ALEXANDRIA, Va — The Society of Americna Florists (SAF) Petal It Forward event that took place in New York City and nationwide on October 7 keeps on giving.
To keep the momentum of the positive messages about receiving and giving flowers going, SAF produced a two-minute video, funded by Asocolflores, The Association of Colombian Flower Exporters, that captures that day and the positive impact it had on the lives of thousands of consumers.
"Social media is a visual medium and consumers love to watch short, feel-good videos," said Jennifer Sparks, SAF's vice president of marketing. "This video helps to take our 'flowers create happiness' message viral, and will hopefully encourage those who see it to use flowers as a kind gesture or communication tool."
In mid November, SAF flooded the social media arena once again with the positive Petal It Forward message, hashtag (#petalitforward) and video on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, providing thousands of consumers with the chance to see the happiness created with flowers. SAF used promoted posts (paid content) on both Facebook and Twitter to drive the message far beyond SAF channel followers. In the span of a week, there were almost 38,000 views of the feel-good video — and even more due to shares of the video to private consumer pages to which SAF does not have access.
Additional funding from Asocolflores enabled SAF to ratchet up the social media effort during the Petal It Forward event itself, as well as afterwards, with follow-up postings and promotion of the video. In the six weeks of the campaign in October and November, the campaign, garnered high levels of user-generated content and video views. Social media impressions for Petal It Forward total 758,532 to date, with 79,296 engagements (likes, shares, comments, retweets), 1,978 #petalitforward hashtag mentions, and 37,747 video views, and counting. The sentiment of the online campaign conversation (consumers' comments and shares) was overwhelmingly positive, with language related to the emotional benefits of flowers.
"The Petal It Forward video gives the entire industry a visual tool to showcase the power of flowers and capture consumer attention," said Sparks. "Your customers and followers will see the true power of flowers, and they'll think of you the next time they need flowers."
Sparks encourages SAF members to use it on their own social media channels with these suggested posts:
Facebook:
See how the power of flowers transformed the morning of 4,000 people from ordinary to extraordinary, and what they did to spread their happiness.
These people loved getting flowers, but look what happened when they got to give flowers! #petalitforward
Twitter:
Flowers changed the morning of 4,000 commuters from ordinary to extraordinary. Here's how to #petalitforward: http://bit.ly/1RJjcvk
These people loved getting flowers, but look what happened when they got to give flowers! #petalitforward http://bit.ly/1RJjcvk
See how the #petalitforward movement spread happiness to 4,000 busy commuters: http://bit.ly/1RJjcvk
Source: Society of Americna Florists (SAF)
