Week 6A Engaging Your Customer's (Facebook)

 Seven Businesses Like With My Business Page:

1. Sole Food Farms

2. The Edible Schoolyard Project

3. Viva Farms

4. Grace Field Farms

5. Urban Bounty Farms, Inc. 

6. The Urban Edge Farm

7. The King’s Roost

I chose these businesses because across the spectrum of urban farms, non-profits, socio economic statues, race, gender, and age these business provide resources into getting started, maintaining your farm, ways to build your business and/or provide supplies you may need. 

Sole Food Farms posts day to day updates, posters/announcements for classes, and information on farmer's markets they will be present at. They are well written, have photographs, and have fairly low customer engagement. This page really helps teach how to connect with your community and advertise transferring your knowledge and skills to help others. 

The Edible Schoolyard Project is a non-profit for school children and that's very much the aesthetic you feel when coming upon their page. Their posts are well written, include photos, have moderate engagement, are cohesive, and inform as well as involve the reader in the organization. This is a well-respected successful nonprofit who could share on their page success methods, potential exposure to other business/partners in the industry, and even chances to volunteer to learn the business.

Viva Farms is a much quieter, almost personnel vlog in a way. The posts are often just around the farm, local events, or tips/tricks for farming. There are pictures, very low engagement, and not a bad page all together. I appreciate this kind of point of view and feel. This page would be good for teaching personal and business relation skills. There are also a ton of resources to check out grant programs, resources, finances, etc. 

Grace Field Farms offers a day to day mixed with business type of page for their business. The posts range from updates on projects, volunteer scheduled events, market locations, and the occasional personal post from employees. They are well written, have cozy bright photos, and have low to moderate engagement. Grace Field focuses solely on farming in a regenerative method which is one of the biggest helps - its an alternative to alternative farming.  

Urban Bounty Farms is a farm to table operation mainly focusing on the back end preparing and serving/delivering farm to table food taken from their urban farm. Their posts are sort of short and mechanical feeling in a way. There are a lot of sales, coupons, ads, etc. but not as much of a personal touch. They have photos and very low engagement. The reason I gravitated to this business and page is because they have the back end of delivery and transporting food down and they would be a good connection and relationship with. 

The Urban Edge Farm is a small to medium sized urban farming operation that has a fairly sparse presence online. When they do post they are personal touches, advertising events, and sharing family friendly experience content on their page. They are well written, the photos and videos are good, and they have low customer engagement. I chose this business because they are California based and local connections are good to have, as well as getting to watch their customer interaction model grow and how they handle those needs of the community. 

The King's Roost is the outlier business from all the ones I listed above. They have a full business centric page that focuses not on urban farming or non profits but on the materials, supplies, and place to sell needed for those two types of businesses. That is the main reason I included it. The posts are written well, the photos and videos are good at demonstrating the for sale goods, and customer engagement is low to medium. 

Week 5B Facebook Data Collection

Post reach and post engagement are both important metrics and measuring tools a business can use to track the usefulness, effectiveness, and success of a business page. Post reach is important because it is the measured number of users who viewed or connected with your post via their timeline. This is a crucial metric because you can see how your words and pictures are effectively traveling from person to person, what markets are showing interest in your post, and how many people you are reaching on average. 

Post engagement is so important because it measures how often and how people the post reaches interact with it. This can be if you get shares, likes, comments, etc. You can use this data to determine customer sentiment, get valuable feedback, and get further post exposure or page exposure as your reach increases. Both being used for customer feedback, measuring customer base, gauging interest/need for your business, increasing visibility and building a customer base, as well as providing useful insights to potential investors. 

A business can use Facebook insights in order to collect valuable feedback and interests from customers, to track successes and failures, understand customer expectation, as well as build brand relationship and confidences, all of these benefitting customers. 

Commented On (Only 3 of my group members besides myself have a Facebook listed): 

GRFFX

Lamb Screen Printing

Inglorious Bagels - Friend Requested, commenting isn’t an option before its accepted as this is a personal page 

Week 4A - Defining Target Markets

 Set One: The Garden Shops

Armstrong’s target market is clearly a broad approach, not necessarily out of the norm for a chain store. Demographic wise they are aiming for all gender identities, 10-65 years in age, physical healthy and capable of movement, all races, home owners or owners of space for plants, and mid to upper income levels. Psychographic wise the target markets including those who enjoy the outdoors, plant beginners through enthusiasts, value physical/outdoors work and hobbies, open to education and classes, as well as environmentally conscious. 

Tree of Life’s targets are much more refined, typical for small businesses who specialize in small segments. For demographics they market towards 20-65 years in age, all gender identities, physically healthy and active, all races, those who own space (specifically in Southern California or related climates), and mid to upper income levels. Psychographic they market towards plant enthusiasts and hobbyists, plant educated people (informal or formal), people who enjoy the outdoors and outdoor activity, those educated or experienced with the weather/climate/growing of the Southern California type of climate, people who value their local ecosystems, and environmentally friendly people. 

