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Part II: Executing social media - a strategy for The Shakey Jitters coffee shop
Nov, 11th - by Jake -
Categories:
We recently blogged about the challenges around figuring out what's your best bet for social media. Read the full post here.
Again, social media for the marketing professional is a lot like flossing: You know you should be doing it and figure everybody else is already really good at it, so it's something people tend to avoid out of guilt or ignorance.
Okay, so let's break a strategy down with a fictional coffee company called The Shakey Jitters. Let's say they're located in a small town, have a website they can update, and a cult following of espresso freaks who love their java. (Rule #1 of marketing: you can't create buzz around a crap product or experience - it has to be remarkable).
Tools to Consider:
Twitter - We're going to use a tool like HootSuite, come up with our weekly specials, and tweet these 15 minutes prior to peak commute times. With HootSuite we can write and preload all our tweets and have them scheduled to go out for the entire week, which is pretty handy when working on our weekly marketing tasks. We'll consider adding fun things like "Mention this tweet and we'll up your small to a medium at no charge #shakeyjitters" or "Bike Commuters: 1/2 off for the next 30 min #shakeyjitters" The key to growing an audience is keeping it fun and a worthwhile investment of a commuters time - kinda like the free prize inside Lucky Charms we'll loved to get as kids.
Measurement: we'll see what the click-thru rates are on these tweets using HootSuite's tools and the number of followers we start to acquire.
Website - Of course, we'll add a little box encouraging users to follow us on Twitter and hinting at juicy deals that come out. We'll also put a quick write up showing visitors how to get tweets on their phone, in case they didn't know how, a good bet as many business commuters are probably on a Blackberry (we recommend UberTwitter) or iPhone (can't go wrong with Twitteriffic).
We can also do some creative testimonials on customers talking about using the drive up and maybe run a contest of "Worst Monday Morning" where users submit a quick write-up of why their Monday sucked that week (maybe submit a photo?) and we'll post it on our blog and through our RSS feed. This will be put out on our Twitter stream as well. We'll also have an opt-in page for a daily email of the drink special that we'll fire out at 6:30 am as well.
Measurement: Website visitors, Email and RSS subscribers via viral stories and funny anecdotes.
Facebook - We're super busy slinging coffee, so we're just going to keep it simple. We'll set up our Facebook Fan page and have our Tweets posted as our status updates. We'll consider some Facebook contests down the road and have a call to action next to the register. If we're going to be on Facebook, we have to demonstrate some value and right now we're just concerned with growing our drive-thru business. Down the road, maybe we'll look to Facebook to leverage our baked goods through photos, videos, etc.
Measurement: Number of fans
So there you have it. A quick sketch on picking a business objective for Shakey Jitters and building a simple little social media strategy around it. We have a some dead-easy dashboard analytics to compare against our big goal of raising sales through our drive-thru. We'll run this campaign for six months or so and then see what the results are and then loop back around for tweaking.
Again, simple is okay in social media. You don't have to be everywhere all at once. For small businesses, the key is picking tools your target audience will engage with and more importantly, something you can effectively manage given your limited time to do daily marketing.
Got any suggestions or seen any great examples of companies using and measuring social media? Let us know your thoughts below:
Again, social media for the marketing professional is a lot like flossing: You know you should be doing it and figure everybody else is already really good at it, so it's something people tend to avoid out of guilt or ignorance.
Okay, so let's break a strategy down with a fictional coffee company called The Shakey Jitters. Let's say they're located in a small town, have a website they can update, and a cult following of espresso freaks who love their java. (Rule #1 of marketing: you can't create buzz around a crap product or experience - it has to be remarkable).
Challenge
Shakey Jitters is looking to grow their take-out business for business commuters with a recent drive-thru remodel.Goal
Raise Awareness with CommutersMetrics for Success
The drive-thru cash register ringing from 7:00-9 and again at 4:30 - 6:30Tools to Consider:
Twitter - We're going to use a tool like HootSuite, come up with our weekly specials, and tweet these 15 minutes prior to peak commute times. With HootSuite we can write and preload all our tweets and have them scheduled to go out for the entire week, which is pretty handy when working on our weekly marketing tasks. We'll consider adding fun things like "Mention this tweet and we'll up your small to a medium at no charge #shakeyjitters" or "Bike Commuters: 1/2 off for the next 30 min #shakeyjitters" The key to growing an audience is keeping it fun and a worthwhile investment of a commuters time - kinda like the free prize inside Lucky Charms we'll loved to get as kids.
Measurement: we'll see what the click-thru rates are on these tweets using HootSuite's tools and the number of followers we start to acquire.
Website - Of course, we'll add a little box encouraging users to follow us on Twitter and hinting at juicy deals that come out. We'll also put a quick write up showing visitors how to get tweets on their phone, in case they didn't know how, a good bet as many business commuters are probably on a Blackberry (we recommend UberTwitter) or iPhone (can't go wrong with Twitteriffic).
We can also do some creative testimonials on customers talking about using the drive up and maybe run a contest of "Worst Monday Morning" where users submit a quick write-up of why their Monday sucked that week (maybe submit a photo?) and we'll post it on our blog and through our RSS feed. This will be put out on our Twitter stream as well. We'll also have an opt-in page for a daily email of the drink special that we'll fire out at 6:30 am as well.
Measurement: Website visitors, Email and RSS subscribers via viral stories and funny anecdotes.
Facebook - We're super busy slinging coffee, so we're just going to keep it simple. We'll set up our Facebook Fan page and have our Tweets posted as our status updates. We'll consider some Facebook contests down the road and have a call to action next to the register. If we're going to be on Facebook, we have to demonstrate some value and right now we're just concerned with growing our drive-thru business. Down the road, maybe we'll look to Facebook to leverage our baked goods through photos, videos, etc.
Measurement: Number of fans
So there you have it. A quick sketch on picking a business objective for Shakey Jitters and building a simple little social media strategy around it. We have a some dead-easy dashboard analytics to compare against our big goal of raising sales through our drive-thru. We'll run this campaign for six months or so and then see what the results are and then loop back around for tweaking.
Again, simple is okay in social media. You don't have to be everywhere all at once. For small businesses, the key is picking tools your target audience will engage with and more importantly, something you can effectively manage given your limited time to do daily marketing.
Got any suggestions or seen any great examples of companies using and measuring social media? Let us know your thoughts below:
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