This report provides recommendations to improve the social media presence and website of For the Birds, an exotic bird store. It analyzes challenges such as an outdated website and high rent. Objectives are to create a new website with search engine optimization, reduce rent through a persuasive letter, and expand social media presence. Progress includes launching a new website on WordPress and planning an Instagram page. The report concludes that these recommendations could help For the Birds grow as a competitor.

1. 2014
Jacob Suydam
English 202D Formal Report
4/17/2014
For The Birds

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For The Birds:
Recommendation for Stronger Media Presence and
Better Visual Website
4/17/2014
Prepared for:
Dawn Buondonno
Prepared by:
Asiana Gilchrist
Jacob Suydam

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Memorandum
TO: Dawn Buondonno
FROM: Asiana Gilchrist
Jake Suydam
DATE: April 17, 2014
SUBJECT: Recommendation for Increasing Social Media and Better Visual Website
Here is the report you requested February 11 on For the Birds social media and website.
After much research and findings we created a recommendation report that could truly benefit For the
Birds and hopefully make them a top competitor in the South Jersey Area,
We realized that For the Birds was not very present in social media. Having a background in marketing
we saw this as a great opportunity to gain more market share and a stronger presence among
consumers. We also noticed the difference in websites between For the Birds and other competitors.
We felt that by improving the website it could generate more internet traffic and would be another way
to reach out to the target consumers. When discussing with you the challenges you would like us to
tackle a letter to the landlord was mentioned. We have drafted a possible letter that will also be
included to the report.
Improving For the Birds social media and website presence will not be easy tasks. Maintaining successful
social media accounts takes daily effort. There has to be steady updates so that consumers feel that you
are constantly worrying about their needs. Also the website has to be optimized so that consumers can
easily reach the website. We might also need to redirect the old website to the new one so that
consumers can see the improvements.
We are very thankful that you allowed us to work with For the Birds for this assignment. It has been a
great learning experience for us both. We also hope that our recommendations help take For the Birds
to the next level.

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Table of Contents
Memorandum.............................................................................................................................. 3
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................... 5
Social Media Importance ........................................................................................................ 5
Effective Websites are Essential............................................................................................. 5
Search Engine Optimization is Crucial.................................................................................... 5
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 6
a. Intro to business ................................................................................................................. 6
b. Competition ........................................................................................................................ 6
Challenges & Problems................................................................................................................. 7
a. Website .............................................................................................................................. 7
b. Rent.................................................................................................................................... 7
c. Social Media....................................................................................................................... 8
Objectives................................................................................................................................... 8
a. Website .............................................................................................................................. 8
b. Rent Reduction................................................................................................................... 9
c. Social Media....................................................................................................................... 9
Progress & Deliverables...............................................................................................................10
a. Website .............................................................................................................................10
i. Search Engine Optimization ................................................................................................11
b. Rent...................................................................................................................................11
c. Social Media......................................................................................................................11
V. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................12
Appendix ...................................................................................................................................13
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...........................................................................................................................14
Index .........................................................................................................................................15

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Executive Summary
This report analyzes the affects social media and an effective website can positively have on a company.
It presents recommendations for the company For the Birds on how to improve these factors.
Social Media Importance
Reaching your target consumer is the only way to generate revenue for a business. Marketing helps with
this because it connects a business to its consumers. If a business does not know what their customers
want they cannot effectively deliver products or a service to them. Recently with the best way to reach
target consumers is through social media. Social media includes all of the websites that consumers use
daily including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. This is the perfect way for companies to connect to
their consumers. Companies use Facebook to allow their customers to leave comments and actually
“like” the products that they enjoy.
Approximately 58 million Americans have the social habit of checking social media accounts. 22% of this
58 million Americans admit to using social networking sites several times per day and 42% use multiple
social networking sites. Not using social media accounts unfortunately allows you to miss a big
percentage of potential consumers.
Effective Websites are Essential
Consumers spend most of their times on the internet these days so having an effective website is a
must. Although For the Birds is in the pet industry a website would generate a lot of traffic regardless.
Approximately 84% of pet retailers have websites along with 62% of those same retailers having a
matching Facebook account.
Search Engine Optimization is Crucial
When customers Google something only the top sites actually get ‘clicked’ on. In order for For The Birds
to generate attention it would need to be in those top spots. There would need to be a way to optimize
the website for searches.

