Epcot’s “November to Remember”

The below is a sample of social media content I would create if I were the social media manager for the Epcot Center in Orlando. I am not affiliated in any way with Disney or the Epcot Center and this social media calendar is purely a learning exercise for a graduate marketing class.

Goals:

• Increase overall awareness of Epcot
• Increase consumer engagement of the Epcot Facebook Account by 15%
• Increase consumer engagement of the Epcot Twitter & Instagram Accounts by 15%

In order to standardize my posts and to increase audience interaction by “training” them to expect certain posts, I am choosing to do a daily theme that will be used throughout November. Below is a list of the daily hashtags I will use as part of my plan to increase awareness and highlight events happening during the month of November in Epcot.

---

Daily Schedule:

Monday:  Who says Mondays can’t be fun? (#EpcotMondayFunday) Tell us how you are enjoying your Monday in Epcot.  (Facebook/Twitter)

Tuesday: A Taste of Epcot (#TasteofEpcot) Tag your favorite foodie pics from all over Epcot #TasteofEpcot. (Facebook/Instagram)

Wednesday: Woman Crush Wednesday (#WCWCinderella, #WCWSleepingBeauty, etc. ) Who is your favorite princess? # pics with your favorite princess from Epcot to let us know who has your vote.  (Facebook/Instagram/Twitter)

Thursday: Epcot at night. (#EpcotNights) Tell us where you are enjoying Epcot when the sun goes down. (Facebook/Instagram/Twitter)

Friday: Flashback Friday (#EpcotFBF)—Tag your past Epcot travels. (Facebook/Instagram)

Saturday:  (#EpcotSaturdaySelfie)— Take a selfie anywhere in the park and tag it #EpcotSaturdaySelfie (Facebook/Instagram)

Sunday: Sunday Family Dinners are a tradition in many households. (#EpcotSundayDinner) Send in a pic of your family enjoying dinner at Epcot for a chance to be featured. (Facebook/Twitter/Instagram)

---

November 1 – 7

Sunday, Nov. 1: We love Sunday family dinners. Show us your #family enjoying dinner at #Epcot. #EpcotSundayDinner #Food&Wine

 

Monday, Nov 2: Take back your Monday! How you are enjoying your #EpcotMondayFunday? #Food&Wine

 

Tuesay, Nov 3: The #Food&WineFestival is still here. So much #yummyfood. Tag your favorite food from all over #Epcot. #TasteofEpcot #Food&Wine

 

Wednesday, Nov. 4: Vote now! Who’s your #WCW? #WCWSleepingBeauty #WCWCinderella #WCWSnowWhite #WCWAriel  #Epcot

 

Thursday, Nov 5: Epcot comes alive at night. Where are you enjoying #Epcotnights?

 

 

 

Friday, Nov. 6: Check out our uniforms. #80flashback #EpcotFBF

 

 

Saturday, Nov. 7: It’s the weekend! Time for #EpcotSaturdaySelfies. Show us your best.

 

 

 

---

November 8-14

Sunday, Nov. 8: Feeling nostalgic for Sunday family dinners. Show us your #family enjoying dinner at #Epcot. #EpcotSundayDinner

 

Monday, Nov 9: Make the other days jealous! #EpcotMondayFunday

 

 

Tuesay, Nov 10: Nom. Nom. Nom. So much to choose from. Tag your favorite food. #TasteofEpcot

 

 

Wednesday, Nov. 11: Eat with the Princesses at Akershus & tell us, who’s your #WCW? #WCWBeauty #Epcot

 

Thursday, Nov 12: Enjoying the fireworks. #Epcotnights

 

 

Friday, Nov. 13: Who doesn’t love robots and big hair? #EpcotFBF

 

 

Saturday, Nov. 14: #EpcotSaturdaySelfies. Wherever you are, take a selfie.

 

---

November 15-21

Sunday, Nov. 15: Everyone put down your phones and gather round the dinner table. Show us your #family enjoying dinner at #Epcot. #EpcotSundayDinner

 

Monday, Nov 16: Who says Mondays can’t be fun? #EpcotMondayFunday

 

 

Tuesay, Nov 17: Decisions, decisions… Where should we eat today? We can’t decide. #TasteofEpcot

 

 

 

Wednesday, Nov. 18: Original Pricesses vs new Princesses? Who’s your #WCW? #WCWMulan #Epcot

 

 

Thursday, Nov 19: Four words. IllumiNations Sparkling Dessert Party. Make your reservations now. #YumandWow. #Epcotnights

 

Friday, Nov. 20: #EpcotFBF That time when @JessieandDave were vikings in #EpcotNorway. Send us your #EpcotFBF

 

 

 

Saturday, Nov. 21: #EpcotSaturdaySelfies. Smiles and #Epcot go together like peanut butter and jelly.

