While this doesn’t appear to have been a conscious campaign promoting anything, there have been some interesting commercial repercussions. Sales of the dress have reportedly soared through the roof since it went viral, and Peter Christodoulou, one of the co-founders of the company that produces the dress, has achieved more exposure as a result. Is there a way other companies can follow this example as they embark on multi channel marketing?

Writing for Forbes, Ilya Pozin identifies the elements of “The Dress” that made it such a sensation. Among other things, he said it was the inherent competition over the dress’ color that created opinionated sharers who actively wanted to drive the trend.

“When it comes to marketing, you want a motivated audience,” Pozin writes. “Much like fans, that audience will share your message with their own social circles due to sheer passion that comes from the belief that your brand is the right choice, just like the color they see is.” He also says that this dress provided a break from the norm and some levity that made it stand out against the daily routine for online users.

Not every viral trend on Twitter and Facebook will be applicable to your own brand, but paying attention to what’s popular always shows which topics are more likely to reach a large number of people. Working with marketing management software, businesses will have more control over how they release their content and can take advantage of each platform.

Beauty and hygiene brand Dove is one of the organizations that’s spearheaded a Twitter trend along these lines, using a hashtag #SpeakBeautiful with the intention to combat negative remarks made on the service, specifically those that attack female body image.

Working with Twitter, the company is trying to encourage more positive conversations, and it’s doing so close to the night of the Oscar awards, a time when entertainment notoriously focus on celebrity appearances.

In a press release on the site of Unilever, the corporation that owns Dove, the brand’s director of marketing, Jennifer Bremner, explained the reason Twitter works as a natural platform for transforming “ugly” tweets into “beautiful” ones.

“Ideas and opinions about body image are now fluidly shared every second through social feeds, and sometimes we do not fully realize the resounding impact of the words in even one post,” she said. “The power to #SpeakBeautiful is in the hands of us all—we can positively change the way future generations express themselves online.”

With this as a possible inspiration, businesses should invest in marketing campaign software that brings a specific message to the most number of people, especially if that message is a positive one that could change the social media sphere for the better.

ABC News reports that Match.com is partnering with Starbucks to promote Valentine’s Day-themed dates at some of the coffee chain’s locations. Now, users of the dating service will have access to a special button that allows them to “invite someone to Starbucks” to meet up.

The collaboration is based as much on Match CEO Sam Yagan’s personal love of Starbucks as on user preferences, since nearly a third of Match’s members reportedly have an interest “coffee and conversation.”

As part of this promotion, the coffee chain will also host a February 13 event dubbed “the World’s Largest Starbucks Date.” AdAge features comments from Starbucks global CMO Sharon Rothstein about why this partnership makes sense for the brand.

“We’re a place where people come together to share important life moments — big and small,” she said. “We’ve been witness to first dates, marriage proposals, job interviews, friends and families reunited, communities gathering, and so much more in our stores around the world.”

A key aspect of this campaign is the natural fit between the two brands and the ease at which it caters to a customer base already online. Local marketing strategies can take some of the same principles and use them to reach customers in a specific area. Done well, these are opportunities to bring a higher level of attention to a brand’s best qualities, based on current topics of conversation.

In a piece on AdWeek, Michelle Castillo looked at the way YouTube videos that were already popular have been incorporated into the official marketing used by major brands. It gives the example of the Bad Lip Reading series, which superimposes new words into the mouths of videos of famous people and has gained millions of views. McDonald’s and the NFL participated in a joint spot that deliberately made use of this trend to spotlight their products.

Another example from YouTube is the short music video series Epic Rap Battles of History, normally just a comedy channel on the website which notably hosted a sponsor in 2013. One of the videos featured several references to the then-newly released video game “Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag,” and gave that title a boost woven into the content of the video itself.

AdWeek quotes Erin McPherson, Chief Content Officer from Maker Studios, on the way that authentic material is going to increasingly distinguish internet marketing campaigns by promoting a more natural, content-centric feel. McPherson discussed the topic at the recent Interactive Advertising Bureau Annual Leadership Meeting.

“This generation doesn’t dislike brands,” she said, speaking of Millennial customers. “What they don’t like is advertising.” She went on to address the idea of distinguishing “native content” from other types, saying that, in the future, “native content will give way to just content. I think we’ll retire that term and just have content.”

To make sure that a decentralized marketing campaign is successful, brands should develop material that is perfectly designed to catch modern users’ attention and then focus on disseminating it throughout the web on different popular channels.

Fast Company recently examined one especially innovative use of Twitter to construct an immersive experience. A man named Terence Eden has, according to the source, created a series of linked Twitter accounts that function as a “Choose Your Own Adventure” story. Each tweet contains a short message and then directs viewers to pick one of two possible accounts to continue the “story” until it ends, with the different paths leading to separate Twitter accounts all along the way.

For applications for business marketing, consider the way that Travelocity used a similar concept last year to entice fans of the brand. Using the well-known gnome mascot, the travel brand tweeted messages along the same lines that used the “@” symbol to pretend to send followers to different locations, structuring an imagined vacation for the person “playing” this game.

For example, the first tweet gave users a choice between roaming east, west or “staying home.” Clicking on the “East Coast” option triggered a series of other choices about what someone would do on their East Coast trips. Certain choices lead fans to pictures of the iconic gnome character in various locales. At the end of some of the “trips,” users are given the option to share their experience.