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Introduction
a. Intro to business
For The Birds is an exotic bird store located in Turnersville, New Jersey. The store is about 13 miles
Southeast of Philadelphia. In the store, the owner sells exotic parrots and supplies. There is a fairly large
customer base in the area and even come from distances as far as New York. The store recently moved
from a strip mall on RT. 42, to a standalone building closer to Philadelphia that is also on RT. 42.
The owner, Dawn, opened the bird store with her retirement funds and has put everything she has into
keeping the store afloat. While the store is not necessarily hemorrhaging money, the store sometimes
faces monthly financial struggles.
For The Birds originally opened in March 2011, and has been opened for just over three years. The main
source of revenue for the company is in the selling of exotic birds. The store also makes money by selling
exotic bird food, toys, and supplies. Additionally the store sells wild bird seeds and supplies, as well as
provides grooming and boarding services for customers.
b. Competition
For The Birds has a handful of main competitors in the South Jersey region. Most of the competitors are
located closer to Philadelphia and have been around since the early 1990’s. These stores are enormous
in size, and have a large product selection and competitive pricing that For The Birds cannot directly
compete with. However there is one major competitor, Fancy Feathers, that is of similar size but has
also been around for a few decades.
The main competitive advantages that For The Birds has is its location. It is on a main highway that
traffic coming from the East would pass by on the way from the shore to Philadelphia. This is prime real
estate and helps For The Birds compete with bigger stores that are further West, by gaining customers
that are further away. Also, the store is very modern compared to its competitors. For The Birds
provides a cleaner, newer, smaller, and friendlier atmosphere than its competitors.

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Challenges & Problems
a. Website
For The Birds faces a few business challenges. The first of which is the company website. The company
website is currently hosted by Comcast xfinity, and is fairly un-informative and unattractive.
In 2009, 45% of small businesses reported having a website. In 2014, this rate has increased 8% to 53%
overall. Now, a majority of small businesses have a website. Simply having a website will not put a
business ahead of its competition in this market, a company should strive to have a better website than
their competitors. Of the small businesses that do not have websites, 19% claimed the cost would be
too high, 16% stated a lack of time as the reason they did not have a website, and 9% of businesses said
it was too complex to create a website for their business. Dawn, the owner of For The Birds claimed that
all three of these reasons contribute to the fact that she does not have a complete and successful
website (Barlow).
b. Rent
For The Birds is also struggling to pay rent at their location. The market has shown a decreasing Retail
Property Asking Price in the area that is at the lowest point in a downward trend that began in mid 2013
according to loopnet.com. The landlord has not adjusted the cost of rent to reflect market prices, and it
appears as if Dawn is not achieving a competitive rent according to the market.
(Figure 1)
The data above shows the recent downward trend of asking prices in the county. The current rate is at
an eight year low, and is significantly lower than it was when the rent was agreed upon in 2013
(LoopNet).

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c. Social Media
The company currently has a Facebook page that acts as the center of information for the store. It does
a much better job than the website at displaying sales and information. However, it only has a few
hundred likes and even fewer participating users. The users aren't always local customers, so while
there is active participation it doesn't always result in increased sales since these non-local customers
are unable to reach the store and the company does not have a web store. The company does not have
a twitter, or an Instagram.
Objectives
a. Website
The goal of a company website is to provide information and services to users, as well as attract
attention. A good website should capture the user’s attention enough to encourage them to further
explore the website past the home page. As mentioned previously, For The Birds currently has an
unattractive and uninformative website. The home page can be seen here:
(Figure 2)

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Spritz Web Solutions, a Web design firm based in Illinois, claims a website needs the following to be
effective: Good use of color, text that is easily read, Meaningful graphics, quality photography, and
simplicity (Spritz).
The website pictured above does not have any of these qualities. Our Objective is to develop and launch
a website that reflects the new, modern feel of For The Birds. The goal is to capture all of the qualities
mentioned above. Eventually, the newly developed website would be re-launched on a platform other
than the current Comcast Xfinity platform. Wordpress is a robust, easy-to-use platform that the new
website will be developed & hosted on.
b. Rent Reduction
The second objective is to get the rent reduced. The most appropriate way to do this is through a
persuasive letter with the supporting evidence found in Part b of the Challenges & Problems section.
While it may be difficult to actually get the rent reduced, it is possible to make a strong case for having
the landlord do so.
The goal is to show local market data to prove that the rate of rent is unfair and not competitive. Next, a
plan must be suggested for reducing the rent for a set number of months at a set rate of rent.
Additionally, a payback plan to catch up on the difference of rent should the market change should be
added.
c. Social Media
The last objective was to improve For the Birds social media presence. We realized that they best way to
reach target customers was through media channels that targeted them specifically. For the Birds
already had a Facebook account that got some traffic but we wanted to do more.
The goal was to also produce an Instagram page. An Instagram is a visual social media account that deals
with pictures. This would be the ideal channel so that consumers could what the exotic birds in the store
look like. Consumers are also able to "like" pictures which would show owner, Dawn, which birds
consumers like the most.

