"Businesses in Niagara Who Apply and See Results

using Social Media - a Look at What is Working"

The idea criteria….

Companies based in Niagara, who consistently apply social media strategies and content development that provides value to the market.

Recognizable by their name, we documented the tangible and intangible results they have gained by sharing content and using various platforms.

The aggregate feedback results will be presented to this group.

Each company was asked to share advice that others could gain insights from.

What social media platforms do you primarily use?

Of the following business functions do you use social media platforms to promote them?a.      Sales and serviceb.      Community involvement c.      Hiring d.      Events e.      Other: ____________

What advice would you share with others?

Do you outsource content development or do it in house?

Do outsource posting or do it in house?

How much time a day do you typically spend on social media?

How do you feel social media has impacted your banding, marketing and business development?

What is you biggest success story with social media?

Who we talked to….

9 local companies….

Some stats….

Sales and service 7 / 9

Community involvement 8 / 9

Hiring 5 / 9

Events 8 / 9

Other: community events and activitiesregional activities customer interactioncontestssharing industry news communicate with industry

members cross promotion

Avg. time spent….

1-2 hours per day

9/9

1/9

3/9

9/94/9

1/9

1/9

Content development

In House ?

Outsource?

9/9

1/9

Posting

In House ?

Outsource?

9/9

0/9

Interesting themes

and shared advice….

Gives a sense of identity.

Importance of connecting with your audience, do your homework.

More flexible than traditional media.

365 things to do in Fort Erie

Baby naming

Costume contest

Importance of creating dialogue

Encouraging the use of Twitter and hashtags for event feedback

Clients welcome the communications and feedback

Using FB since 2007, now getting into Twitter

Employees use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram for personal use. Hope to focus on all of these as a business in the future

Posting event information and pictures of events that we attend and that our employees are involved in is important to us

Everyone who is connected to us on social media can see our culture and the extent of community involvement we have.

Be interactive on your social media platforms. People need a reason to follow you or check out your

Sharing posts that charities post is a great way to support them and show other who/what you are involved with in the community.

Reply to questions and repost interesting articles with your opinion. Ask questions and other’s opinions to gain interest and generate discussions.

Never give up and stay constant

Create a plan

It is what builds us, it is our brand

SM strategy focused on brand principles: Listen, nurture, guide, care

Be authentic, human and ensure your work aligns to your goals and values

Determine your ‘one thing’ then create engagement though humanization

Engage employees, volunteers, and members in content development

Marketing and SM is #1 channel for BD and brand building

Competitive advantage over other FI’s. Invest time and commitment

In the digital world social media is your voice

Success with yearly staff photos

Write the way you speak in real life

Respond to as much activity (questions, compliments, complaints) as possible in a timely manner

Founding members of “Ontario Food Truck Assoc.” and active in event development and promotion = lots of content

SM is best tool to communicate and keep customer contact as we are mobile and our menu changes

Able to show photos of menu items

Use SM to connect with leaders in culinary industry, sets us apart from other food trucks be being integrated

Engage with audience first, gain trust, begin conversations, earn the right to talk product

Handle negative posts or complaints out in the open. Your audience should see how you deal with them, gaining credibility

Using SM, we can learn the interests of our members (HUGE)

Able to look into the lens on how to make our member experience as strong as possible

Able to reach more people as an additional channel for marketing

Stay neutral, stay consistent, stay positive and remember negative comments are not always bad

We often get negative backlash from activists, and do not remove (unless inappropriate language)…it makes us real and our following appreciates that, and has come to our defence

Content is king

Success Stories….

Simple question: Smarties or M&M’s?

Building customer service by promoting and helping them with their events, postings and feedback

Recently ran a Twitter contest in conjunction with a marketing conference and successfully gained new customer through this

By promoting and posting on social media we have doubled our numbers year over year

Engagement. By broadcasting our social listening we can hone in on what is important to our listeners

To date, our ‘CareCash’ initiative is our most successful campaign in terms of true engagement/alignment with our brand

We have used social media to successfully lobby for street food regulation change in Niagara and beyond.

We have garnered a tremendous outpouring of public supportFrom customers and industry members, which place pressure on policy makers in a very public way.

Launched FB page by giving back to community

Partnered with Book Outlet and gave 300 books to kids in community – attracted lots of media and ran for second year – even more successfully

Gave 500 books in 2014

Seeing our engagement rise 70%

Aim for 1000 books in 2015

……all this through social media only

By reaching out to bloggers who write about family outings and attractions and we create cross promotions and invitethem to the park, free tickets to contest off

This increases our reach and drives traffic to our website, at no hard cost

SM has significantly increased our web site traffic dramatically over the past year, increased our service and helped us expand our reach in Niagara and beyond

one more…

We created a new event last year “Boo at the Zoo”.

We decided to promote the event by social media alone and spend no advertising dollars as it was near the end of our season.

The outcome was unbelievable, we broke attendance records and had line ups to the road for hours.

Thank You

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