The Channels

Your assignment this week is to decide which channels are best for your business. The channels consist of which social media platforms your business will tackle. Consider your target audience and what social media platforms they prefer.

To complete this assignment, you will need:

• An opening to the section

• Three channels identified and expanded upon – why will it work?

• A thorough pros and cons list tailored to your client’s business

 

The following channels were identified as valuable and profitable for Theatre WV. As shown earlier, the target audience spends their time on these platforms and these will encourage active engagement between the organization and its audiences. 

Instagram

Instagram will be the first utilized social media channel. Instagram appeals to women in the target market and is seeing its strongest growth in this market. The platform is great because outdoor theatre really lends itself to visual sharing. Additionally, Instagram allows a geo-tagging feature that will tag the location to get the word out about where the theatre is located.

In terms of the current marketing efforts, guests are encouraged to photograph the show during the first 10 minutes, but then are asked to put their cameras away. The theatre would like guests to share their photos, but the patrons are given little to no instruction about how to share their photos and how to properly tag them. Theatre West Virginia has no official presence on Instagram, but several of its actors post selfies from the various shows in which they participate.

Theatre West Virginia is unique in its category of outdoor performance theatres in West Virginia. However, there are several traditional theatres throughout the state. West Virginia Public Theatre located in Morgantown, WV is another small theatre that seems to tackle Instagram in a similar manner – by allowing cast members to take care of most of the promoting. This platform could really set Theatre West Virginia aside from the rest of the competition.

Pros                                                                   Cons

Increased exposure within current theatre goers social circles	Targeting is not as refined as with other platforms
Provides the theatre with potential marketing content	Could isolate current demographic
The account is free to activate and maintain	Required monitoring for customer service issues
The platform drives engagement through guest postings	Finding someone to maintain the account can become difficult
The ability to drive consumers to the ticketing link
Increased interaction via commenting between the theatre and the guests
Best method to reach target audience

Facebook

As the most popular networking site, Facebook must be utilized in this campaign. Facebook hosts people from all demographics including the current most popular being 50+ and the target market. Facebook is a great place for important content to reach everyone who has stake in this organization. Facebook is extremely social and allows users to check in, post photos, and review with location services turned on.

Currently, Facebook serves as a way to disseminate information, but serves little purpose as a marketing tool. They are using the platform to post show dates and times while answering questions intermittently. It does appear that guests are using the platform to deal with customer service questions and issues. Theatre West Virginia posts images form the plays as well, but those are sparse throughout.

West Virginia Public Theatre is utilizing their Facebook page as a place to host events and receive guest feedback. The single best trait they have is that they are posting clickable links to drive action back to the ticketing site. They are coupling it with engaging photos that encourage viewers to engage through commenting and sharing.

Pros                                                                   Cons

Available to a wide range of demographics	Facebook limits the amount of what people see organically
Free account for businesses	An open platform allows for ratings and comments to be public
The ability to select and target demographics through the Facebook Ad Manager	Significant time will need to be devoted to managing and restructuring the page
Increased exposure to new markets
Defined metrics help to refine ad targeting
The platform encourages sharing through personal accounts
Can serves as a customer service tool

Twitter

Popular among the target market, but not as much for the current demographic, Twitter will be used to update on the day-to-day of the theatre. This will include the use of the branded hashtag that will also exist on Instagram. Twitter will expand to new audiences and businesses within the area and the state.

Currently, the Theatre West Virginia Twitter account is completely text and mostly informative information about upcoming shows. However, it links to phone numbers (which are not clickable) and then a link to a post on Facebook. This is a lot of effort for someone who is a native Twitter user, and would choose not to operate on both platforms. Additionally, there are no clickable links to a website that sells tickets when new shows are announced.

West Virginia Public Theatre operates their Twitter slightly differently. They do include photos within their tweets along with a few clickable links to ticketing information. However, they do often link back to their Facebook page. Additionally, they also lack any significant engagement among their followers.

