Ledbetter Chile

Andres Aguirre

Ashlee Mather

Steven Strong

Ledbetter Chile Listening Analysis

Mission Statement: Ledbetter Chile has yet to come up with a mission statement, but we are working with them to make one. They are a family-oriented company and value community involvement. They want to emphasize the freshness and quality of their chile.

Currently, the business is being run by Rick and Evelyn Ledbetter with Facebook being the only social media they have. The Facebook page has 1,296 likes and the page shows that they typically reply within a day to messages. Evelyn runs the Facebook page. On pages 27 and 28, Kim says that for a brand to have a good social media presence, they should have a leader, word artisan, creative guru, social designer, and data analyst. Evelyn fills all of these roles within her company's Facebook page. According to Kim chapter 2, an organization should “interact with users, respond to questions, [and] share content from the community.

The main audience that the Ledbetter Chile Facebook page reaches are people who are between 30-65 years old. Evelyn posts almost daily on Facebook, reminding her customers/followers when they sell green chile at the local markets in Portales and Clovis. Evelyn does a great job of responding to comments quickly and being active on her page. They post a lot of pictures and videos of their crops which get a lot of interaction on Facebook. Their videos have received an average of 1,425 views since 2018 which goes to show they receive a good amount of attention. They also post recipes of foods with green chile. Evelyn discussed with our group that she would like to reach a younger audience. Making an Instagram account could help by being more relevant since younger people use Instagram more often.

SWOT Analysis: A strength that the company has is their Facebook page where they are great at responding to comments and messages. A weakness is that Facebook is the company’s only social media page and that they have no mission statement or official crisis response plan. Opportunities are another social media page (Instagram), a website, more community involvement, participating in the WIC program, and partnering with other businesses. Threats are bad weather, the chile getting someone sick, and other growers.

Since it is just Rick and Evelyn running the business, they never felt the need to come up with a brand guide or employee handbook. Ledbetter Chile has not dealt with many negative customers and has not made anyone sick with their chile. They do lack a crisis response plan in case something like that happens and we will work with them to come up with one.

Ledbetter Chile has received positive feedback and reviews from customers and the public. The company’s Facebook page is full of positive comments. They have been featured on the Roosevelt Review in 2018 and on The Eastern New Mexico News dating back since 2009. This is really good for their image and reinforces that relationship between business to consumer showing that they are involved locally. Overall, they have a very good social landscape (Kim p. 32).

Competition: The competition that the company has is Big Jim Farms in Albuquerque, Walmart, Albertsons, Farmers Country Market, and other local growers that usually stay around for a season or two. Big Jim Farms has both Facebook and Instagram pages as well as a nice website. We have gone through Big Jim Farms’ social media as recommended by Kim on page 45 and we have analyzed how they run their Facebook and it seems that the audiences are similar to each other in that they’re around the same age range. Big Jim Farms does a great job of keeping up with their online presence and has multiple outlets. This shows that if Ledbetter Chile created a website and an Instagram it would benefit their business.

Ledbetter does a great job by being involved locally with other restaurants by selling green chile to local restaurants such as Marks Grill, El Rancho, and Do Drop In. Other potential influencers could be other restaurants that aren’t already involved. One thing we discussed is that they could post about the restaurants that use their green chile on social media to promote other businesses and show their involvement with the community. For example, Do Drop In can post something that shows their use of Ledbetter Chile and tag them and vice versa. This will possibly cause followers to be more aware of Ledbetter Chile and it could also produce more followers to each social media account.

Strategic Design

Section One:

· Social Profile Branding (Facebook)

· About Section: The about section shows that they are a Food and Beverage Company and says, “Bringing you news and updates of locally grown Ledbetter chile including green chile and dried red pods.” It also shows that they typically reply to messages within a few hours.

· Profile Photos and Thumbnails: The profile photo is the two owners of the company in their field holding a bucket of chile. The cover photo is a nice photo of some beautiful red and green chiles. The profile photo and cover photos are both good, but the profile picture hasn’t been changed since 2017 and the cover photo hasn’t been changed since 2018.

