Social Media is a minefield of unexpecting applications and new trends, so keeping up with them is not the easiest. However, you have to be exceptionally quick at adapting to them before they fizzle out.
But one trend that gained traction during the early parts of the pandemic and has been sticking around is online live events and video content. Speaking for myself, it’s been delightful to follow along with it during this certificate program as brands are running with these trends and re-constructing them to fit their voice online, showcasing either their most creative or most interesting sides.
For the alcohol industry, we see many of them taking on creating video content around cocktail recipes, offering master classes with industry professionals and behind the production scenes. The video content has been beneficial in expanding brand knowledge and engaging audiences quickly on what the company is up to while they too are at home.
Hosting live events online has been a fun introduction to brand marketing in the alcohol industry. It has helped bridge the gap and offer experiences that would have been limited to geographical reasons, or frankly, not everyone has the means to take a private tour through the vineyard of Champagne, France.
It has allowed for a sort of joyous escapism during a difficult time for many that social media is often demonized for and showed the positive side. It will be exciting to see how they utilize this trend and adapt their voice and style created during the pandemic to the real world.
Have you attended any live events recently or noticed your favourite brands stepping up to the trend? Leave your comments below and share your experience!
It can be a daunting task to take on your professional image online, but it can feel impossible when you are entirely re-branding your professional image.
In late August, I’ll be embarking on a new professional journey in a new city to take a swing at following a long-awaited dream of writing and working in graphic arts. Two fields that I have no professional experience in but all the excitement and interest to explore and excel in. So here are the goals I’ll be setting for myself during the next 12 months to creating a professional online presence with a working portfolio and networking opportunities.
The importance of brand identity and how to showcase your story and voice online correctly has been a significant point of focus throughout this course.
Taking this time to establish the brand I would like to project and what kind of tone I would like to set as a new professional in this industry will help with marketing myself in a new city and help tell a better story of my work.
Instagram – Creating a visual library that accurately shows my personality and professional brand identity through colour and photography, taking inspiration from Jägermeister’s exceptional branding on Instagram and reconstructing their efforts to fit my own brand.
Twitter – Joining communities and discussions to develop an appropriate voice that reflects my humour and identity.
Blog – researching different portfolio blogs for professionals in graphic design and writing and establishing key ideas that I would like to incorporate in my website.
2. Building a Digital Portfolio
Trying out different styles, platforms, and programs to help with my brand identity decision and trying out different writing styles and techniques to add to a future portfolio. Continuity and confidence in your brand are critical in the beginning and helps to create an excellent platform to further improve and play around with your voice.
This step is a playground to try, fail, and evolve ideas and styles before committing to the next phase.
After establishing a voice on Twitter, Instagram, and other socials is the perfect time to discover where the community is online. Local connections are a high priority. The best step to make an initial impact professionally is being a part of them and engaging in the conversations happening in real-time.
Any good social media marketing manager knows to have an eye on industry professionals, businesses and enthusiasts to stay competitive. Engaging with them online can help with your efforts and an excellent way to discover trends to later reconstruct for your benefit.
Action Plan Months 5-6
4. Making Connections
Since I will be attending school for graphic arts and creative writing, I’ll be taking that opportunity to connect with industry professionals through professors, connecting with other students and alumni.
But keeping an eye out for networking events on social media to attend and create meaningful connections with whom I can then go further online. Secondly, freelance opportunities to practice my writing skills and shop them around to get peer-reviewed critique and improve for better opportunities later.
With all the above goals in play, I get to have the most fun with my online presence. Utilizing ideas and concepts that I’ve introduced in projects throughout this course, I intend on creating an exciting and unique experience with my profiles on social media.
As someone part of Generation Z, I believe professionalism and creativity go hand in hand. I see the ability to stand out online through storytelling in a multi-platform integration. It’s just about finding a seamless way of telling the story across your platforms, bringing audience and potential employers into your digital world that showcases your work and lets them experience your creativity.