While companies can still use traditional marketing channels to reach their audiences, new platforms require creativity. Work with the latest campaign marketing tools and your company could also come up with an initiative as remarkable and share-friendly as this one.

According to the source, we are now in the period when unwanted holiday gifts are often returned, so much so that UPS has turned it into something of a promotion. On that company’s official blog, the popular package delivery service invited readers to a “Twitter Party” on January 3 to celebrate the 520,000 items it claimed are returned by that date. Another source says that UPS expects millions of packages to be returned throughout the entire week.

This not only allowed the company an easy way to promote itself on social media, but a chance to give shout-outs to business partners around the country, including Sierra Trading Post, Octane Coffee Company and Wayfair. The company even granted authorship of the post to “Brad the Box,” a cartoonish cardboard box-shaped figure associated with its Twitter account.

Although this is a good time for UPS, not every business will be as excited to see customers bringing items back to them. However, it’s worth noting how UPS was able to parlay this busy period into something fun and positive for all of its online followers, practically a new holiday in its own right.

This could set a pattern for others in similar industries who have to deal with this trend and need to rally consumer attention somehow. A decentralized marketing plan that involves available platforms is a good idea for taking charge of something immediate and relevant.

Last year saw multiple examples of major brands and figures making some judgment errors on Twitter, as cataloged by Entrepreneur. Sometimes, it was a lack of understanding of a trending hashtag that did the business in: One incident listed in the source involved Papa John using a hashtag associated with domestic violence to promote its brand, something it later apologized for.

Similarly, Best Buy found itself in the news for a tweet deemed to be in bad taste, in which it tried to referenced the popular true crime podcast Serial in a joking manner, as Social News Daily reports. Because the podcast centers around a reporter’s investigation into a murder case, the chain eventually retracted the tweet and issued an apology.

Though these are certainly eyebrow-raising examples, something as little as a typo can be just as damaging. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie recently tweeted about the passing of a former New York Governor, but his message was roundly criticized on the social network for using the wrong version of “its.” Despite the somber subject matter, some took this to be an insult and several tweeted corrections.

By putting thought into your company’s coordinated marketing campaign execution, you can avoid problems like this and still appeal to a large audience. Online marketing campaigns need to be correct in all ways, recognizing tone as much as content and maintaining the fan’s trust.

When it comes to content, some brands have fared better than others. Author Penry Price explains that brands experiencing difficulty may not be implementing their strategy as thoroughly as it takes to reach a high level of success.

“From what we’ve seen, brands that are struggling with content creation are those not fully committing to the concept; content marketing is really an all-in proposition. Some marketers aren’t completely in touch with their audience, so they can be tone-deaf. These marketers push content with the intent of making a sale, not helping their target audience with material that’s actually useful,” writes Price.

The author goes on to highlight that consistency is one of the keys to effective content marketing because it helps to keep the audience engaged. One of the primary purposes of having a content strategy in the first place is to create content that your audience will find useful and interesting. In turn, this will help your brand gain exposure and build a loyal following. However, there is no one right path to success. It is up to marketers to determine how content fits into their strategy, and tailor it accordingly.

Whether it’s to help coordinate your content marketing efforts or any other part of your campaign, automated marketing software helps your brand stay connected with customers across multiple channels.

An article for CIO on teen digital marketing looks at some of the specific online behaviors that teens are likely to indulge in. Understanding which apps have a large teenage base and learning to “think like a teen” helps companies learn the rules of marketing in this space. This naturally includes some of the most popular social media and image sharing platforms, especially those designed to be easily accessible by mobile.

CIO quotes Sammy Lau of the analytics company Canopy Labs on the types of marketing that teens will be receptive to in this day and age. It’s not enough to just try a blanket approach to all social media sites, like Facebook, because some of the most popular ones are losing ground among teens, Lau says.

“As young adults leave the ‘old’ world of Facebook for the newer spaces of Tumblr, Snapchat and Instagram, brands need to take their marketing strategies to these platforms as well,” he noted. “Brands can add links to pictures of their products that allow viewers to purchase the product on the spot.”

In addition to looking at these applications that teenagers favor, you should also think about the other companies that do successfully reach out to younger consumers and how they’re able to accomplish that. This can all factor into the decentralized marketing strategy your business uses.

Facebook for Business emphasized these new possibilities in a special press release posted on its site. This would allow companies to take a more unified approach to their ad campaigns across different platforms, since they would be able to use various formats, including native and interstitial ads, to connect with customers.

To hammer home the success of this venture, Facebook has connected it to some of its high profile clients, which include publishers and games companies, among others. In a separate post, Tanya Chen alluded to some of the changes the company has made to Audience Network since it was announced this past April.

“The Audience Network provides a quick and easy way to connect these apps with the more than 1.5 million active advertisers on Facebook,” she said. “Over the past few months, we’ve optimized our network to improve performance, and today we’re formally launching and extending the service to more developers and publishers across the globe.”

While these new offerings are potentially good tools for campaign marketing, businesses need to understand them inside and out in order to use them efficiently. Other forms of automated online marketing also work as a supplement to these opportunities, especially when they are in the early stages.