Social Media Plan Prepared for Chris Conrath Prepared by Arlette Bax, Jillian Dasti, Riley Harding, Justin Ricardo and Diana Valle December 11, 2015
Table of Contents Introduction... 3 Current Business Situation... 3 Current Social Media... 3 Deeper Audience Identification... 4 Content Capabilities... 5 Content Creation... 5 Platforms... 6 Facebook... 7 Twitter... 7 Instagram... 7 YouTube... 8 CrossFit... 8 Recommended Tactics... 8 Guidelines for all platforms... 8 Facebook - Energia page... 9 Facebook - CrossFit page (CrossFit Greektown)...10 Twitter...11 YouTube...11 Instagram...11 Evaluation...12 Conclusion...13 2
Introduction Energia Athletics is an athletics studio located at 164 Danforth Ave. The studio is focused on crosstraining and offers a mix of running, yoga, kettlebell and spinning classes. Energia Athletics also includes an athletic wear store that sells workout clothing, running shoes, exercise props and more. Energia was founded ten years ago by fitness experts Lea Amaral and Jon Dunnill and has been so successful that it is moving to a larger location at the corner of Pape Ave. and Danforth Ave. in January 2016. This time of transition is the perfect time to reflect on and renew the company s social media efforts. Current Business Situation As mentioned, Energia Athletics is doing quite well and as a result is moving from the Danforth Ave and Broadview Ave area to Danforth Ave and Pape Ave. The new facility will feature three studios, a store three times the size of the current one, and will add CrossFit to the company s offerings. This expansion will allow Energia to increase its class offerings and its store selection to include skipping ropes, weights and more. The store is currently the only retail athletics store in the area and is the only virtual ride spinning studio in Toronto. The company will also be adding a treatment room and hiring an RMT. Owners Jon and Lea hope that the move will also allow for a shift in their target audience. Energia is a boutique style store and studio currently attended mostly by women who live within walking distance. The shift to Pape Ave. increases the scope of their net east and west, as at Broadview most athletes do not travel across the bridge for a studio. The new location will be positioned as a destination place rather than a neighborhood place. The addition of CrossFit will also allow Energia to attract more young people, in particular men. It is important to note that owners Lea and Jon emphasize that they would like Energia to be a successful business on its own. They do not want themselves as individuals to be integral to the company brand. Energia is a strong business with much to offer its clients. Current Social Media The transition associated with the change in location allows for much opportunity with the company s social media. At present, Energia Athletics has a website, a Facebook page, a Twitter account and an Instagram account. The owners have already decided to have the website professionally redesigned. The brand will change from Energia Athletics to simply Energia. The website will feature new, professional photos of the instructors and the new location, (these can also be used on their social media platforms.) Energia also currently has a monthly newsletter, which keeps its existing clientele updated. Between its variety of classes, the retail store and its upcoming additions Energia has more than enough sources of content. 3
Owners Jon and Lea have identified the goal of their social media efforts as building a community with existing clientele and class attendants in order to assist retention and engagement. It is also used as an advertising tool for classes and store promotions, to increase awareness of the company, and as an educational tool with regards to their products offered. Deeper Audience Identification Current Energia Clients Demographics Psychographics Geographics - Female - 30-50 years old (median age is 42) - Affluent - University Educated - Live an active lifestyle - Health and wellness are a priority - Have families/ children - Support local businesses - Non-car drivers (walk or use TTC) - Clients live east of central Toronto - Live on the Danforth and up to Pape Village Future Energia Clients: One of the goals of this social media plan is to expand and identify new clients for Energia Athletics. Demographics Psychographics Geographics - Male - 18-29 years old - Young Professionals - Students - Urban lifestyles - Single - People who own and drive cars - Expand to be known as a destination location - Get clients from central Toronto 4
Current Neighbourhood description (taken from Prizm) Educated Wealthy Families and older couples Elegant and semi-detached homes Cultured, enjoy art, film and opera Well-travelled Professional Achievements Targeted Neighbourhood description (taken from Prizm) Young Singles Tech-savvy Educated Culturally diverse Enjoy fitness clubs, bars, boutique clothing No children Extra income Globally conscious consumers With the research provided, it is clear that in order to reach the desired target audience it is vital to expand the geographical area of Energia. By becoming a destination location as opposed to a local community location, the client demographics will change. In order to do so, promotion in these areas combined with a strong social media presence on the suggested platforms is vital. Content Capabilities Content Creation Creating branded Energia content is the best way to show expertise in the field and connect with clients online. It is a great way to show Energia s voice and to tell their story. Energia has a wide variety of pre-existing content that can be used to enhance their social media presence. This will be easy to do if they leverage the content they already are creating. Many businesses are turning to writing blogs to enhance their social media presence and to better connect to their audiences. However, a blog is a lot of work. Energia already produces a newsletter that they can use, instead of a blog, to showcase their expertise and share updates. The Energia newsletter is a great piece of content that can help build the Energia brand if it were promoted via social media. Energia has another advantage for creating their own content. The business itself is full of great video and photo opportunities. Social media can be used to promote their store merchandise. Photos of the 5
