Case Study: How can you develop a niche and engaged community on Instagram
The Problem:
One of my final projects in my Strategic Marketing Management class was to start an Instagram page. I was responsible for creating content, growing and tracking engagement, and building a solid community. I decided to create Soulo Musica, a page dedicated to recommending Spanish songs to teach about Mexican culture through music. My target audience was bilingual Mexican-Americans that would be nostalgic for this music and music lovers who wanted to expand their music taste. It proved to be difficult to receive engagement and new followers. Without these, how would I establish a sense of community through my page? These were the biggest challenges in this project.
The Solution:
I discovered many new ideas and possible solutions through the book The Marketing Rebellion by Mark Schaefer and discussions in class. First, I learned about the power of reels and the algorithm Instagram uses. Posting reels directly on the “Reels” page instead of on your feed would drive more traffic to your page. Second, I realized I had to change my content strategy by re-writing captions to sound more human and casual. I also changed some of my posts depending on the success of other posts. The more active you are on Instagram, the more growth you will see on your page.
The Outcome:
It has been a couple of weeks since I started this project and there has been slow growth. Since it is an ongoing project, I will keep implementing new tactics to continue to grow my account and create an engaged community. After following some of those solutions, the number of accounts reached increased and so did the engagement in posts. The number of followers and story interactions has remained stagnant. After taking the LinkedIn Learning Course: Social Media Marketing: ROI, my next goal is to provide a call-to-action in my captions to encourage people to comment on my posts. This would help in developing a community of people who relate to similar interests.
Case Study: How do you increase social media followers and engagement without a marketing budget?
The Problem:
In my first ever internship, the company needed digital marketing assistance to increase their followers on Instagram, subscribers on YouTube, and engagement on Facebook. Since it was a fairly new company, they had almost no online presence and very low starting numbers.
This task was exceptionally challenging because we did not have a budget, we were up against many powerful competitors, and all of the social media was in a different language. We were a team of 4 students and I was chosen as the team leader. We only had about 4 months to achieve results.
The Solution:
After a couple of brainstorming sessions and meetings with the CEO, we came up with a solid plan. First, we did intense market research to learn more about the target audience the company was trying to reach. We had to find a group of people in Taiwan that would be willing to pay for online coding classes. Once we figured that out, we began to redesign their social media to fit with the overall goal.
On Instagram, we realized that the feed was too messy and unprofessional. In order to look like an official business, the feed had to be more neat and controlled. We created two alternating-templates that would be published every day. We also created covers for their highlights. We did research on relevant topics in order to post content that would be of interest to our audience. We also made it a point to engage with other pages and our own followers.
For YouTube, our main focus was to design the thumbnail of each video with aspects that would attract more views. One of these was to include a picture of a person in the thumbnail and make the rest of it stand out. Each week we had to create a completely new thumbnail in order to avoid looking repetitive.
Facebook was the ultimate tool to bring it all together. We would schedule posts to be concurrent with uploads on other social media pages. On Facebook we were able to engage the most with the audience since the page reached more people and they would comment questions. Since Facebook is the most used platform in Taiwan, we had to make sure it was active and engaging.
Other activities that were done included conducting a giveaway, contacting Instagram influencers in the industry for a shoutout, promoting courses on Discord, holding a web seminar through Zoom, and posting on online forums.
The Outcome:
After 4 months of steady work and effort, we were able to achieve impressive results. These outcomes were attained with absolutely no monetary cost to the company. For Instagram, the followers increased from 12 to 50, which our goal was 30. Subscribers on YouTube went from 32 to 93, resulting in a 190.6% increase.
Both of the feeds were transformed to be more cohesive and attractive. It completely changed the demeanor of the company and displayed their professionalism. According to YouTube analytics, the engagement per video went up 27% resulting in a 472% increase in total watch time. We were able to successfully connect with influencers and receive a shoutout. Besides these statistics, the overall value we gave to the company was reducing the amount of time and effort spent on each post by providing templates. We also determined which activities brought results and which activities did not. Now, they could focus on those that worked and not waste their time trying the ones that did not. We also provided more detailed information on the target market and how to connect with them. We finished by offering some recommendations we believed would be helpful based on our experience and what they could continue to do to keep growing.
Case Study: How can we increase attendance and awareness of the Asia-Pacific Career Conference (APCC)?