· Vanity URLs: The URL is simple and easy to remember. (facebook.com/ledbetterchile). Once Instagram and website are created it will follow the same outline.

· Company Connections: There are no company connections yet since Ledbetter Chile does not have a website or another social media page aside from one on Facebook. Once a website and another social media account are created, they will all have links to each other.

· Rich Media: According to Kim p. 58, rich media includes photos, infographics, videos, etc. Photos or videos are included with almost every post.

· Content Distribution: The amount of content and distribution on the Facebook page is good. She posts every day, especially before going to the market to remind consumers when they are selling and about weather updates. She posts entertaining and educational videos/pics of chile. She posts recipes of chile keeping the conversation going with consumers. She immediately replies to comments and has good two-way communication.

· Vision Statements

· We will use Facebook to continue business and relationships with the current audience in order to increase sales.

· We will use Instagram to promote the product with a new audience in order to expand our consumer base.

· We will use a website to create a main page to promote the organization in order to enlarge business opportunities.

· Social Media Voice

· Brand Persona: Sincere, family-oriented, community-based, lighthearted

· Tone: Personable and friendly. Kim p. 61 says “tone should reflect the brand persona and be uniquely appropriate to the specific audience the brand is engaging”, which it does.

· Intentional Language: “Recognizing the purpose of the social media content” (Kim p. 61) is something that they do very well. They don’t try to sound like green chile snobs, and they address any problems they are presented with.

· Community Policy and Employee Guidelines

· We think that having a basic community policy will be handy and good to have just in case.

Section Two

· Social Media Campaign Goals:

1. Create an Instagram in time for the Holidays

· The current audiences on the Facebook page are mostly people ranging from 35-50 years old. The Instagram would reach a younger audience.

· The first SMART objective is to get between 100-200 followers on Instagram by the end of the year. Creating an Instagram account, showing Evelyn how it works, going on a follow spree, and post on Facebook a screenshot of the Instagram page and say, “We made an Instagram make sure to go follow us!”

· The second SMART objective is to make 6 Instagram posts by the end of the project by taking pictures of the fields and interviewing Evelyn and/or her husband, recipes, etc.

2. Create a dialogue on Facebook that will continue when the chile is not in season.

· The audience is anyone who follows or likes the Ledbetter Chile Facebook page.

· The first SMART objective is to get between 50-75 comments on Facebook posts that are asking questions/seeking interaction by coming up with posts that are asking the audience a question or anything encouraging audience interaction on posts.

· The second SMART objective is to post 5 polls/questions by the end of the project

3. Get a Wix or Weebly page up and running.

· There are currently no audiences for the website since it has not been created but potential audiences will include both people from Facebook and Instagram. (Older and younger). It could also reach people who are further away looking online where to find fresh picked green chile.

· The first SMART objective would be to get 20 views or visitors to the website page.

· A strategy would be to post about the website on Facebook or Instagram.

· The second SMART objective is to get 5 comments/reviews on the website by the end of the year.

· A strategy would be adding a comment/review section on website and ask a question to get people interacting.

· Content Calendar

One thing that maybe affects our group differently than others is that Ledbetter Chile is only a seasonal business. It depends on many factors but the growing and selling season is ideally from August through December. While in season it is important to be constantly posting and interacting with consumers on Facebook/Instagram, but when not in season, it would be best to slow down on posts to not annoy followers and drive them away.

1).

Nov 17 Create Insta, Facebook post of Insta, and first post on Insta (profile from Facebook)

Nov. 19 Post of green Chile reminding to follow

Nov 21. Post of red chile pods for sale on Facebook and Insta

Nov 24. Holiday post on both platforms “Buy red chile pods in time for Thanksgiving”

Nov 27. Recipe post of holiday dishes involving red pods or green chile

Nov 28. Thanksgiving post to be more friendly and positive image

2).