merchandise are a good source of unique content. They also have a beautiful studio space to use for filming workouts and taking photos of classes. All of this is great content for social. On top of all this, Energia has a staff full of professionals and thought leaders in the field of health and wellness. By using the pre-existing knowledge, content can easily be created. For example, using workouts and tips that the staff already know, is great content for social media. Sharing knowledge is a great way to create your own content on social. Curating (sharing content that was not produced by Energia) is another great way to add content across social media platforms. By curating content, Energia would be demonstrating to their audience that they have an appreciation for the field of work and that they are part of the health and wellness community. The followers will see that Energia will not only have a passion for their work, but that they understand the industry trends. Curating content is a good way to gain social media presence because many people follow businesses to get news. A recent study shows that out of all the people who get their news online, 74 per cent of those women follow health sources to get news on that topic, and 56 per cent of men do the same. Curating content related back to health and fitness is a great way to gain followers and create a presence on social media. While creating or curating content, it is important to understand what kind of content your audience needs. A recent study shows that older generations prefer to read long and detailed content, where younger audiences like to keep it short and sweet. This is important to note since Energia is looking at expanding their audience to a younger demographic. With this in mind, it would be advised that Energia provides a variety of different content with different lengths and themes so that all of their demographic is considered. Platforms The usage of Energia s social media platforms should reflect the needs and attitudes of its target audiences. Understanding the target audiences characteristics, such as age and genre, is an important step in developing social media quality contents. The business platforms should offer current and potential clients reasons to follow, like and engage with Energia s profiles. Considering that Energia s current audience is formed mostly by females between 30 and 50 years old and the business has the goal to increase its audience among young people and males, we decided to focus our social media efforts on four platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Currently, Energia is already engaged on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but there is room for usage improvement and consequently strengthen its brand awareness. We also identify YouTube as a good opportunity to promote Energia s services, such as Yoga, Kettlebell and Spinning classes, and create identification with current and potential clients. 6
Besides being a great way to interact and engage with current clients, these platforms represent an excellent opportunity to reach out its new target audiences and to increase awareness. Through these platforms, Energia can also build a community with its clientele, helping with client retention and brand identification. Below is a detailed explanation of why we chose to use these social media platforms to target Energia s audiences. Facebook With over a billion and a half users around the globe, Facebook is the largest social media network. Many age groups are present on Facebook: 87% of adults 18-29 years, 73% of adults 30-49 years, 63% of adults 50-64 years and 56% of adults 65+ years use this platform. Facebook is the most adequate platform to engage with current customers and also to promote brand awareness to its new target audience. Through Facebook, Energia can build a community with existing clientele and class attendants. The Energia s page can also be used as an advertising tool for classes, explaining exercises objectives, health and physical benefits, as well as for promoting Energia store, such as products offered by the business. Facebook is also the ideal platform to inform about promotions, registration, holiday hours and special classes. Twitter With a good percentage of active users between 18-29 years (37%) and 30-49 (25%), skewing toward a younger audience that corresponds with the prospective Energia s clients, Twitter can be an effective platform to engage with the customers and to show the brand s personality. In Energia s case, Twitter can be a powerful platform to share inspirational and motivational quotes about fitness, health and well-being, as well as to share interesting articles related to this topics, promoting events and posting short reminders and links redirecting to Energia s website. Instagram With over 300 million users, Instagram is a popular social media for brands, especially if the brand wants to target a younger audience. 53% of 18-29 years use this platform. For that reason, improving Energia s engagement on Instagram can be pivotal to attract younger clients to the store and to the fitness classes. For being a visual social media platform, Energia should post high quality photos of its products (running shoes, athletic clothing and accessories) and of its classes (Yoga, Running, Kettlebell and Spinning). Instagram is also the perfect platform to share short videos of the classes and also teasers for longer videos posted on Energia s YouTube page. 7
YouTube With over a billion users, YouTube is an incredible resource for people that are seeking health and fitness tips. We recommend that Energia engages customers on Youtube, since we believe that it is the perfect channel to show the business expertise about fitness. Creating an account on YouTube, Energia can create various playlists, separating the videos accordingly with exercise disciplines. With little teasers posted on Instagram redirecting to the YouTube page, the audience will find longer and more enlightening videos, such as exercises tutorials and tips. These videos can be very helpful to build brand awareness for Energia. CrossFit CrossFit will have specific regulations on how often partners (like Energia Athletics) need to post content to various social media platforms. The social media manager will need to be aware of these regulations and post accordingly. If in accordance with CrossFit s regulations, we suggest creating a separate Facebook page for Energia s CrossFit