The Problem:
The Asia-Pacific Career Conference, or APCC, is an annual event held at BYU-Hawaii. Its purpose is to provide students with opportunities to network with employers and companies from all over the world. Students have been successful in acquiring internship and job offers. It is also an ideal chance for students to practice their interviewing skills and elevator pitches. However, the APCC ran into some problems due to misinformation and lack of clarity.
According to research done prior, during, and after the conference, a large portion of students (45%) and faculty (46%) were not aware of the event or did not even know what it was at all. Even though APCC is meant for everyone, incorrect perceptions due to branding and promotions led to many students and faculty choosing not to attend. They thought the conference was only for Asians or Pacific Islanders. Others thought it was only meant for business students. Many believed the APCC Certification Course had to be completed in order to attend. This led to both students and faculty from other departments and majors to not see the value of APCC and were not motivated to go.
The Solution:
To tackle these misconceptions and increase both the attendance and awareness of the Asia-Pacific Career Conference, it called for a complete rebranding of the APCC. This meant changing the name, logo, style guide, campaigns, promotion materials, etc. The name had to be changed in order to obliterate any confusion that came from it previously. Some of the names proposed were the International Career Conference and All People Can Come (Conference). These names were meant to be simple and straightforward. New logos were also created to better capture the mission and purpose of the event. Another major goal of the rebranding was to rebuild the certification course and make it more accessible to non-business students. It was also important to get rid of the idea that the course was required for entry. The rebranding proposal included specific promotional materials aimed at better advertising and explaining the course. There was also a recommendation to help students prepare and complete the course, especially non-business majors.
Alongside the complete rebranding of the APCC, another solution was to increase the involvement of faculty members in every department. Our research showed that about 30% of students first heard about the conference through their professors. It is necessary for all faculty to be actively promoting the event and encouraging students to attend. This can be achieved by showing the value of APCC to the faculty. In their annual meeting where all faculty are required to attend, it was suggested to formally introduce and present the conference. This would give faculty enough time to prepare their curriculum involving or surrounding the event. Faculty should also be more involved by using their network to invite companies that will directly benefit their students. These are the key solutions to increasing awareness and attendance to the Asia-Pacific Career Conference.
The Outcome:
These proposals and recommendations were proposed to Career Services, the department in charge of planning the APCC, and their head of department, Kenneth Kalama. As the ideas begin to be implemented and put into action, it is certain that the future conferences will be even more successful and beneficial. BYU-Hawaii is working continuously to improve the conference to make it one of the biggest and most-awaited events of the year. Their major goal is to provide the ultimate benefits for all BYU-Hawaii students, from all majors, all countries, and all years.
Asia-Pacific Career Conference Rebranding Proposal
Asia-Pacific Career Conference Final Report, Recommendations, & Research
Case Study: How can the creation of a weekly newsletter be less stressful and time-consuming for the whole team?
The Problem:
As an intern at the Polynesian Cultural Center, I was put in charge of creating and sending out the weekly Employee Bulletin. This bulletin was sent out to every single employee, about 2,000, and included important updates, articles, and announcements. I had to communicate with everyone in the marketing department as well as collect articles and necessary information from all the departments at the Center. It was a long process with multiple steps to get it from a series of emails to published on the main website and the email sent before the deadline. Due to this, there were times where deadlines were not met, employees were rushed, and mistakes were made. We quickly realized we needed to find a solution to make the process more efficient and organized.
The Solution:
The first step in solving this problem was having a key meeting with all the employees and managers that were directly involved with the bulletin. We each explained our roles and our thoughts as to what could be improved. Once everyone had their turn, we decided to come up with rules and standards that would need to be followed to ensure maximum productivity. One of these changes involved how much time would be given to accept articles for the next bulletin. We ended up moving the deadline to two days after the reminder email was sent. Everything that needed to be published in the bulletin would have to be sent by that date by noon, no exceptions. We also created a new deadline of having the email completely done and scheduled by the night before (Tuesday night) it goes out in order to avoid missing the deadline and giving us time to fix unexpected mistakes. By having the whole procedure documented with specific deadlines and all the tasks outlined, the whole process could go more smoothly and everyone would better understand their roles. The Outcome:
The new procedure was implemented immediately. Every single manager from every department was notified of the deadline change and the fact that there would be no exceptions or last-minute additions. That following week, each deadline was kept by all the employees and they got all of their work done in time. The email was scheduled the night before and was sent without any problems. It was definitely more efficient and took up less time. The best outcome was the fact that it decreased the amount of stress that was involved with it. This solution was possible through the support and understanding of my supervisors and managers. Since then, every single bulletin has been published without any mistakes and always on-time!