How would you guys take on the task of re-branding yourself online? Leave your comments below!
A comparative case study that showcases two leading brands in the alcohol industry and the positive/negatives of their Instagram efforts over the last eight weeks: Jägermeister vs Fireball.
Alcohol brands are notorious for depicting extravagant and lush parties in their advertisements, essentially selling the mantra that you cannot party right if you do not have their product.
Some brands have done this so successfully that the party scene is an extension of their identity. Jägermeister and Fireball, to name two of the big players who dominate the party scene and whose brand identities are so closely tied to the nightlife industry that their social media marketing is obviously an orchestrated representation of the best party you’ll ever attend. Or it should be, right?
Looking at Fireball and Jägermeister’s Instagram page over two months, we will give a quick overview of Fireball’s shortcomings and how Jägermeister is dominating the platform with its exceptional social media efforts.
In 2014 Fireball made an effort to market themselves in US college towns through drinking contests and promotional events – rooting itself in the college experience and successfully at that. The only problem is, is when you decide to take on a target market such as college students, you better be prepared to continue that party online since they, on average, spend 8-10 hours on their smartphones DAILY – and 85% of them favoured social media apps like Instagram.
Fireball on Instagram is the perfect example of a big corporation joining social media because it has to. Now don’t get me wrong, they check the boxes on some good social media practices leading me to believe that there is some basic level of strategy at play. With repetition of hashtags (#Ignitethenight and #FireballFriday) and posting light-hearted humorous content in line with their target audience on topical events (Solar Eclipse, Mother’s Day, Cinco De Mio) being good choices, but is it enough to keep 110k followers interested? The answer is no.
Some of the big takeaways that I saw from Fireballs social media and their shortcomings are
Lack of links and integration between platforms.
No push for meaningful engagement on the platform from their followers.
Not participating in Industry trends such as online events, influencers, DIY at-home product suggestions, or cocktail recipes.
Cringeposts. They do not utilize the story feature to share memes and light-hearted off-the-cuff humour but instead post it as an official post online. Not a move that entirely speaks to their target market.
Jägermeister’s Instagram page is quite an impressive account to keep an eye on regarding good social media practices and how to follow trends properly to align with your brand identity.
Jägermeister is a German herbal liqueur who draws from the grunge party scene in Germany to set the tone for their Instagram presence. There, the nightlife industry is not just underground raves and over-consumption. It’s a living industry with artists, mixologists, fashion designers, musicians, event organizers and entrepreneurs that help curate an unbelievable experience – and that is the image Jägermeister continues to paint online.
One of the brand’s most significant feats in incorporating industry trends during the pandemic was their utilization of online events and, in an effort to pay it forward to the nightlife industry, used their platform to highlight some of the industry’s best in a campaign called #SaveTheNight and offering them the recourses to extend their talents globally through zoom. Reconstructing this trend to fit their branding and using their Instagram page to successfully encourage them to go to their website to book an artist for their zoom hangouts with friends.
Some of their other highlights include:
Their promotional posts are all shot in this professional club photography style making the photos look live and natural while still serving their purpose and following the brand’s identity and tone.
Excelling at industry trends with DIY cocktail recipes and videos of “meisters” offering masterclasses on multiple topics relating to Jägermeister and the nightlife industry.
They’re playful and fun, they’re edgy and cool, but they’re also exciting and good at what they’re doing.
Learning from our competitors is vital for online marketing, and Fireball could significantly grow their Instagram game with some of Jägermeister’s tricks, and so could you and your business!
What would you do differently, and what trend would you like to reconstruct for your own Social Media game?
During the progression of this course, we have had the opportunity to explore a plethora of different tools to assist us in our social media journeys. While they all serve a particular and helpful purpose, the ones that have become the most beneficial during my journey have been Brand24 and Feedly. As well as the two platforms I look to the most are Instagram and Youtube.