 

 

 

---

November 22-28

Sunday, November 22: Remember to be #thankfulforfamily this week. Show us your #family enjoying dinner at #Epcot. #EpcotSundayDinner

 

 

Monday, Nov 23: Who’s ready to start the week off FUN? #EpcotMondayFunday  JaMMitors@FutureWorld

 

 

 

Tuesay, Nov 24: Would I like some cranraisin bread pudding in England? Yes please. #EpcotEngland #TasteofEpcot #RoseandCrown

 

Wednesday, Nov. 25: Come to story time at the Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. Who’s your #WCW? #WCWBelle #Epcot

 

 

 

Thursday, Nov 26 (Thanksgiving): After turkey, we are hanging in Epcot World Showcase tonight to watch fireworks. Where are you? #Epcotnights #Thankful #Family

 

Friday, Nov. 27: #EpcotFBF Where do we land this thing? Send us your #EpcotFBF

 

 

Saturday, Nov. 28: #EpcotSaturdaySelfies. Where else can you can eat lunch in Japan and dinner in Paris?

 

 

 

---

November 29-30

Sunday, November 29: Take a a break tonight and eat with us. Show us your #family enjoying dinner at #Epcot. #EpcotSundayDinner

 

Monday, Nov 30: Make Monday a day to remember. #EpcotMondayFunday

 

 

---

 

My Favorite Blogs.

What can I say? I can’t help it. I’m a sucker for design, home decor, fashion, food and travel. Oh Joy!, Gluten Free Girl & the Chef and Wit & Delight can keep me entertained for hours because of the fresh, original content. While Oh Joy! and Wit & Delight inspire my home’s decor and professional design with colorful, funky, indie finds and minimalist approach, Gluten Free Girl & Chef helps me eat safely even with a gluten intolerance.

Oh Joy!

Oh Joy!’s, “What’s in my bag” post.

Oh Joy!’s Joy Cho has been blogging for about 10 years. She started out as a graphic designer and was able to parlay her design skills into a highly successful, professional blog now run by a team with Joy as the leader and “face” of the brand.

Joy Cho

It is not only a blog, but also has e-commerce, which sells books inspiring others to create blogs and does freelance design for companies like Target, Land of Nod, Urban Outfitters and Solly Baby. (A personal confession, I became “mildly obsessed” with Oh Joy!’s designs while shopping at Anthropologie quite a few years ago.) As a designer myself, I appreciate the posts on design style, DIY projects, travel stories, career motivation and her take on enjoying life through the trials and tribulations of being a successful, full-time creative wife and mom. When you read her blog posts or watch videos, you feel like you are taking a journey with a friend because of her relate-able, conversational style. Original content (including pics and video) is uploaded every day on the blog and is promoted on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter , YouTube and of course Pinterest which make the brand easy to find and easy to share on social media.

Joy Cho and baby Coco, who is featured in many of Oh Joy!’s posts and social media.

Oh Joy! has quite a few followers — 252K on Instagram, 13.1M on Pinterest, 66K on Facebook and 77K on Twitter which are driven back to the blog with links. Conversely, the blog has social share buttons at the end of every post. When you subscribe to the Oh Joy! blog, content is pushed directly to your inbox everyday. The blog does contain endorsed or sponsored content, but it is not blatant. (There is an asterisk or “courtesy of” in the caption to indicate paid content.) If I had to change anything about the Oh Joy! blog, I would recommend posting even more video, adding podcasts to increase readership and share-ability and “sponsored or pinned for you pins” on Pinterest.

Gluten-Free-Girl

Gluten-Free-Girl blog post encouraging readers to have gluten-free potlucks with friends

Gluten Free Girl & the Chef is also a successful, professional blog about living gluten free (GF) and is run by Shauna and Danny (the Chef) Ahern. For the few of us “blessed” with Celiac or gluten intolerance, you’ve probably heard of Gluten-Free-Girl recipe books and blog. Along with links to their books, videos, in-person baking classes and e-commerce site, Shauna posts fresh content a few times a week for those living a GF lifestyle and her husband Danny (James Beard award winner), is the chef supplying yummy recipes to make you feel like you are eating regular food.

A recipe for baked halibut with asparagus, leeks and dill by Gluten-Free-Girl

Blog readers can subscribe to weekly emails and they even have an app which helps navigate GF holiday cooking. Both Shauna (199k followers) and James (7K followers) post to Twitter, Facebook (112k likes), Instagram (21.5K followers), Pinterest (3.4k followers) and there are a few how-to videos posted on Youtube. All of the posts can be shared via social media which helps drive traffic to the website and vice versa.

