Social Media Marketing Plan On the web: http://taiwansmith.wix.com/tjstouchofsoul-1# On social media: @TJsTouchOfSoul
Executive Summary and Overview TJ s Touch of Soul is billed as a family cuisine. We have chosen to implement a strategic social media plan to make the dining experience interactive and innovative. According to research conducted by the Social Media Examiner, 92% of businesses are using social media as a means for marketing.(http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/socialmediamarketingindustryreport2014.pdf) In addition, according to the Pew Research Group, 74% of adults use social media. Approximately 71% of the adults are using Facebook, 19% are on Twitter and 17% are using Instagram. We have decided to launch these three platforms for our initial marketing strategy. As of September 2013, 21% of social media users are now using Pinterest, a social media scrapbooking type site that was launched in 2010. What is intriguing about this platform is the fact that five times as many women use the site than men. TJ s Touch of Soul continues to explore this platform as a possibility to engage a demographic that we expect to be very loyal customers. One of our initial branding strategies was to create and use the hashtag feature which is used a search criteria and trend criteria across each of the above platforms. We are using the hashtag #TJsTOS. We believe that we can create a social media buzz by having our staff take photos of guests as they enjoy their meals and also encourage our guests to take photos while they are dining and post them to social media. We are attempting to create a niche, like no other by merging social media and the dining experience. Part of our plan is to advertise special social media only discounts where the more you post photos and utilize the hashtag, the more you can save. As part of that strategy, we will pick one person a week who has used the hashtag #TJsTOS to advertise their positive experience, and offer them one free entrée on their visit. We plan to post a couple of times a week. We also plan to share and retweet as many of our customers photo s as possible. We believe this strategy will create a family type atmosphere in our family style restaurant. Our website is also optimized for the best viewing and ease on mobile devices. As of January 2014, 58% of American adults own a smartphone. Approximately 63% of all adult cell phone users use their mobile device to access the internet. In addition, 34% of those users mostly use their mobile device online in place of a laptop or desktop computer. This all is according to Pew Research. http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet/ With numbers like that, we find it imperative that our website and social media platforms are interactive and user friendly from not only a laptop or desktop, but from mobile devices as this continues to be a growing method of gathering information.
Our Facebook Page: Currently, we have 55 likes. Our plan is to continue to build upon our social media through posts.
Our Twitter Page: Our Twitter account is just starting to grow. We will use strategies to increase our presence on Twitter that include discounts and specials for Twitter only. We also will utilize the ads to increase our following on Twitter.
Instagram Page: We will rely heavily on our guests to make the Instagram site work. Instagram also allows for 15 second video clips. We plan to use these on occasions like Mother s Day, Father s Day and Valentine s Day for special messages from our guests to their loved ones.
Our Mobile Website: Our website has been optimized for easy viewing on a mobile device. All of the social media sites have been linked to the website for one touch viewing. Everything the mobile user needs to get in contact with us or see the menu is right at the fingertips of the user.
Wireframe
Screen capture of the website
Personas The below personas are representative of the large demographic that we expect to have patronize our business. We believe that we can use social media to make their visits and experience that they want to share with others.
A poll was conducted to find out what the best option for a name and logo were for the restaurant. Below are the image options that participants were given to select from. Interestingly enough, our initial idea was TJ s Soul d Out, the red image with the plates. Through our polling, we found that Soul d Out garnered more of a negative response. The majority of those polled liked TJ s Touch of Soul. We felt the need to keep A Family Cuisine to indicate that it is in fact a restaurant. Logo image options for poll:
Below are the poll questions:
S.W.O.T. Analysis
Competitive Analysis
Competitors Websites and Social Media Granny s uses a website, Facebook and Twitter. There website is basic, similar to the website that I created. It describes the food, shows pictures of the food and has a preview of upcoming events. They advertise their social media at the bottom of their page. They changed the colors of the social media icons to blend in with their color scheme. I would categorize that as a mistake because it takes away from immediately recognizing them as the social media sites they belong to. Overall, the website is acceptable and user friendly. It is optimized and populates easily in a google search. The mobile view is good. The entire page is shown and the links to social media are accessible and direct you to the platform.
Granny s Facebook site is nice. It tells a story of the business. It has the information to link you back to their webpage. It also has positive reviews, a great thing for any business. The problem is their last post was in June of 2014, six months ago. Posting this infrequently defeats the purpose of even having the social media platforms. They don t seem to use any type of promotions as part of social media. This is where I believe I could capitalize by providing additional coupons and discounts through social media channels. Many of the same people would cross patronize each of these businesses and as long as the product is good, in this case food, people will be looking for discounts. Their Twitter account is similar. The last post was in June of 2014. They seem to post the same thing from each account and they only have 39 followers after having the account for two years.
Another competitor, Southern Blues, seems to have taken a minimalist approach to the web for advertisement purposes. The website is very basic. It provides the address, hours and a couple of links. They have no social media presence. Their search engine optimization is easy if you know where the business is located. If not, Southern Blues is a generic term which leads to many results not related to this particular business.
Goals and Budget Overview Our social media goals are as follows Increase Likes and Followers Engage in two way dialogue Push traffic to website Post pictures of our guests daily Answer any complaints received within 8 hours Continuously brand using the hashtag #TJsTOS and the handle @TJsTouchOfSoul Post pictures of special events Acknowledge holidays and occasions with special infographics Build a positive reputation Below is a proposed budget for our social media advertisement. I would not hire a social media manager at this stage. The executive management team would be tasked with updating and maintaining the content on our social media pages. I would have funding available to create graphic images and I would buy the necessary computer products, i.e. photoshop, to produce content in house. I would also look to a local college and offer intern opportunities to marketing and communications students to assist in creating content. This would be a cost savings measure as well as a community outreach opportunity. We would monitor the increases in profit after using ads to ensure that we are getting a return on our investment. We will reevaluate the needs based on the information that we collect from our analytics. We would have an expectation of an increase in likes and followers on our social media platforms. We would also expect an increase in profits. Some of the easy data collection will be from the internet/social media only coupons and discounts that will be offered. The cost associated with this budget is inflated in its first year. Much of this is a one-time budgetary item. The goal is to have a surge of followers and likes and then allow our guests to share our messages which will act as advertisement. SEO Monitoring and Graphic Design are the only areas when specific budgets will carry over year to year. This will allow for us to change our approach if need be and also purchase royalty free graphics for advertisement purposes. This strategy would be reviewed after year one to determine its effectiveness.
Facebook Ads $5,000 Google Ads $5,000 SEO Monitoring $5,000 Twitter Ads $5,000 Graphic Design $2,500 Computers and Software $2,500 TOTAL $25,000