Instagram and Youtube are two of the most prominent visual media platforms online, and for that reason, I gather most of my news updates and information from them. Unlike other social media, these two rely on their storytelling capabilities and fall second to the clever writing of a caption or click-bait titles. Enchanting and engaging users like myself who prefer visuals over lengthy and informative text. Furthermore, with many influential companies already having well-established themselves on these platforms to appease a younger audience, it is easy to keep an eye on new trends and information as tags and trends are easy to find through similar titles or hashtags.
The user-friendly interface that Brand24 has makes it enjoyable and straightforward to read through the massive collection of listening statistics that it gathers. In addition, its customizable features easily help the user listen to precisely the information you are searching for. I found that because of the large amount of data that Brand24 gathers and its user-friendly dashboard, it often helped answer questions I hadn’t yet asked or spark ideas for future content.
Feedly was a pleasant surprise and a feature I had not known about until this course. Any RSS feed, I’m sure, works wonders, but Feedly has worked flawlessly for me and was crucial to help filter through information while collecting it for our other courses. In addition, its features were so convenient that I now use it as a one-stop-shop for all my news networks that I check daily.
Social media success paints this treasure trove of flashy and eye-catching content with *clickbait* titles and odd trends with short life spans, but can it be more than that? Can we engage the audience through storytelling?
While quick attention-grabbing content is how we attract a new audience, back in COM0011, we were drilling the importance of creating engaging titles and blogs to evoke immediate engagement from our fellow students. But as we progressed through this course, we see the shift from just popular content creation to quality content creation – the latter forcing us to test our storytelling abilities and for a good reason.
As previously mentioned, attention-grabbing content is how we get new readers and old readers clicking our articles or engaging with our content. Yet, storytelling is how we hook them in—turning them from a reader to a participant in the conversation. Storytelling has such a massive part in expanding the content’s capabilities online and can project a much more meaningful and influential perspective on our audience.
Although the topic of my content is certainly not set in stone, the way I’d like to tell my stories is through the integration of multiple platforms where one story doesn’t end on one blog post or one tweet but rather in the realm of social media. Content stretching from platform to platform helps paint the greater purpose of the centrepiece, so to say.
Utilizing each platform for its strengths to garner interest and attention to the digital content centrepiece that I have created. I believe playing around with multiple media is a strength for many creators online and that seamless integration is how you get a larger audience pool. Then your ability to tell a fantastic story is how you keep them enthralled and coming back to you for more.
I am still in the beginning stages of my career and the daunting question of “what do you do?” is something I feel like I can never answer as the direction is always shifting. But I often find it much easier to answer the “why do you do it?”, why do I stay in the hospitality industry, which is in every definition of the word exhausting.
I continue to stay in this industry because I love people, and something that always resonated with me was a manager of mine who pointed out the authentic moments people share with you when they go out to eat every day. Memories that get lost to you as just another Monday at work can be their most treasured and monumental day in life that they climaxed the celebrations for by going out to eat or go on vacation. Horribly dramatic and goosy, I’m well aware, but that’s why I chase different positions but always in the house of people and experiences.
Aside from the emotional pull the industry has on me, it’s the freedom that keeps me indulged and thus far blessed me with the life experiences I’ve had to date. Those being an intern at a hotel in Italy for a summer, studying hospitality in the heart of the Swiss Alps, and when time and circumstances allow, hopefully, my borderless journey to figure out what it is that I do become ever closer.
Personal branding sometimes feels like the impossible task to not paint yourself colourfully with clichés and highlight only your best moments when you are still creating your brand. I myself often get stuck with overly general terms like hard-worker and creative, but as I’m continuing to write my own professional story in the hospitality industry, which is still only in the first few chapters, those terms seem to fit me best for the brand I am today.
My stand-out feature is my creativity and drive to learn new things continually. Recently I’ve been working on diversifying my skillsets and keeping an open mind on what my future may look like. For now, that future looks like learning about social media and different marketing channels and learning new languages (currently that being french).
