SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY 2017KYNDALL OAKLEY

PUR 3622/ RTV4930

2/19/2017

1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY4 SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT8 SOCIAL MEDIA OBJECTIVES10 ONLINE BRAND PERSONA AND VOICE11 STRATEGIES AND TOOLS13 TIMING AND KEY DATES14 SOCIAL MEDIA ROLES AND RESPONSIBLITIES15 SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY16 CRITICAL RESPONSE PLAN18 MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING RESULTS

2

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

u The main social media priority for Taco Bell in 2017 will be to increase followers and expand follower demographic beyond primarily young audiences/ millennials.

u Taco Bell will continue to focus on maintaining and building a community with millennial customers, but will now also aim to target the faster growing demographic of older social media users to expand customer base.

3

TOOLS AND TACTICS:

• Use existing social media accounts to continue great content output and maintain loyal customers.

• Increase presence on newer platforms such as Snapchat through posting more consistently.

• Increase older followers by creating more relatable, share-worthy content for their age group.

SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT

u SOCIAL MEDIA ASSESSMENT

ASSESSMENT SUMMARY: Twitter is currently the most successful social platform for Taco Bell in terms of audience engagement. Facebook has the most followers out of all social media platforms. Pinterest is the least successful in terms of followers and engagement rate. There has been some success with sponsored Snapchat filters in the past but the actual Snapchat account is not extremely active.

4

SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT

u WEBSITE TRAFFIC SOURCES ASSESSMENT

ASSESSMENT SUMMARY: This data is calculated on a monthly basis. Twitter and Facebook have the most unique visitors from all social media categories. Unique visits and percentage of overall traffic cannot be calculated for Instagram and Snapchat but it is safe to assume that there is some social interaction on both platforms. Pinterest has a very low conversion rate and percentage of overall traffic.

5

SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT

u AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHICS ASSESSMENT

ASSESSMENT SUMMARY: The majority of respondents were age 30 or below, the most being ages 13-18. The gender distribution is differentiated by 14%, the majority being male. Concerning social networks, most users prefer Twitter. The second highest primary social network was Snapchat, likely because of the high amount of 13-18 year old respondents. Moving forward, snapchat should become more of a focus and the fate of the Taco Bell Pinterest account should be considered, as it was not a primary or social networking account for any of the respondents. Customers primary need was fast and convenient meals, while their secondary need was Tex-Mex inspired causal food. 6

SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT

u COMPETITOR ASSESSMENT

ASSESSMENT SUMMARY: Competitors such as McDonald’s have a larger following and have built up consistent communities. Competitors post diverse content as far as medium goes (video/ pictures). Where the competitors fail is creating fun, interesting content and that is where we should continue to focus.

7

SOCIAL MEDIA OBJECTIVES

OVERALL BUSINESS GOALS: u Maintain loyal customers

u Continue to increase social media presence

u Increase older customers (primarily ages 31-44)

SOCIAL MEDIA OBJECTIVES TO SUPPORT:

v Continue to post on favorite social networks, but create greater consistency with daily posts on both Twitter and Facebook and higher engagement rates (at least 30% engagement rate for Twitter and Facebook, respectively, in 10 months)

v Begin to post more consistently and more interesting content on Snapchat and Instagram (increase daily posts for Snapchat and Instagram by at least 1 daily within 5 months)

v Create content that will be more relatable for older audiences (increase followers across Twitter and Facebook ages 31-44 by at least 30% in 12 months)

8

SOCIAL MEDIA OBJECTIVES

u QUANTITATIVEu Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat (views),

Instagram follower counts

u Number of posts per day across platforms

u QUALITATIVEu Sentiment analysis by analysis of

customer social media posts

u Question relatability of content (ages 31-44)

u Taco Bell has fast, fun food

u Tex-Mex on-the-go

u Reliable, delicious food for the whole family

KPIS: KEY SUPPORTING MESSAGES:

9

ONLINE BRAND PERSONAL AND VOICE

u ADJECTIVES THAT DESCIRBE OUR BRAND* F U N * * F U N N Y * * C R E A T I V E * * F A S T * * F R I E N D L Y * * B O L D *

10

STRATEGIES AND TOOLS

u PAID: u Boost popular Facebook posts every Tuesday (taco Tuesday).u Paid promotional snapchat lensesu OWNED:u Increase activity on brand snapchat account (more story posting/

interaction with snapchat customers)u Create Facebook posts targeted towards older customers (31-44)

with new, sharable contentu EARNED:u Create social media Tuesday promotion across platforms for

reduced taco pricesu Create relationship with influencers to promote brand across all

platforms (in particular Snapchat and Instagram)