Ad for Freschetta gluten free pizza on the left rail.

The site does have a prominent ad under its navigation. There are also multiple sponsors of the site, each with links to individual blog posts written about the company’s food products and link back to the company’s website. In return, the individual sponsor’s website links back to the Gluten Free Girl & the Chef which increases traffic. In my opinion, the actual content is great, but it is a little hard to follow and navigate. I would re-architect the site to make site navigation easier and highlight the great photography which would lend itself to a better design. Also, I would increase the video quality on youtube. Most people are ok with lower quality video on blogs, but personally, I like higher production value.

Wit & Delight

The Wit & Delight Blog

Finally, Wit & Delight, is a very successful, professional lifestyle blog started by Kate Arends with over 2.9 million unique followers. It is a bit of a hybrid as it’s content comes from Kate and a team of bloggers predominantly from Minneapolis or Chicago. With fresh daily content about home decor, design, beauty, fashion, lifestyle (book reviews, travel) and witty random musings, Wit & Delight has something for almost everyone and even has an e-commerce site filled with their favorite products curated from blog posts.

The specially curated e-commerce site.

I personally found the blog through a “picked for you pin” on Pinterest which has 2.9M followers, but they also have other social media channels including Twitter (11.9K followers), Instagram (204k followers), Tumblr and Facebook (8k likes) which all tease content from the blog and link back for more in-depth information. Wit and Delight has also designed home goods for Target which helped them increase their blog and social media following. There are no ads on the site but there are sponsored/endorsed products for posts and they do sponsored contests with give-aways.

Sponsored Skin Care Giveaway on Wit & Delight.

I don’t think Wit & Delight lacks any content, but I would like to see a regular podcast so commuters can listen without having to go online. This would still drive traffic to the site while allowing more users to access the content. I would also like to see more behind-the-scenes video as well. To me, the sideways left side navigation is not intuitive, so I would re-architect that to top navigation.

Links:

http://ohjoy.blogs.com

https://glutenfreegirl.com/

http://witanddelight.com/

My Favorite Brand

I don’t even need to tell you the name. You instantly recognize the brand identity — the red bullseye logo. Whether you call it by the proper name Target or by my favorite knick-names, “Tar-jay” or “Red Circle Boutique,” you know as soon as you enter the store where you are and what to expect from your shopping experience.

You know that you went in for toilet paper, but you will walk out with other things you didn’t know you needed. There are even popular videos and memes about the “Target phenomenon.”

Every touchpoint inside the store from uniforms, shopping carts and signage; to social media channels; to traditional print ads, TV commercials and billboards — the brand personality of Target resonates with acute clarity and synergy. Its voice is funny, a little quirky, modern, bright & cheery and always helpful —this is reflected with great ubiquity in any thing you see and hear about Target online and off. 

There are Target customer advocates from all walks of life, rich and poor, single and married, all with diverse backgrounds. A recent story became viral when Mike Melgaard, one of Target’s loyal customers was so dedicated to the company, he posed as a customer service rep on social media and responded to Target “haters” over new gender neutral areas in toy aisles. After Target discovered what was happening, they responded to the customer service troll in quick-witted Target form. Even while responding to internet comments, Target always maintains consistent message and tone with style and humor.

According to Eric Hausman, senior group manager of PR and social media at Target, the company doesn’t believe in hard-sell tactics and would rather build long lasting relationships with its customers. “Consumers want to connect with brands. They want to understand who we are and what our stories are, ” Hausman says. 

And with Target’s many social media channels, blog and mobile app, they try to engage the consumers thereby extending the consumer experience.

The newest addition to Target.com I recently found is the “Behind the Pin Series,” which features quick video and step-by-step directions on how to DIY some of your favorite pins from Pinterest without #pinterestfail-ing. They use catchy hashtags like #kaboom which help the posts go viral and are branded within the same Target style, voice and tone.

Behind the Pin Series, “pb & yay” How-to Video Click here to view.

#Kaboom How-to make fruit skewers. Click here to view.

A touchpoint which proves Target is a true brand leader is the commercial creative which runs on both TV and its YouTube.com channel. Many have gone viral over the years and some are even considered cult-classics.

One of which is my favorite commercial of all-time — still has me saying “glitter” with jazz-hands.

Here are some of the newest commercials aired online that have given Target the “rules the internet” comment on their feeds.

A popular engagement tool Target has chosen to launch is “A Bullseye View” its own online magazine. Target works with over 16 bloggers to write content for their posts. it has over 100,000 unique visitors a month.