What would my colleagues say about me?
That I am an incredibly hard-worker. “and I’m painfully aware of how vague that is. But the thing is… it’s my biggest asset and the reason why I excel in my workplaces. The passion I have for my industry and the drive I get from inspire my hard work, and I often find myself going above and beyond to help my colleagues and superiors make work as proficient as possible. From creating menus, organization, and bookkeeping, I simply like to stay busy and do it with purpose.
What am I most proud of?
I’m most proud of my inability to stop. It’s a blessing and a curse, but it is what has helped me create exciting events, successful projects for school, good relationships and success in my industry, and some lifetime achievements in sports.
B2C transactions is the most common way we average joe’s purchase products. Especially with the pandemic, the ease of online shopping, and the massive influence social media has on our purchasing habits; it’s only expected that certain companies have grabbed our attention. For myself, it was the card game We’re not really strangers.
It is a purpose-driven card game, and it’s all about making meaningful connections
Creator, Koreen Odiney
2 examples of how WNRS uses their engagement online to contributed to their success. Focusing on Instagram.
1. Using repetition and imagery to create brand identity
What jumps out at you initially when looking at their posts are their meaningful and thought-provoking quotes and questions, sometimes hidden with humour and sarcasm. It’s a continuation of tone and conversation that the game guides you to have and the brand continues to have with its followers online.
They use the repetition of the colour red throughout their posts to connect deeper with their brand’s products, which is in a red box.
2. They rely on people making emotional buying decisions and marketing to a large target audience.
The warning that’s attached to their post and written in the bio is “feelings may arise”. They’ll often share messages from players and how the game helped them finally opening up to their loved ones in their daily reels.
Their target market is very large and is geared to anyone wanting to build stronger connections with people or themselves. The highlights reel is used to market their products those being the game itself, some expansion packs and a self-reflection kit.
WRNS is a thought leader for vulnerability on social media, and their audience loves it. If your brand aligns with their message, you might want to consider taking some notes!
Communication styles and techniques were the topics of discussion this week. Between “Grammar, Spelling, & Punctuation” and the “inverted pyramid,” we’ve been left with many ideas to ponder for our writing. Yet, one of the topics jogged a memory from my public speaking days that goes hand in hand with this week’s material. Que theTHREE RHETORICAL APPEALS.
First, to jog your memory, the various levels of readers referred to the four stages that audiences go through while reading an article. Our job is to turn them from Elementary/ Inspectional readers to Analytical and Syntopical ones – we do this by being clear and concise. Achieving this is simple in theory, but could there be a perfect formula to promising you, readers who consume your content syntopically!? This is where the rhetorical appeals come in.
Welcome! Ethos, Pathos, and Logos.
Ethos refers to the value and credibility of your words. Be that tapping into a joint ideology between you and your reader, or your credibility from life experiences, work, education, the list goes on.
Pathos is the effect on readers’ emotions. Could be descriptive storytelling that evokes a feeling from the audience. It grabs their attention from the start and reels them in for the rest of the article.
Logos, which conveniently refers to logic, is about using reason and rationality to solidify your point. Using logic, careful structure, and objective evidence can be a key to gaining respect from your readers.
If you want to persuade your audience to believe in your content and develop opinions around it, you have to find ways of compelling them and craft your article well enough to captivate them for the long haul. Using a perfect balance of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos mashed with the communication techniques outlined to us, we will be a force to be reckoned with online.
At the beginning of the year, you probably had a list that was miles long with events, promotions, and ways to keep customers engaged and coming back for more than just one of your signature drinks. But like so many other bars globally, you’re being hit not once, not even twice, but now three times with restrictions and early closures. The safety of the public is essential but surviving this quarter is becoming increasingly more difficult. But remember all is not lost, and there are still ways to keep business flowing and hopefully turn things around to ensure you and your employee’s prosperity as soon as the time allows for it!