Nov 17. Post red and green chile “what’s better red or green comment down below”

Nov 20.A possible raffle to win red pods “Comment like and share to win x amount of red chile pods”

Nov 23. Post a favorite dish “Here is one of our favorite dishes what’s yours?”

Nov 26. Post red chile pods “Make sure to get your red chile pods in time for Thanksgiving”

3).

Nov 17 Discuss which website provider

Nov 20. Discuss layout of website and potential designs

Nov 23. Add contact info and hours

Nov 25. Add pics and videos

Nov 30. Post social media of website

After discussion with Evelyn we decided to do a hybrid campaign of creating an Instagram and posting on there and also creating a website for Ledbetter. We chose to do some of everything, posting and creating a website.

Section Three:

Our campaigns fit the brand personality of Ledbetter Chile by expanding and engaging with the audience and spreading the word about green chile and if/when/where they’re going to be at the market. The Instagram page will potentially help to engage a younger audience than Facebook. This will help the dialogue by expanding it. Being on multiple platforms will create different conversations on each platform. This will also build the credibility of the brand by showing that they are on multiple platforms to fit different peoples’ preferences. As long as the brand continues to follow the TARES model outlined by Kim on page 82, which is “truthfulness, authenticity, respect, equity, and social responsibility”, the brand will only go up from here.

Implementation and Monitoring

For the implementation and monitoring stage of the campaign, our group was in contact with Evelyn with every action. We discussed beforehand what the posts would look like with what pictures to use, what the captions to say, how to engage in two-way dialogue, etc. For the website we discussed potential layouts and examined the websites of other organizations more specifically, Big Jim Farms. She also had worked on another website in the past for another organization. She drew out a layout of what the website should consist of. We only had access to the Instagram account and website. Since she was the only one that had access to her Facebook page, we had to send her which picture to post and what the caption would say and agreed on what time to post it. On page 129 of the textbook it talks about real-time marketing (RTM), it defines it as, “the practice of creating content inspired by a current topic, trend or event.” (Kim, 2016). We based some of our posts on the holidays around the corner which were Thanksgiving and Christmas. On the Facebook page we asked about favorite recipes involving chile. In the website we incorporated those recipes so that people can visit the page and download it for themselves. We made sure she was in the loop with the posts. As the website was worked on our group showed her how it was looking and the progress of it. If there was anything she wanted to add or remove, she would tell us. She also had the link of the website to look at it if she wasn’t able to meet. As far as tracking metrics, we made sure to keep a record of growth or interaction within the platforms. We received notifications if we get more followers, comments, and tagged. “Throughout the course of a campaign, brands should engage with their social media communities and continually monitor their progress…”(pg.128) During the campaign we received comments and a tagged post. Evelyn replied to those as she has done in the past and also reposted someone who had tagged us using green chile in a dish. We had a Google Doc opened to write notes of progress if any future posts should be tweaked or anything should change. We also took screenshots of Instagram progression. It contained how many people followed, how much it increased in followers, how many likes the posts received, the amount of people it reached, the amount of impressions, profile visits, and interactions within the page or posts including clicks to the website link in the biography. One thing that our group and campaign did not realize was that an Instagram business account requires a minimum of 100 followers to view the audience section of the insights. In this section you can see more information about the followers of the page such as demographics and location.

Evaluation

Some of the preparation that went into the campaign was a SWOT analysis and formative research during the listening and strategic design phase. Through formative research we were able to figure out who the audience is, how much of a social media presence already existed for the company, the company's mission and values, the competition, and the goals that Evelyn had. By doing a SWOT analysis we figured out the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats which were all important to know.

Without the research and strategic design that was done, we would’ve been unprepared for the rest of the campaign. Because we knew what the company’s strengths and weaknesses were and how much of a social media presence, they already had we were able to decide that an Instagram and website would be best for the company. Without knowing the company’s missions, values, and goals, we wouldn’t have been able to do an effective campaign or come up with relevant posts. By understanding the company’s brand, we were able to emphasize it in the campaign instead of making posts that wouldn’t have as much of an impact on their specific audience.

