mobile phone network Orange. Over the summer, Orange decided to launch a campaign that was inline with their movie-branding, and launched the blockbuster movie voiceover! Offering the chance for users who tweet the hashtag #thissummer to receive a free Hollywood voiceover, Orange recorded all the tweets using the iconic Hollywood trailer voice, making even the most mundane tweets epic, and (quite frankly) hilarious. This had audiences engaged from the off, and not only attracted traffic to the Facebook page, but also to the Orange blog, where each new voiceover was posted.

Where social media is concerned, the more creative the better! But whilst your concocting your latest crazy scheme for social media domination, you need to remember your audience and keep it relevant to them. Although it may seem like a cool idea to move all your marketing to social media, if your audience is over the age of 60, it probably isn’t going to work. So keep creative, but don’t forget your audience!

If you’ve seen some great social media campaigns that I’ve missed, tell me about them in the comment box below!