TOOLS:APPROVED: REJECTED:Hootsuite N/ABuffer

11

STRATEGIES AND TOOLS

u EXISTING SUBSCRIPTIONS/ LICENSESu Verified accounts

Facebook:Snapchat:

Twitter:

Instagram:

12

TIMING AND KEY DATES

u KEY DATESu Cinco de Mayo (May 5th)

u Valentine’s Day (who doesn’t love tacos)

u National Taco Day (October 4th)

u INTERNAL EVENTSu March 21st- Taco Bell Birthday

u April 1-20th- Taco Fundraiser

LEAD TIMES12 P.M.- 2 P.M. (lunch rush)4:30 P.M. -7 P.M. (dinner)12 A.M.-3 A.M. (late crowd)

REPORTING DATESThe goals expressed in this document should ideally all be finished within one year. Reporting time to track progress will occur once every four months to stay up to date with current information and reports.

13

SOCIAL MEDIA ROLES AND RESPONSIBLITIES

u SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR:u Oversees all social media accounts and published posts, has final approval over

all campaign strategy and implementation of new rules.

u SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER:u Oversees day-to-day social media services, handles crisis control, develops

campaign strategies

u SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR:u Helps to create and schedule content on a daily basis

14

SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY

It is important to follow this social media policy to avoid any inappropriate or off-brand social media interactions. Two-way communication allowed through social media is an important part of our business and we take it very seriously. This policy always come first and any failure to follow these guidelines could jeopardize the reputation of our company and more importantly, our treasured relationship with our customers.

• Hateful/ inappropriate language will not be tolerated

• We love to use humor in our posts BUT it must be humor that is widely relatable and not at all offensive

• If a customer service need arises, attempt to help the customer or direct them to where they could get appropriate support

• Be polite to all, including competition

• Never post illegal material

• Remember you are posting from a professional account, not your personal account. Always keep the brand in mind

• If you are unsure, do not hesitate to ask for help or clarification with your posts

15

CRITICAL RESPONSE PLAN

u SCENARIO ONE:u Rumor of poor health standards or similar (false)

u MAKE SURE TO CONFIRM THAT RUMOR IS FALSE WITH HR

u TAKE INTO BRIEF ACCOUNT WHAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE SAYING ON SOCIAL MEDIA ABOUT THE BRAND AND RUMORS

u SEND OUT PRE-APPROVED MESSAGE ON TWITTER AND FACEBOOK

u RESPOND TO ANY CUSTOMER QUESTIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA CONCERNING THE RUMOR

PRE-APPROVED RESPONSE: (optimized for Facebook and Twitter)“We take our health standards (or insert other issue if necessary) very seriously. If you're going to #LiveMás you need to put your health first. Happy to report no health standard issues at Taco Bell.”

16

CRITICAL RESPONSE PLAN

u SCENARIO TWO:u Inappropriate post to Facebook

u RECORD TIME POSTED AND EXACT MATERIAL OF POST

u DELETE POST ASAP

u CONTACT SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR AND ALERT OF POST

u SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR WILL COME UP WITH AN OFFICIAL APOLOGY POST

u IN THE MEAN TIME, RESPOND TO ANY CUSTOMERS WHO REACHED OUT DIRECTLY WITH BELOW PRE-APPROVED MESSAGE

PRE-APPROVED MESSAGE:"Our sincerest apologies! That post was not approved and we're working our hardest to fix that problem.”

17

MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING RESULTS

u SOCIAL NETWORK DATA

u WEBSITE TRAFFIC DATA

18

MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING RESULTS

u RESULTS ASSESSMENT: Follower count is up in all social media platforms. Increases in weekly activity and more content posted resulted in higher engagement rates and follower counts.

u SENTIMENT ANALYSIS: An analysis was conducted of customer tweets, Facebook posts, received Snapchats, and Instagram posts.

u Customer sentiment was overwhelmingly positive, and there was a particularly high rate of enjoyment from our humorous posts. Positive sentiment mostly came from loyal customers, which is good but something that we would like to also receive extensively from new and first-time customers.

u Negative sentiment was mainly focused on customers receiving a wrong order, which is something that individual branches will need to work on.

u PROPOSED ACTIONS: u Discontinue Pinterest account because of lack of audience and failure to grow; failure to

see any future benefits

u Continue to put out higher levels of content daily to foster more engagement and higher follower counts

19

TACO BELL LOGO AND LIVE MÁS TRADEMARK TACO BELL

20