For the strategic design phase, we picked a goal that was appropriate for the company’s current needs, along with audiences that needed to be involved to ensure that the goals were met. The strategies and tactics implemented during the campaign lined up with the purpose for each social media platform. The tone throughout the campaign remained the same and the social voice was in line with the company’s persona, tone, and purpose of the campaign, which is a good thing according to Kim on page 152.

In order to make the listening and strategic design phases better we could’ve done more research. Not only could we have done more search on the company itself, but we could’ve researched what other brands are doing on social media. We did research some of the competition and what their presences were like on social media, but it could have been beneficial to do even more of that type of research. We had discussed actually going out to the Ledbetter Chile farm, but we never did, and that is something that we could have done to better understand the company.

One important thing to note about the implementation phase of the campaign is that we did not completely follow the content calendar. We did make some of the scheduled posts, but not all of them. In order to work with Evelyn and still try to meet our goals, we had to improvise a bit with some of the posts. It is possible that we would’ve had more of a reach if we had posted as often as we had originally scheduled in the content calendar.

Post #1 Facebook

We posted a screenshot of the Instagram page on the Facebook page and encouraged the followers from Facebook to go like and follow the Instagram.

Likes

Shares

Comments

Reach

48

4

1

Post #2 Facebook

We posted a picture of green chile stew and asked people to comment their favorite recipes with green chile to help incorporate on the website.

Likes

Shares

Comments

37

0

7

Post #1 Instagram

We posted the cover photo from Facebook to establish our presence on Instagram.

Likes

Comments

12

1

Post #2 Instagram

We posted a picture of chile roasting saying, “Like if you love this smell.”

Likes

Comments

26

1

For posts #3 and #4 we decided to post the same things on both Instagram and Facebook around the same time.

Post #3 Facebook and Instagram

We posted a picture of red and green chile asking people to comment if they like green, red, or Christmas (both) . We took a poll in the comment section and Christmas won with 18, green had 9, red had 5, and 2 were undecided. Evelyn posted the results in the comments showing that she engaged in two-way dialogue.

Instagram Likes

Facebook Likes

Instagram Comments

Facebook Comments

14

30

4

38

Post #4 Facebook and Instagram

For the last post we posted the finished website on both platforms and a link to where they can visit the website.

Insta Likes

Facebook Likes

Insta Comments

Facebook Comments

Facebook Shares

21

110

0

3

20

Website

As far as the website analytics, we did not expect to have to purchase premium to view website analytics. But we could view how many people clicked on the link from Instagram and Facebook, giving us a rough estimate on how many website visits.

Instagram Clicks to Website

Facebook Clicks to Website

16

43

Two-Way Dialogue Audit

Since Evelyn has already had experience running her Facebook page it was natural for her to respond to comments and continue to engage in conversations. Before the campaign we had talked to her about responding to comments and we had told her to do what she normally does. Our post with the biggest comment response was Facebook post #3 when asking which chile people prefer. There was a total of 38 comments and Evelyn monitored the conversations and at the end posted the results.

Another example of two-way dialogue was when we were unexpectedly tagged in a Facebook and Instagram post during the campaign. Someone had cooked beef stir fry with green chile, posted it in and tagged Ledbetter chile. As a response Ledbetter chile screenshotted his post and thanked him for using green chile and posting about it. This is a great example of showing that Ledbetter Chile values their followers and customers. This is an example of “not only posting original content but responding when the community reacts” (Kim p. 166).

Evelyn showing support to her customers and engaging conversations with them demonstrates the work ethic of Ledbetter Chile and shows customers and followers are valued.

As far as keeping up and accomplishing our goals I think that we succeeded and performed a good campaign. We were consistent and had to adapt to our organization and the fact that business had ended for the season.