The obvious differences are the broad and narrow scopes that each website targets. Armstrong sells plants that do and don’t fit in the growing zone and climate of Southern California as well as offering a wide range of indoor houseplants. Tree of Life focuses explicitly on the Souther California climate and growing zone and have specialized their products to that very reduced zone of offerings. Armstrong has plants, activities, and products for apartment owners, home owners, hobbyist, professionals, and even classes for kids. Whereas Tree of Life focuses on hobbyist and professionals who are curating specifically planned out and educated choice horticulture endeavors. 

The subtle differences are more along the lines of the design and aesthetics. Armstrong is clearly a mass appeal corporately designed website that is bright, easy to navigate, and lists classes, products, locations, online catalogues, and blog references. Tree of Life is a bit less professional, not badly designed, but not as clear or professionally put together text wise or graphic wise. Its straightforward and makes clear that they hyper focus on upper level gardeners and horticulture enthusiasts. 

While I think both businesses would welcome all customers, I don’t think there is intended cross over. Armstrong is great for even experienced home gardeners but Tree of Life is really meant for Southern California focuses horticulture professionals and semi-professionals. The tone and message of Armstrong conveys a welcoming atmosphere and almost a message of a step up from a big box garden center. Tree of Life conveys a slightly more serious and educated atmosphere while passing along a message professional understanding and community.

Week 3B - Developing a Brand

 Starting with the development of my brand, I would need to research unmet market needs and find both a consumer base and need that I can personally connect with or get behind. I feel that in order to have a successful business your passion, care, or emotion have to be invested in it somehow to feel fulfilled and dedicated to its success. I wouldn't want myself as the face of the brand, I'm more interested in a logo that can be shared and connected with by people of all walks of life. In plain terms - I am a white woman of a certain level of privilege. 

I am mostly interested in starting a non-profit and I have the experience and privilege to know that young, white women are not going to always be the people benefiting from a service I could fund and provide outreach with. I wouldn't use a tagline -  I think that non-profits as a whole can mean different things to different people (community, survival, support, connections, etc.) and a tagline would box in to much what people could connect with. 

As far as colors and fonts I would focus mostly on softer, light hearted, and gender-neutral colors and font types. I would want to provide a sense of comfort, peace, joy, and escape without marketing solely towards one specific gender or demographic. People seeking help from a non-profit have values, a sense of self, and pride and I would never want someone to reconsider my services or outreach based solely on how accessible or comfortable they felt being part of the community. I also think that bright punchy colors or font would almost commercialize or make a cartoony statement of the help I want to provide. 

I think overall I want an aesthetic of welcoming warmth and community energy. I would want the people receiving outreach from me to feel a part of my family, a part of my life, and to feel that they matter and are not just numbers. I believe that respect and empowerment are important parts of outreach and non-profit work. I don't want people who interact with my non-profit to feel as if they are taking but that they are receiving support and love from those who are truly interested in their well being. 

While I don't have a set idea, demographic, or business yet that I would like to brand I do know the feelings I want to incorporate which I think is a great roadmap for moving forward. I can use that map to make decisions about marketing, branding, verbiage, media, and channels for sharing. I am better able to evaluate the success I want, as well as failures I may encounter, in terms of how I want to make others feel and how I want them to view me. This will lead to the best decision making and decisions that I can come up with. 

Week 3A Aesthetics, Design, and Branding

 Poor Designed and Hard to Use

https://sandiego.craigslist.org/

https://best-electronics-ca.com/

The first potential problems that both of these websites share are the blocks of text with little breaks and hard to read continuous texts. Both websites lack hierarchy, and really any lack of logical listing of information on the pages. Craigslist is the most current posts first and the Best Electronics site is just a non-updating outdated stream on information that has no breaks or segmentation. Both of these two above issues tie in into a proximity issue whereas all information is jumbled together and you'd have to go over the text many times (and click many times) to navigate to what you need to find. 

These websites do not come across as well designed and more seem to have been a quick, one time design and launch process with no more thought or improvement. You get the sense that while scrolling user comfort was not thought about and its more a hope that the intended audience may eventually figure out what they hope to find or then move on. If there were less words, more catchy graphics, and even an easier "site map" to lead the user from page to page, the experience and usage would be greatly increased. The websites could definitely use an update, overall, and a reinvestment into what users find when they access the site.

