Message Design Blog Assignment - Shantel Wolfe
3
Coffee, Coolness, and Community Engagement in CBUS It’s no secret that Columbus is home to a variety of café and restaurants what with Columbus being a smaller scale testing ground for larger restaurants that want to open in larger cities such as New York or Los Angeles. But out of all these cafés, how does a consumer choose a place to purchase their liquid energy? Community engagement comes in many forms in Columbus, Ohio but mostly in User Generated Content (UGC). User generated content is a fairly new concept but a highly useful one for companies and coffee shops alike. But what IS UGC? It’s anything that’s organically created through consumers of a business. This could be a beautiful picture of someone’s morning coffee or a user commenting on someone’s post recommending the business and tagging the business in it. It all depends on how a coffee shop wants to market themselves to their audience. • If you want to have professional photos taken of your food items or a hip picture of a cup of coffee sat next to a succulent and your business’ logo, great! • If you want to take some mediocre snaps with a phone but pair it with high quality and creative captions, great! However, both those strategies will only reach those who follow your Instagram page.
-
Upload
shantel-wolfe -
Category
Documents
-
view
38 -
download
0
Transcript of Message Design Blog Assignment - Shantel Wolfe
Coffee,Coolness,andCommunityEngagementinCBUS
It’snosecretthatColumbusishometoavarietyofcaféandrestaurantswhatwithColumbusbeingasmallerscaletestinggroundforlargerrestaurantsthatwanttoopeninlargercitiessuchasNewYorkorLosAngeles. Butoutofallthesecafés,howdoesaconsumerchooseaplacetopurchasetheirliquidenergy? CommunityengagementcomesinmanyformsinColumbus,OhiobutmostlyinUserGeneratedContent(UGC).Usergeneratedcontentisafairlynewconceptbutahighlyusefuloneforcompaniesandcoffeeshopsalike. ButwhatISUGC? It’sanythingthat’sorganicallycreatedthroughconsumersofabusiness.Thiscouldbeabeautifulpictureofsomeone’smorningcoffeeorausercommentingonsomeone’spostrecommendingthebusinessandtaggingthebusinessinit.Italldependsonhowacoffeeshopwantstomarketthemselvestotheiraudience.
• Ifyouwanttohaveprofessionalphotostakenofyourfooditemsorahippictureofacupofcoffeesatnexttoasucculentandyourbusiness’logo,great!
• Ifyouwanttotakesomemediocresnapswithaphonebutpairitwith
highqualityandcreativecaptions,great!However,boththosestrategieswillonlyreachthosewhofollowyourInstagrampage.
Discovering,supportingandutilizingUGC.
àDiscovering Abusiness,whethertheyruntheirownsocialmediaorhaveasocialmediamanagerdoingso,shouldkeepupmonitoringtheirownsocialchannels.Theyshouldchecktaggedphotos,theirlocation,andwhethertheyhaveoneestablishedornot,theirhashtag.Doingthiswillhelpthebusinesstoknowwhatpeoplelikedaboutitorbetterinformthebusinessastohowtheircustomersare“checkingin”(ifthey’reusingthehashtagversusjusttaggingthebusiness‘handleorwhattimeofdaythecustomeriseatingthere).DiscoveringandcompilingUGCcanalsoletthebusinessknowwhatkindofreachtheyhave.ThismeansifaUGCpostgot200likesandtheaccountthatpostedithas1,000followers.Thatmeansthattheirreachincludesnotonlythosewholikeditbutallthefollowersthatsawitaswell.àSupporting UGCshouldbeanorganicthingbutcanyouimaginegoingtoyourfavoritecoffeeshopeveryday,Instagrammingapictureofitatleastonceweekandthenneverseeinganykindofresponseoracknowledgementfromthatbusiness?It’simportanttoRESPOND.Thiscouldbegivingallofyourtaggedpicturesalikeoraheartfeltcomment.ItmakestheuserfeelconnectedtoyourbrandandbetterincreasesthechancesofmoreUGCinthefuture.àUtilizing Inmyopinion,usinganysortofrepostor“regram”applicationtopostaUGCInstagramisabittacky.However,forsomebusiness,itworks.Thisallcomesdowntoaesthetic.YourInstagram“feed”orthesquareblocksofpicturesshownasoneclicksonyourprofile,shouldbestrategicandcommunicatesomethingaboutthewayyourunyourbusiness.
• • • • •
• Ifthebusinessisanenvironmentallyfriendlycoffeeshopthatusesrecycledcupsanddonatesproceedstoenvironmentalcauses,yourfeedshouldlookcleanandshowcasehuesofgreen,whiteorblue.
• Ifthebusinessisanoldtimeyboardgameparlorthatservescoffee,
thelookofyourfeedshouldbeold-fashionedwithvintagefontorfilters.
It’simportanttobeconsistent.Therefore,onlypickUGCthatfitsyouraesthetic.Simplyscreenshottheoriginalphotoandrepostiteitherquotingtheoriginalcaptionorrespondingtoitwithin.Tagtheoriginaluserwhoposteditandvoila–you’restayinghipwhileutilizingyourUGC.