“A Bullseye View” online magazine. Click here to view.

As well as print ads, billboards and TV,  Target has many online touchpoints which help the retailer achieve brand awareness and consumer engagement. Here are links to all of Target’s social media channels: 

Facebook 

Instagram

Pinterest

Target Pulse Blog

YouTube

A Bullseye View

Cartwheel Mobile App

Vine

Classic Marketing vs. Social Media Marketing

For modern retailers and brands the direction of their communications strategy is one of the most important decisions they can make regarding marketing plans. These days, in order to reach audiences across the board, brands must use an integrated approach of using classic marketing and social media marketing in their media plans. Most modern consumers are savvy and do not take classic advertising whether it be print ads, TV, radio or billboard at face value. They know a “a sales/ marketing spiel” from a mile away and most skip through the commercials, turn the page or ignore the ad entirely.

Grabbing the attention of the masses is harder and takes a broader, more robust campaign including multichannel and multimedia creative.[1]

The most beneficial aspect of this layered approach is that classic marketing and social media marketing support each other and can drive traffic back and forth between the social media channels. [1] A print ad only talks to you, but it can use a hashtag or give you Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube information, and let the consumer talk back. Social media can help a brand not only organically by consumers talking, tweeting, referring or posting, but a brand can also talk back to the consumer by responding to posts or advertising directly in the channel.

Most people are overloaded with marketing messages all day. Especially for millennials, they no longer want a brand to talk to them, but want to be immersed in an experience in which they can relate and even contribute to the content.

Take Lowes for instance, they gave simple How-To advice on Vine. Lowes uploaded 15 second videos with easy step-by-step information on how to do small projects then gave the user a hashtag to post their own videos on social media.

Lowes on Vine. Click to view.

GoPro uses a similar tactic to keep the consumer involved. A production team goes on location, shoots video and posts to their website and on YouTube. The videos go viral and in return, they ask their audiences on the website, YouTube, Instagram and Vine feeds to shoot their own video or photos and upload to multiple GoPro channels or use #GoPro. The audience vies for a coveted chance to be featured on the website or on one of the brands social media platforms.

GoPro original video featuring a whale breach. Click to view.

User uploaded images on the GoPro Instagram feed. Click to view.

The language in classic marketing is vastly different than the way you communicate on social media. Classic marketing can lean towards “catchy” phrases and even rhymes that try to be memorable. I think most people know the jingle from commercials, “The best part of waking up, is Folger’s in your cup” or how about “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.”  The sad thing is, it might give you an ear-worm, but doesn’t make you want to buy. Even if you do remember the name of the ad, these days, consumers still go online to research before buying. McKinsey Quarterly estimates that “TV only is only 35 percent as effective as it was in 1990.” Therefore, brands are smart to have a social media presence that is on-brand with their classic marketing as well as a good online reputation and can’t be filtered out. [1]

There tends to have a specific formula in classic marketing. Take the standard print ad. It consists of a headline, maybe a subhead, marketing body copy with “why you should buy,” a call to action (call now) and a logo with a big image in the background. The conversation tends to be more formal, sometimes even with legal-ease at the bottom. The savvy consumer knows this model and will not buy something solely based on an ad. This is why most print ads, commercials, etc. drive user traffic to a hashtag or back to a brand’s social media channel.

Social media marketing is much more conversational and not long-winded. Twitter is only 140 characters, Instagram and YouTube are more about the visuals and  marketer can speak directly to a consumer on a channel to personalize the experience.

Taco Bell seems to hit this out of the park on a daily basis with their Twitter feed. They use tongue-in cheek conversational humor as they reach out not only to other brands, but also their audience.

@TacoBell and @MensHumor Twitter exchange

@OldSpice and @TacoBell in a friendly Twitter “feud”

Oreo and Pizza Hut also use humor on their Twitter feeds.

Oreo’s “Lost Oreo” on Instagram.

@pizzahut on Twitter. To me, you are perfect.

Lowes, GoPro, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Oreo have huge social media followers that are brand loyal. The brands all still do classic advertising but have ventured successfully into the social media arena to shore up the brand message and to hit additional audiences that aren’t seeing traditional media.

In short, brands today can no longer rely solely on classic marketing media and expect to succeed in the marketplace. In order to get traction with their brand amid a cluttered landscape, a multi-media, multi-channel technique has to be the standard practice in brand communications.

Additional links:

1. Antony Young, Brand Media Strategy, Integrated Communications Planning in the Digital Era (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2014), 17, 18, 19

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/check-out-2015s-shorty-award-winners-best-use-social-media-apps-and-video-163627

http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/michael-patterson-10-brands-amazing-social-media/624169