Well Designed and Easy to Use

http://apple.com

http://www.toyota.com/

These websites are clearly well planned, created, maintained, and invested in. Apple's website plays right into their aesthetic, tying the brand together and creating a solid sense of user comfortability and ease of access. Toyota creates a sense of excitement, attraction, and encouragement to purchase a vehicle and explore options. Both have well organized categories of information, no overwhelming blocks of text, and a straightforward path to get from the first page of the website through the end desire (be that a sale, contact of the company, or post-sale support). While the concept and contrast are wildly different, you know immediately what the site is for and why you are there. Both share elements in repetition in branding, slogans, and familiar imaging that are a constant subtle reminder of who designed the website and who is providing the excellent service. 

Its clear that in this digital age that the website design and branding directly feed into ones willingness and ability to use a website and continue to patronize a business or brand. Well organized information that utilized easily tracked concepts can lead a user down a path designed by marketing to build loyalty or make sales. There is little frustration accrued by the customer when navigating the good sites however one could very quickly become fed up with the bad sites and give up/navigate elsewhere to try to meet their needs. I would also be more apt to share the resources and good websites with friends and family than I would the bad sites. 

Week 2B - Business Research

 Businesses Chosen: 

Hostess Brands, Inc.
Milk Bar Store
Bpatisserie
Angelo Brocato
Petite Madeline Bakery

Hostess Brands, Inc. 

1. https://www.hostessbrands.com/

2. Hostess Brands, Inc. is an international (American based) giant retail bakery. They specialize in prepackaged, individual serving, commercial snack cakes and baked goods. 

3. Social Media (none listed on website): https://www.instagram.com/hostess_snacks/?hl=en , https://www.facebook.com/Hostess/ , https://twitter.com/hostess_snacks?lang=en  - Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook are where Hostess has a social media presence but they are mostly active on Facebook and Instagram. The last posts for both of those mediums were 09/05 however their Twitter was last active on 07/08 which is a LONG pause when it comes to Social Media. Twitter has a little over 116k followers, Instagram has 225k followers, and Facebook has 1.1 million followers. Overall - the profiles are not as active as you'd think. Their Facebook had a pause (before 09/05) that started on August 18th. Their Instagram last had a post before 09/05 on 08/23. 

4. I think that overall Hostess is not as social media savvy as they should be, and I definitely think that they could better use social media across all platforms to connect with customers and better sell their brand to a new generation. Twitter is a great way for brands to closely connect with customers through humor and more individualized character and I think that their Twitter could be much better utilized to draw in younger demographic customers. 

Milk Bar

1. https://milkbarstore.com/

2. Milk Bar began as a United States bakery that was built in conjunction with a restaurant that expanded to a stand alone bakery, then expanded to multiple locations, then grew to begin shipping to customers and selling through large grocery stores. Products like ice cream, cookies, and cakes can be shipped domestically and internationally while stores are all United States based. 

3. Social Media (not listed on website): https://www.instagram.com/milkbarstore/?hl=en , https://business.facebook.com/pg/milkbarstore/posts/ , https://twitter.com/milkbarstore?lang=en , https://www.tiktok.com/@milkbarstore?lang=en - Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter are the four active social media profiles for Milk Bar. Their Instagram, with 846k followers, has almost daily postings (sometimes more than one in a day). The Milk Bar TikTok has 224k followers and sees 3-5 posts a month roughly. Milk Bar's Twitter has 60k followers and has between five and ten tweets a month. Finally, Milk Bar's Facebook has 108k followers, but hasn't had a post since December of 2021. 

4. I think that Milk Bar really focuses on the social media that serves their brand well, as well as what connects them to their target demographic. Their goods photograph and record well, so using platforms that specialize and prioritize those types of goods are the best place to advertise and sell. The typical customer tends to be younger and I'm not surprised that they don't put a lot of effort into their Facebook as its not considered a "younger person" friendly platform these days.

Bpatisserie

1. https://bpatisserie.com/

2. Bpatisserie is a French Style American bakery that is well known in the pastry industry while only having a physical location in San Francisco combined with some small shipping orders. 

3. Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/bpatisserie/?hl=en , https://www.facebook.com/b.patisserie , https://twitter.com/b_patisserie?lang=en . Twitter is by far the least used, and the most abandoned, social media profile of Bpatisserie (2.7k followers). The last tweet or activity was 2017 and I don't foresee much more usage coming from it. Their Facebook with 10k followers had one post in July of 2022 with a break before that of slightly over a year (earlier in July of 2021). Their 38k follower Instagram has only slightly better stats with 1-3 posts a month roughly. 

4. Based on what I know about the business, I'm not overly shocked about their lack of social media presence or acumen. This is a business that focuses on their art, what they specialize in, and I think would view social media as almost beneath their brand. They rely on word of mouth, hype, industry knowledge, and local/tourist customer bases to continue to bring in business. 

Angelo Brocato

1. https://www.angelobrocatoicecream.com/

2. Angelo Brocato is a regional/cultural bakery started and based in New Orleans for over a hundred years. It is a neighberhood staple focusing on Italian pastries and sweets following long traditions to continue a brand of family favorites and comfort sweets. 

3. Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/angelobrocatoicecream/?hl=en , https://twitter.com/angelobrocatos . Angelo Brocato's Instagram is really the only profile I'd consider active, with 3.8k followers, and they post 3-5 times a month. I mentioned their Twitter here but after being created in 2014 ( only 140 followers ) it was abandoned after being used a handful of times. 

4. I am not shocked with their lack of social media presence, but included them because of it as a way to demonstrate that some businesses have learned how to thrive without keeping up with social media. Any local or well traveled tourist to New Orleans knows Brocatos, frequents it often, and recognizes it for its old world charm and decidedly slow pace when it comes to technology and keeping up with the times. This character, charm, and tradition have built a strong customer base that would rather come in, get their number, pick out their pastries, and sit with a cup of espresso before heading back home to share in their goodies. A true local legend, Brocatos doesn't require social media to connect with customers and continue their thriving local business. 

Petite Madeline Bakery

1. https://www.petitemadelinebakery.com/

2. Petite Madeline Bakery is a small town French style bakery located in Oceanside. It is an enigma, in its market, because it focuses on tiny, french sweets in a market saturated by ocean, health food, and sunshine. 

3. Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/PetiteMadelineBakery/ , https://www.instagram.com/petitemadelinebakery/?hl=en . This bakery has a Facebook following of 3.2k followers and is quite hit or miss on posting. There has been a freeze in posting since April, for a month or two before that there were 1-3 posts a month, but then another few month freeze. Their Instagram has a few hundred more followers at 3.8k and they seem to prefer that social media platform to update with daily or every other day posts since its inception. 

4. I think that one would have to consider the type of business Petite Madeline Bakery is when evaluating their social media presentation. When reading about the business in news and on their own website - its a mother/daughter duo passion project and I don't personally think that they are interested in growing or scaling above a small community cafe/bakery project. Word of mouth, repeat customers, and passerbys really are their bread and butter and their Instagram is just active enough to keep those customers up to date on their day to day. 

Overall, I was not shocked by the research or really what I found. I feel like once a business gets as large or international as Hostess, social media can really be a back burner because they have already saturated the market and whatever sales/new products become available are directly available to the customer in store. Milk Bar is a good case study in new generation popular business because they have harnessed the power of their strongest platforms and can connect quickly with customers. They also stay relevant by keeping up with trends and catching attention with partnerships and promotions (i.e. their summer Taco Bell collaboration). 

Bpatisserie is a specialized concept bakery that really focuses on their artwork, passion, and the sales area almost an afterthought and way to fund the pursuit of their passions. Their social media, when used, is focused on showcasing their talent/skill versus trying to make a sale or bring in a customer base. Angelo Brocato is a great case study in small cultural bakeries that are able to thrive and build a stable customer base without using much social media as its a business that builds on tradition and social media would in some ways mar that ideal. Lastly, Petite Madeline Bakery is a great showing of how small community businesses can use minimal social media to stay connected and how small businesses can work social media to their optimal needs without focusing on it to much due to no growth being planned or anticipated.

Week 2 Part A: Communication Between Business & Consumer

 Social media not only increases your chances of being heard or helped by a company, it increases the visibility of the businesses’ problem solving skills and customer valuation. You can tweet, for instance, about a business and due to the social visibility via tags, mentions, and following businesses aim to turn negative feedback around. “Dirty Laundry” so to speak greases the squeaky wheel of feedback replies. In the past, business transactions and experiences were very private. Even a customer sharing with a small circle of their closest friends and family wouldn’t seriously cause any problems. Now your business can quickly show up to hundreds, thousands, or even millions negatively. 

I think business reviews, ironic compared to what I wrote above, are more often than not used incorrectly and abused by customers. Customer’s are not always right, we live in an age of instant gratification, and we as people tend to forget the humanity of others once money is passing hands. A lot of reviews I read for complaints that a preference wasn’t met at a restaurant, for example, or that a customer felt entitled to concessions for minor reasons. I think its incredibly important to peruse all reviews available critically, as well as use the ability to review so publicly with discretion and understanding. 

I always leave positive reviews if my review is positive! I love point out things that are memorable or worthwhile and sharing those with others. Not exactly a business once could argue, but I seriously enjoy leaving book reviews after I finish them. I can get so many of my thoughts out, connect with others, and even help the author with sales potentially. If I do have a negative experience, I try hard to highlight what was good and what I think could be better. I refrain from being demeaning or disrespectful. 

I think that calm, consistent, positive, and helpful tone are all vital when responding to one’s own business reviews. Harsh language, aggressive behavior, or rude interactions can cause you to lose customers who may of otherwise had a great experience. I think its important to strive for and encourage positive reviews as well as by addressing the concerns if the negative ones.