Impact

Our three main goals were to get an Instagram page up and running for the Holidays, create a dialogue on Facebook that will continue when the chile is not in season, and to get a Wix or Weebly page up or running. All three of those goals were met for this campaign. We would have been able to evaluate our impact on Facebook better if Evelyn had given us access, on Instagram if we had reached 100 followers, and on the website if we had paid for it.

The Facebook page was already doing good before the campaign, but we brought some different types of posts and ideas to it to keep Ledbetter Chile in people’s minds even when the chile isn’t in season. Gaining almost 100 followers on Instagram is a success, and that probably happened because we linked it to Facebook. Without being able to see anything about the website other than link clicks from Instagram and Facebook, having almost 60 clicks to the website between Instagram and Facebook seems successful.

Even though the amount of Instagram followers gained is a success, it also feels like a failure considering we didn’t get to 100 to be able to see the analytics, so we didn’t apply Kim’s advice on page 161. Something we could have done differently to have gone even further with our objectives would be to create a giveaway. We also could have gone to the Ledbetter Chile farm to take pictures. One problem we ran into was not having access to any new pictures beside old ones from Facebook.

For our Instagram SMART objectives, we almost met the one we set for our Instagram followers. We ended the semester with 95 followers while our goal was to gain 100. Our other SMART objective was to make six posts by the end of the year. Our final count was four. As stated above, we did not reach 100 followers, so we could not see the analytics for Instagram, which, according to Kim “is necessary for the social media team to identify the specific information that is required to measure objectives” (p. 171).

One of our Facebook SMART objectives was to gain 50-75 comments on posts that were asking questions. The post with the most amount of comments ended up being when Evelyn asked “red or green” with 38 comments, so we were more than halfway to our goal. Our second SMART objective was to post five polls by the end of the year, but we only posted one.

Our last goal for Ledbetter Chile was to create a website with the first SMART objective being to get 20 visits to the page by the end of the year. Our final tally of visits to the page was 59, with 16 coming from Instagram and 43 coming from Facebook. In chapter 6, Kim mentions that it can be useful to “develop a customized URL that can be tracked by analytic software brands to identify specific data pieces to include in the URL so that the analytics system knows how to track the information” (p. 172). That is a premium feature of Wix, however, so if Evelyn wants to pay for her custom URL in the future, she will be able to.

(This is updated a little after the campaign)

During the course of the project, we learned what a social media campaign was and all of the aspects that go into it. We learned what times were the best to post, how to view analytics across platforms, and what tools were useful to optimize our reach. We also learned some of the challenges that might have to be faced when working with an actual business. These challenges included keeping in mind what the brand persona already was and trying not to deviate from that, as well as trying to stay on top of our content calendar.

Our biggest successes were creating the Instagram page and website. These will be great tools for Evelyn to get the word out more about her chile in the coming years. Our failures included not being able to hit some of our SMART goals because of various reasons and not taking pictures to use.

Our biggest takeaways were that we got to work with a real-life brand and help them potentially expand their business, which will be helpful when we graduate, and we are able to say that we helped do this for Ledbetter Chile.

As for the future of the social media of Ledbetter Chile, we believed that they will use the Instagram before the season starts back up in August. It will be good for promoting the business to a younger demographic and using potential influencers to promote one another. We have talked to Evelyn about incorporating other businesses such as Enchantment Vineyards in her Instagram since they are already do a local green chile wine. As for the website, all of the information such as email, passwords, and access will be given to her. Between now and August she will continue to add to the website. We have talked to her about possibly purchasing premium to view analytics and to use the Google SEO to be found easier. If she does wish to go with premium, she will do it in the summertime when their business is up and running. We believe that Ledbetter Chile has learned a lot especially with the campaign. She has seen other strategies that she could use and implement into her own process. This organization benefited from this campaign by learning how to plan, make strategies, implement and monitor, and evaluate. The organization has a stronger social media presence than before and more importantly has a working professional website.