You probably didn’t consider if the list of new ideas created at the start of the year could be made digital and still be useful. The pandemic has forced professionals in the bar industry to re-think their strategies and have had to take on the world of social media to connect with customers and expected to be experts in it seemingly overnight.
As tricky as some of the challenges have been, it’s allowed us to breathe for a second and look at how things have unfolded since your business started—maybe realising to pick up new skills to help your business or just for personal growth. But if it was your realisation of how poorly you’ve engaged with your customers on Social Media, then don’t sweat it; it’s not too late!
Here are 4 tips to boost your Social Media Game not only to keep your audience but to grow your reach in the process!
Where is your audience and do you write for them?
As much as it should be about you and your content, it’s also about finding your customers online and resonating with them! Understand that now more than ever, people are looking for ways to escape reality even on Social Media, and what do we do best? Create fun experiences for people to disconnect from their busy lives. With a 362% increase in social media engagement for the big alcohol brands, we can see the interest is there. It’s just about tapping into the interest for your gain.
Growing your Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram presence is absolutely the way to go! Maybe start a blog to write about your bar and share content that matches your brand and promote your business.
At the same time, be experimental and check out all the options available. With the new buzz around Tiktok, it is a shame not to look into it. One TikTok’ r called Spiritedla has 162.9K followers and teaches them all about cocktails, clothes & boozy etiquette. It’s an excellent place to create light-hearted and fun content for a newer (of age) generation with a short attention span (including myself). This very retro aesthetic bartender does it perfectly.
That said, it is for you to decide where to market yourself. Just be sure to be fun and creative in your Social Media presence and locate yourself amidst your community and your customers. Promoting yourself across all the platforms is a must and using websites like Linktree is perfect for just this. A website specialized in gathering all your links into one digestible webpage to showcase all your platforms for easy maneuvering. It’s ideal for keeping customers connecting to you and all the spaces you are active!
To-go drinks
Although regulations are strict and the party has to end much earlier than we’re used to, that shouldn’t mean the after-party continued safely at home afterwards can’t extend until later. 🤭
Apotek Restaurant in downtown Reykjavík has been doing just that. Their bartenders offering some of the best drinks in the downtown area, getting a bottle of their Dill&Gin cocktail to share with the household has been a huge success! Offering this To-Go cocktail can keep your bar relevant during lockdowns as more people are promoting and taking part in at-home happy hours, brunches, and just boozy skype calls. Why not be the ones offering the drinks?
Social Media listening can be a bit of a daunting tool if you’re just getting started and building your audience online. But introducing the 5 W’s of Social Media Listening to your online technique, keeping in mind the Who, What, When, Where and Why while creating content and engaging with your customers will reap the long-haul benefits. Many businesses are using this time to understand what the customers want without all the added pressure of curating that in-person experience.
Keep your content lighthearted!
We’ve all gotten the Covid-19 fatigue. We’re all just getting tired of hearing about the hardships, and you shouldn’t be adding to it. Even though in March of this year, content that addressed the virus had some of the highest engagement statistics, this is not the time to be a pesky reminder of how scary the state of the world is. We have to go back to our roots as curators of experiences and bring the customers virtually back to us and away from their real-world struggles.
Empirical Spirits does this well by showing us behind the scenes of their R & D team and little teasers of what’s to come for their new launches.
Be sure to leave your favourite local bars linked below so we can all support our small businesses and let me know what kind of boozy online adventure (brunch, zoom call, happy hour) you’ve taken part in?
Facebook: CALLING ALL BAR OWNERS! Getting exhausted over lockdowns? Try these 4 Social Media Tips to keep your audience engaged and knocking on your doors!
Twitter: CALLING ALL BAR OWNERS! Here are 4 social media tips to get you back on your feet! https://bit.ly/3dyUtvC
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 