Pros                                                                   Cons

The use of hashtags allows users outside of the normal market to find the organization	Will likely isolate current demographic
Tweets are limited in characters making them simple to write, and to the point	There is a limit on characters forcing the crafting of concise tweets
Allows links to drive customers to the ticketing site	Significant time will be required to restructure and then upkeep the account
Provides text and photos for users to drive engagement through retweets	Required monitoring for customer service issues
The account is free for businesses
There is no limiting of reach; all followers see all posts in their feed
Ads are affordable

 

Paper Edit

This weekend you will be constructing the beginning of your paper edit. You’ve started this in class. This consists of creating the bones of your video. The speakers, and what they say, should be listed down the script. Feel free to add quotes in as necessary. Remember, you are working for a client – it’s okay to feed lines when necessary. Voiceovers are also acceptable, and often needed.

 

Below is an example of how every paper edit should start. Your audience is a condensed version of your demographics. Be sure to add this to the top of your paper edit.

 

Unicorn Wine Guild

Focus

Here, the focus would be bringing to light this great, local winery that remains hidden in a dismal shopping complex. A complete rebrand, and a new commercial that tells the story would make a huge difference. The focus would have to be on quality product ot diminish the location and dismal store front.

Issues

The Unicorn Wine Guild was built from a passion for good wine. The man who makes it is a dentist by trade, but a wine maker and taster by night. He makes all of it on site, and offers tastings and tours. He wants people to see the process. Negative include poor branding (a rebranding is necessary) and the complete lack of marketing – most people don’t even know that it exists.

Audience

From the owner, the demographics are men and women (equally) who are usually between 35-55. They are the type of people who can visit during the day, possibly meaning that they are retired with an income for free spending.

Content Points

• Homemade
• Huge Selection
• Local Winery
• Wine and beer making supplies

Brand

The Unicorn Wine Guild is about making fine, local wines for their patrons. It’s a commitment to a craft that is often overlooked.

Branding Videos

Branding videos are the newest way to break through the clutter on social media. Consumers want to share things, but they only want to share good things. As gate keepers of social media, we must be able to identify and tell good stories.

Your assignment is to find a good video from a reputable brand. Make sure you enjoy it first, then explain why it accomplishes its goal – be sure to define that goal as well.

Be sure to list the brand, the strategy, the brand positioning statement and the plot. Then write one to two paragraphs about how it breaks through the clutter.

Your initial postings are due by Friday at 11:55 p.m. Your response postings are due by Monday at 11 a.m.

Week 2 of Social Media Plan

Read the following articles:

• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jayson-demers/how-to-use-social-media-l_b_3781277.html
• http://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2015/05/01/visual-listening-social-medias-next-frontier/
• http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2013/08/27/6-steps-to-decoding-your-target-audience/
• http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/09/demographics-of-key-social-networking-platforms-2/

Assignment

Submit a 400-600 word assessment on your blog that includes the following:

• A demographic description of your selected target audience.
• Research and determine the most prevalent characteristics from the six provided characterizations within your target audience. Describe the characteristics.
• In what social platforms is your target audience interacting? The last bulleted article above will help greatly.

Your initial postings are due by Friday at 11:55 p.m. Response postings (two at a minimum) are due by Monday at 10:55 a.m.

Affordances

In class today, we discussed affordances. An affordance is the relation between an object and what it affords its user. For example, the main frame of Twitter allows us to interact with others on the platform, but it affords us the ability to be more freely spoken and nearly whatever we would like.

This assignment is three-fold.

1. Research a celebrity’s social media habits. Consider the who, what, where, when and why of the posts. Why did they choose that platform over another? What is their angle for posting that? Do they reply to fans’ tweets/posts/comments? Consider this and more. Post screenshots, quotes, and other applicable information where possible. Give a brief overview of their habits.
2. Research a politician’s social media habits. Consider the who, what, where, when and why of the posts. Why did they choose that platform over another? What is their angle for posting that? Do they reply to fans’ tweets/posts/comments? Consider this and more. Post screenshots, quotes, and other applicable information where possible. Give a brief overview of their habits. 
3. Explain the main differences of these users, and how they use their social media. See a great example of this exercise here.

Your initial posting is due Friday by 11:55 p.m. Your two substantial response postings are due Monday by 11:00 a.m. You must submit four quality responses to different classmates.

Hello world!

This is your very first post. Click the Edit link to modify or delete it, or start a new post. If you like, use this post to tell readers why you started this blog and what you plan to do with it.

Happy blogging!