We recently interviewed 9 local Niagara companies who are successfully using social media to produce measured results. Here is the presentation for those interested.

1. "Businesses in Niagara Who
Apply and See Results
using Social Media - a Look
at What is Working"

2. The idea criteria….

3. Companies based in Niagara, who consistently apply social
media strategies and content development that provides
value to the market.
Recognizable by their name, we documented the tangible
and intangible results they have gained by sharing content
and using various platforms.
The aggregate feedback results will be presented to this
group.
Each company was asked to share advice that others could
gain insights from.

5. What social media platforms do you primarily use?
Of the following business functions do you use social media platforms to promote
them?
a. Sales and service
b. Community involvement
c. Hiring
d. Events
e. Other: ____________
What advice would you share with others?
Do you outsource content development or do it in house?
Do outsource posting or do it in house?
How much time a day do you typically spend on social media?
How do you feel social media has impacted your banding, marketing and business
development?
What is you biggest success story with social media?

6. Who we talked to….

7. 9 local companies….

9. Some stats….

10. Sales and service 7 / 9
Community involvement 8 / 9
Hiring 5 / 9
Events 8 / 9

11. Other:
community events and activities
regional activities
customer interaction
contests
sharing industry news
communicate with industry members
cross promotion

12. Avg. time spent….
1-2 hours per day

13. 9/9
1/9
3/9
9/9
4/9
1/9
1/9

14. Content development
In House ?
Outsource?
9/9
1/9

15. Posting
In House ?
Outsource?
9/9
0/9

16. Interesting themes
and shared advice….

17. Gives a sense of identity.
Importance of connecting with your audience, do
your homework.
More flexible than traditional media.
365 things to do in Fort Erie
Baby naming
Costume contest

18. Importance of creating dialogue
Encouraging the use of Twitter and
hashtags for event feedback
Clients welcome the communications and
feedback

19. Using FB since 2007, now getting into Twitter
Employees use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram for personal
use. Hope to focus on all of these as a business in the future
Posting event information and pictures of events that we attend and that our
employees are involved in is important to us
Everyone who is connected to us on social media can see our culture and
the extent of community involvement we have.
Be interactive on your social media platforms. People need a reason to
follow you or check out your
Sharing posts that charities post is a great way to support them and show
other who/what you are involved with in the community.
Reply to questions and repost interesting articles with your opinion. Ask
questions and other’s opinions to gain interest and generate discussions.

20. Never give up and stay constant
Create a plan
It is what builds us, it is our brand

21. SM strategy focused on brand principles: Listen, nurture, guide,
care
Be authentic, human and ensure your work aligns to your goals and
values
Determine your ‘one thing’ then create engagement though
humanization
Engage employees, volunteers, and members in content
development
Marketing and SM is #1 channel for BD and brand building
Competitive advantage over other FI’s. Invest time and commitment

22. In the digital world social media is your voice
Success with yearly staff photos

23. Write the way you speak in real life
Respond to as much activity (questions, compliments, complaints)
as possible in a timely manner
Founding members of “Ontario Food Truck Assoc.” and active in
event development and promotion = lots of content
SM is best tool to communicate and keep customer contact as we
are mobile and our menu changes
Able to show photos of menu items
Use SM to connect with leaders in culinary industry, sets us apart
from other food trucks be being integrated

24. Engage with audience first, gain trust, begin conversations,
earn the right to talk product
Handle negative posts or complaints out in the open. Your
audience should see how you deal with them, gaining
credibility
Using SM, we can learn the interests of our members (HUGE)
Able to look into the lens on how to make our member
experience as strong as possible
Able to reach more people as an additional channel for
marketing

25. Stay neutral, stay consistent, stay
positive and remember negative
comments are not always bad
We often get negative backlash from activists, and do not
remove (unless inappropriate language)…it makes us real
and our following appreciates that, and has come to our
defence
Content is king

26. Success Stories….

27. Simple question:
Smarties or M&M’s?

28. Building customer service by
promoting and helping them with
their events, postings and feedback

29. Recently ran a Twitter contest in
conjunction with a marketing
conference and successfully
gained new customer through
this

30. By promoting and posting on social
media we have doubled our numbers
year over year

31. Engagement. By broadcasting our social
listening we can hone in on what is
important to our listeners
To date, our ‘CareCash’ initiative is our
most successful campaign in terms of
true engagement/alignment with our
brand

32. We have used social media to successfully
lobby for street food regulation change in
Niagara and beyond.
We have garnered a tremendous outpouring of
public support
From customers and industry members, which
place pressure on policy makers in a very
public way.

33. Launched FB page by giving back to community
Partnered with Book Outlet and gave 300 books to
kids in community – attracted lots of media and ran
for second year – even more successfully
Gave 500 books in 2014
Seeing our engagement rise 70%
Aim for 1000 books in 2015
……all this through social media only

34. By reaching out to bloggers who write
about family outings and attractions and
we create cross promotions and invite
them to the park, free tickets to contest off
This increases our reach and drives traffic to our
website, at no hard cost
SM has significantly increased our web site traffic
dramatically over the past year, increased our
service and helped us expand our reach in Niagara
and beyond

35. one more…
We created a new event last year “Boo at the Zoo”.
We decided to promote the event by social media
alone and spend no advertising dollars as it was near
the end of our season.
The outcome was unbelievable, we broke
attendance records and had line ups to the road for
hours.

36. Thank You
triggerstrategies.ca