Social Media Case Study: Smith's Hot Dogs

Timeline

February 2013: Smith's Hot Dogs decides that it's time to get serious about social media and contacts Epic Web Studios. Being the "Official Hot Dog of the Pittsburgh Penguins" had garnered FB likes in the past, but there was no engagement from fans. Engagement (on FB it's called "People Talking About This") is what makes social media work.

March 2013: Epic Web's Social Media Team begins very in-depth research on Smith's. We learn everything. Product Line, History, Clients, Key Influencers, Business Model, and more. Essentially, we want to be trained as if we were a new-hire in the executive offices.

April 2013: Epic Web begins to develop a plan of action for how to attract and retain clients to the Smith's brand. Some initial test-posts are sent out, a small Facebook Ads campaign is run for testing purposes.

May 2013: Time to kick things off. Now that Epic has learned all-things-Smiths (and eaten about 10 pounds of delicious bacon & hot dogs in the process), we are ready to begin promoting their brand on Facebook & Twitter (which are two great platforms to begin on if you are new to social media). Almost immediately there is a 10% spike in engagement on the Smith's profiles. Facebook fans start rolling in, Twitter followers increase and start responding to posts.

June 2013: The content calendar is in full swing. The key, at this point, is to continue improving the relationship between the Smith's brand and their customers. New fans are pouring in by the hundreds (sometimes thousands) every week! As a result, every day Epic's Community Managers have to: 

• Write fresh content (posts, photos, contests, videos, trivia, etc).
• Follow up on almost every comment in every network.
• Respond to all customer service inquiries.
• Develop strong social advertising that is not invasive, but complimentary. 
• Adjust those ads based on the analytics we receive.
• Actively listen to what's being said about Smith's around the web (through Google Alerts, Twitter Discovery & other Social CRM tools).
• Continue to strengthen relationships with vendors, community partners & even the competition.
• Report back to Smith's management & ask questions whenever needed.
• Take every possible measure to ensure Smith's is always top-of-mind.

Conclusion

Social media is often: 

• more cost efficient than old-school, outbound marketing.
• better at building long-term customers rather than short-term sales.
• capable of giving your brand the visibility it deserves.

Why fight an uphill battle bringing people to your website? Engage with them where they already are! 

Epic's strategic digital marketing team provides a solution to the limitations of a traditional marketing process. Digital strategy is critical to building a more effective approach towards marketing for your own business.

The choice is yours, Gray or Blue: 

Are you: 

• already on social media, but failing to engage consistently? 
• already using other marketing methods?
• curious as to how much this is going to cost for your organization?
• realizing that digital marketing is an essential tool for your organization, but overwhelmed or uninterested in getting started?

If you have answered YES to any of these questions, call our offices and speak with David Hunter at 814-746-6987.