I thought the Vibram FiveFinger shoe would be an interesting product to blog on mainly for its viral aspect. I know in our ecommerce marketing experience that we rarely see a product that does half the work. Vibrams has created a product that is naturally getting interest because it’s crazy unique, and that can lead to a lot of marketing opportunities with half the effort. So hopefully you don’t mind me blabbing about another product and show off just how social media, links and the web is treating Vibrams. I’ll also note, that when I write about a company, they’re in no way a client or even know I’m doing it…so just a little of a disclaimer in case you think I’m selling out!
Not only are those insanely unique looking shoes, they’re apparently also very useful when it come to certain sports like running. Whether or not that’s true, I feel the urge to open my wallet and order a pair just to try it out. As I’ve mentioned before on here, that is something I don’t do very often so all the more reason to look at the magic behind the product. So the effect on other people has apparently taken hold, and I even started to notice a lot more joggers here in Victoria BC taking the plunge. I run 3 days a week on Dallas Road and that’s where I first started to notice the trend. The last straw was when I heard from a friend on Facebook that their sport store was barely able to keep them on the shelf.
Since they’re so popular, and clearly still in the new product phase of glory that customers are able to tell their story, and it convinces me! This is a great feature they’ve showcased which should do a superb job in convincing their would-be customers as well. This also leads me into the next bit of what’s awesome, and that of course is the power of Youtube. They have thousands of videos, mostly of customers using their Fiverfingers for all sorts of activities, including product reviews. These are some of the best free marketing strategies a company can put forth out there, and they don’t even have to do much! For example;
Video Product Review via Wired.com
Like I said, there are thousands of videos already driving branding buzz Vibrams way, but that’s not just all they’re doing socially. A quick look at their Twitter profile also shows nearly 14,000 followers…not too shabby folks! The Vibrams company has also been rocking Facebook hard and their brand page has nearly 135,000 followers! The one common theme I see for both social accounts is that their customer engagement is very active. This is due to a good product and loyal fan base who loves them right back. This right here is not easy to do, and sadly a lot of businesses just don’t get it.
Their Link Profile:
It doesn’t get much better than theirs! I highly recommend checking it out because it’s actually rare to see one so clean these days(lolz). When you have something this interesting, the links will come pouring in from all different sources, and this is the key to survival in Google. I’m seeing magazine links, blog links, social media links, tons of forums where people are talking and linking and running resource pages. This has resulted in thousands of high quality links that is driving them a lot of traffic.
I know the Vibram Fivefingers have been around for a couple of years now, but I mentioned that I’ve noticed them a lot more lately. With social media exploding for them it seems the end result is a huge buzz around the product, so let’s back that up with some online metrics;
So that’s all I can really say about Vibram and their cool as a cucumber product. Just like the rest of these posts I do, I hope they inspire your company to do a better job. If you’re marketing a unique product online, take note of how things are done and put some of that work into your brand. If you need the help, then get in touch with us because this is what we do.