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Progress & Deliverables
a. Website
Developing the website was a fairly quick and painless process. www.forthebirdsnewjersey.com was
chosen as an effective and affordable domain name. The domain name was purchased through
Wordpress and the new website is hosted on Wordpress’ servers. A minimalistic, simple design was
chosen as the template for the new website. Adhering to the guidelines for an effective website
previously mentioned in part a of the Objective section, the website has an easy to read font, welcoming
colors, excellent photographs, and simplicity.
Here is the design of the new website:
(Figure 3)

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The website is filled with relevant information and vibrant photographs on every page. A user can truly
get a good feeling of what the store is like through this website.
i. Search Engine Optimization
An important part of launching this new website is to ensure the website is Search Engine Optimized.
This means, that when a user searches for the website on Google or Yahoo or Bing, the website appears
in the top part of the search results on the first page. This can be difficult to do, and currently the new
website is not optimized for search engines. Internet Marketing in Business defines it as "the process of
affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engines natural or un-paid organic search
results.” (http://internetmarketinginbusiness.com/--search-engine-optimization/?wiki-maping=jargon)
Our method for making the new website optimal for search engine results is to install a sitemap on the
new wordpress site. A sitemap is basically a list of all the pages and topics of a website that search
engines like Google search for first and foremost when crawling the internet. Having a sitemap means
your website is more likely to be indexed, or picked up by Google. Another option is to redirect from the
old website to the new website, since the old website is already search engine optimized.
b. Rent
Referring to part b of the Challenges & Problems section, the market for commercial property value has
been on a downward trend for some time now in Turnersville, NJ. A persuasive letter must be written
convincing the landlord that it is in his best interest to temporarily reduce the rent, and the main
argument is the difference between the market when the rent was agreed upon and the market now.
While getting the rent reduced may be a stretch, it is still important to put forth the best possible effort
in the letter because if successful, the rent reducing will greatly help the business.
c. Social Media
To ensure the Instagram page is the best it could be we held off launching it until we compiled enough
content like pictures and information. We believe that we will soon have enough materials to make the
Instagram page really pop with visuals and will be releasing it soon. Once the Instagram page is up and
running we will begin to create a Twitter account. Once we have all three media channels we can
connect them to all work and upload information together.

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V. Conclusion
In conclusion, we have addressed the issues and recommendations for approaching the Website, Social
Media Presence, and cost of Rent for the company. We thoroughly believe that with our contributions
above, For The Birds will benefit and grow as a company. Success is only limited to the effort put forth
from this point forward towards completing and fulfilling the business recommendations mentioned
above. After reviewing all of our points we hope you understand what we were trying to accomplish
with our recommendation assignment. We thought of ways we felt would make For the Birds a strong
competitor, and we thoroughly believe it is a likely possibility.
After reviewing all of our points we hope you understand what we were trying to accomplish with our
recommendation assignment. We thought of ways we felt would make For the Birds a strong
competitor. We completed or are in progress of our main objectives which will help connect For The
Birds to their target consumers.

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Appendix
(Above is Attachment A, an info graphic detailing the importance of social media in the pet industry. Found here:
http://www.loveinfographics.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Social-Media-In-the-Pet-Industry-Infographic1.pdf)

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Works Cited
Barlow Researchers, U.S. Census Bureau, and Jupiter Research. "Small Business Website Statistics."
Statistic Brain RSS. E-Marketer, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
LoopNet. "Turnersville, NJ Market Trends." Loopnet.com. Loopnet, Mar. 2014. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
Spritz. "Articles." Good Website Characteristics. N.p., 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.

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Index
Figure 1, see page 8: A graph portraying real estate market data for Turnersville, NJ
Figure 2, see page 9: An image showing the old website
Figure 3, see page 11: An image showing the new website