8 ways to generate buzz on social media for your new product launch

Finally, your product is ready. Now you need to focus on the launch of your new product. Before that, you need to make sure that you have a fool-proof product launch strategy in place. Why? Because you have invested a lot of time and money. If your strategy fails, all of your hard work and money spent will be in vain. It’s very frustrating to witness the failure of new products.

The main reason many fail is that they ignore the importance of creating buzz before the launch of a new product. Here are seven tips to easily and successfully create buzz through social media around your new product.

1. Release behind-the-scenes videos

One of the best ways to create buzz around your new product is to create a video of what’s going on behind the scenes. You can also use Instagram's IGTV feature or Facebook Live video to give your loyal followers a peek into behind-the-scenes footage of your hard-working team. These behind-the-scene videos, are valuable content, and they will help you build excitement among your audiences before the actual product launch. Based on that excitement, people will start talking about your upcoming product launch.

For instance, Red Hat opened up a new Boston office and wanted to share this exciting news with their audience via a behind-the-scenes video. They spoke to employees, getting their first impressions and opinions about the new office, while still showcasing how the company operates each day.

2. Create mystery around the product

Creating mystery around your product on social media is another great way of creating buzz for your product launch. It’s a guaranteed way to build excitement and generate enthusiasm within customers. 

TATCHA and Sephora collaborated to execute a compelling mystery product launch, creating a unique and memorable experience for beauty enthusiasts. They built anticipation by teasing the upcoming release without disclosing specific details, generating curiosity and excitement among consumers. The collaboration allowed TATCHA to tap into Sephora's established customer base and loyal following, ensuring a broader audience for the mystery product. The joint effort resulted in an engaging and successful launch, creating buzz and driving sales for the undisclosed TATCHA product.

3. Run ads on Facebook or LinkedIn

You can leverage LinkedIn or Facebook ads to create buzz around your product to generate leads. All you need to do is post the ad of your product and ask people to complete a simple form in order to receive something in return. This could be anything from updates about the launch to free trials. For example, Ultimate Ears ran an advertising campaign on Facebook showing that customers can now design their own speakers.

To download it, one needs to fill out a very simple form, which appears once you click on the post. The form only asks for the first name and email address of the user. The details collected through forms can be used to run a drip marketing campaign. Through this campaign, you can start releasing product information to your audience. This will help create excitement in the minds of your audience and may help convert them into customers. If your product is an online course, then platforms like Zapier can help you plan and run an effective drip marketing campaign that will engage your audience about your product launch, as it builds a sense of anticipation that helps drive sales.

Using clever date settings for sales offers and content publishing, you can set up sequences of social posts and emails to be gradually sent out at a specific timeframe, with updates on the launch, educational content about the upcoming product, and more.

4. Team up with influencers

It's very rare that a product is successfully launched without a loyal and enthusiastic group of fans promoting it first. But if you don’t want to take chances, then you can collaborate with a group of influencers. This will ensure you a successful launch of your product - and it will also boost sales. Influencers can help increase buzz for your new product launch event. The popularity and demand for influencers are continuing to increase, and in 2022, the influencer marketing market value was at 16.4 billion U.S. dollars. 

You must identify relevant and suitable influencers for your product’s pre-launch event. You can use various tools and platforms to find relevant influencers. Always make sure to find and collaborate with the influencers whose personalities align with your brand and product.

For example, In 2022, Häagen-Dazs collaborated with singer-songwriter Leslie Grace to turn its digital content into a vibrant event activation. As part of the activation, Leslie Grace attended a brand event held at a Brooklyn bodega and shared her experience through an engaging TikTok video, which garnered an impressive 20K likes.

5. Organize giveaways and contests

Contests and giveaways are some of the most successful methods to create buzz for a new product before its launch. This method will help you increase the awareness and reach for your brand. As a result, your brand can experience a rapid growth in the number of followers on your social media channels. In contests or giveaways, you can ask your followers to tag their friends or families or share and talk about your product on their social media handles. 

You can organize exciting and engaging contests and giveaways to start trending conversations around your product before its launch. For instance, content creator Destiney Schriver organized a giveaway using an Instagram reel. She put together outfits inspired by Smartsweets for people to enter and win a box of the health-conscious candy. All contestants had to do was follow the brand, the creator, and tag a friend.

6. Create educational and informational videos

Contests and influencer-generated content may be enough to stir the curiosity of your target audience. But if your audience is not aware of the features and benefits of the product, what will they talk about? To get people talking about your product, you need to create informational and educational videos about it. Make sure that the videos are also entertaining and engaging, so you don’t lose your audience’s attention. If it’s entertaining enough, many people will be prompted to share the video with their friends. For example, Absolut created a how-to video showing their audience the steps to making an Absolut cosmopolitan. 

People will be motivated to like and share videos like this on their social media accounts. An educational video about your new product is likely to create buzz before the launch.

7. Take pre-orders

By taking pre-orders, you’re generating a wave of enthusiasm even before the launch of the product. And this wave of enthusiasm will surely generate a lot of buzz about your product. Don’t underestimate the significance of taking pre-orders. You may have some loyal customers who will instantly grab the product as soon as you launch it. So giving them the opportunity to place their orders before the launch is a great way to get them talking about the product with their friends.

Wondering when to start taking pre-orders for your new products? If you’ve decided the price of the product, you’re ready to get going. One instance illustrating this concept is Knoxlabs- VR Headset. They aimed to gauge the demand for a new product that had not been developed yet, and so, they opted to initiate pre-orders. To achieve this, they designed a simple website with a splash page that encouraged visitors to sign up for pre-orders. Within a mere week, the company received more than 500 pre-orders for a product that hadn't even been manufactured at that point.

8. Build a product launch calendar

Building out a social content calendar in partnership with product marketing is a powerful strategy to generate buzz on social media for a new product launch. By collaborating with product marketing, social media experts gain valuable insights into the unique selling points of the product, which can be effectively communicated to the audience through social media channels.

An example of this was Sony’s PS5 launch. creating buzz and anticipation through a series of teaser posts. They strategically released short video clips, an official trailer with Travis Scott, and countdown posts across their social media channels, including Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Following the launch, Sony continued to engage with their audience through user-generated content, such as gameplay videos and reviews to keep the buzz going.

The takeaway 

If you want to achieve your sales and revenue targets, you need to successfully create buzz about your new product before its launch. Follow the strategies above, like conducting giveaways and contests, creating educational videos, and releasing behind-the-scenes videos. These easy-to-implement strategies will help you create some much-needed buzz on social media for your new products. It will excite and encourage consumers to talk about your product even before you release it.