department. This would prevent Energia s regular audience from becoming annoyed by frequent CrossFit workouts and results posts. However cross-promotion between the CrossFit and Energia pages is encouraged. For example, the CrossFit page could share store sales and promotions, and the main Energia page can occasionally share CrossFit workouts. Recommended Tactics Social media efforts should be managed by one person (a social media manager), with guidance and suggestions provided by the business' management. This social media manager would be responsible for monitoring the social media accounts, producing and posting original content suitable for each platform and responding to audiences through these social media accounts (eg. Twitter replies and retweets, Facebook replies and comments, etc.). The social media manager should post content and engage with online audiences often and consistently. It is also important to maintain clear and regular communication between the social media manager and management. Management should be aware of what is being posted on their social media accounts and should be clear in what they expect to be posted (or not posted) online. Guidelines for all platforms Post/respond in a timely matter o Try to respond within 24 hours, 48 hours maximum of a business or person engaging with you o Post consistently (weekly, daily, etc., not heavily one week then sporadically the next) Link to website content frequently, and try to vary content between platforms 8
Facebook- Energia page We recommend that Energia maintains only one official Facebook page. Any unofficial accounts, pages or groups should be shut down as they can create confusion for customers and are not overseen by management. The Energia logo should only be used on the official company page. Post thought leadership/tips and tricks content Interact with customers (respond to comments, questions, etc.) in a timely manner Link to YouTube videos you create Themed posts that complement business objectives and values (ie. Motivation Monday) Post images of events you hold or are part of and classes Post staff recommendations for exercises, certain products Link to monthly newsletters 9
Sample Post Facebook - CrossFit page (CrossFit Greektown) Link to YouTube workout videos (CrossFit videos) Post images and promotions for workout accessories relevant to CrossFit Photos of people participating in the classes Post official CrossFit organization content Daily workout outlines 10
Workout results Twitter Update profile photo to a high resolution image of Energia logo Post themed tweets every week o Eg. Motivation Monday tweets (motivational quotes, etc) Engage with followers by re-tweeting and/or responding to all positive tweets that Energia is tagged in Follow and retweet other local businesses in the area Link to YouTube videos (workout of the day, yoga sessions, promotional videos, etc) Link to website features Link to any media coverage you are featured in (online news articles) Link to newsletters you put out Sample Tweet YouTube Post a series of themed workout videos (timed for weekly posts; can be filmed all at one time if convenient and then distributed during the year/season/etc) Include product placement and reference equipment that can be bought from Energia store 11
Instagram Post images of products sold in store Post staff recommendations for exercises, products Share images of classes in action Post images of staff (staff highlight of the week) doing Energia activities Share teaser video clips of YouTube workout tutorials Sample Post Evaluation We will measure the success of our social media plan by comparing it to the stats we have gathered from Energia s previous social media accounts. From there we will compare likes, shares, re-tweets, follows and views. We will also be able to evaluate the success of our platforms by the use of our hashtags and how much attention each one gets. The more people that get behind each hashtag would equal more company interaction over social media. Hashtags such as #MotivationalMonday and #WorkoutWednesday will be used on the majority of social media platforms so it will be easier to monitor audience reaction and interaction. 12
Since our YouTube platform would be a new addition to Energia s previous social media accounts we would evaluate the success by the number of views the video has received. Our YouTube platform would be connected to our other social media channels so we will also evaluate our YouTube content based on the hashtag interaction since our #WorkoutWednesday hashtag will be directly connected to our YouTube account. Once people see these videos the goal is for them to take part in the workout and post their results online, which is also part of the CrossFit process. By people posting their workout results online we will be able to get a better evaluation on the effectiveness of our videos and how many people are interacting with them and actually doing the workout. We also intend to offer exclusive sale promotions on our various social media channels. These sales will only be found on Energia s social media channels, so therefore only their followers will have access to the sales. Customers will be given special discount codes, which will be posted on Energia s social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. By doing so we can evaluate which customers are using Energia s social media channels and reward them for doing so. This will also provide extra incentive for customers to follow Energia on social media and hopefully direct more people into the store. Another way we will evaluate the effectiveness of our social media plan is by surveying new customers who come into Energia and ask them how they heard of Energia. If the majority of new customers say they heard about Energia through social media then our social media plan will prove to be effective. Conclusion Energia Athletics has identified the appropriate platforms for its target audiences and is sharing relevant content. The transition to the new location presents great opportunities for renewing social media accounts and the management of them. The new location also provides great additional sources of content which can be leveraged to successfully engage with both existing and new clients. Through consistent posting of relevant, original content Energia will be able to increase awareness of the company, retain existing customers and expand its audience. 13