This document discusses the social media strategy for Conpacks, a company that makes bags for comic book conventions. Conpacks will use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and blogs/forums to target their key demographic of nerdy men and women aged 20-35. On Facebook, Conpacks will create a business page and run targeted ads. On Twitter, they will post convention updates and retweet popular accounts to gain exposure. Pinterest allows them to visually showcase products and drive traffic to their site. YouTube will feature promotional videos and brand content. An active social media presence is important for Conpacks' growth.

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Conpacks: Bagging Consumers
Timothy Hyde
Professor Tao
February 14, 2014.

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Conpacks: Bagging Consumers
Conpacks is a backpacks and messenger bags company based out of Orange
County, California that focuses on comic book conventions. The bags are specifically
made for everything you need to survive a comic book convention. These range
from a build-in artwork case to protect purchased art as well as a built-in battery
pack to charge your phone for those long twelve hour days at the convention. It is
important to keep your items close to you because you do not want your new comic
books or t-shirt to simply get up and walk away. A Conpacks bag solves these
problems and solves them in style!
Conpacks target market is simple yet complex. The targeted consumer is
clearly someone who attends comic book conventions of any size or location. The
complex part is taking that large demographic and breaking it up into smaller
segments to really focus on. You can walk into any comic book convention and see
people ranging from an eighteen-year-old high school student to a sixty-five year old
retired man and both are looking at the same comic book at a booth. Both may
come to the comic book convention with cash to spend and may even both be
shopping for the exact same items. The variety of people that attend comic book
conventions is larger than most people initially think until they attend one in person
for themselves. There is more than just the typical comic book nerd with no
girlfriend, heavy acne and

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glasses. And those are the people I am targeting. These people are: the savvy,
educated, middle-class “nerd” that has a sense of style. These people know what
they like and are often ahead of their peers in technology and the world of nerdy
fashion. My main targets are males and females ranging from 20-35 who attends
comic book conventions with deep wallets and on the look out for fresh new unique
products. Many attendees come in groups of four to six people. So catchy one
person’s interest may lead to multiple sales both in person and via the Internet.
These people are often very active on social media as well. Conpacks will reach the
targeted market through social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,
Instagram, YouTube and activity through a blog as well as active on nerd-based
forums and blogs.
Starting with Facebook, it is important to have a custom business page that is
not a personal page. But it is also important to have both because the personal page
is for people who you personally know and talk to. These can be your biggest
customers in the beginning whether it is directly or indirectly. For example, your
cousin ma repost a picture of a Conpacks bag and post the link to the online store
and her friend Susan buys one and repost about it. Next thing you know, you may
have just had hundreds if not thousands of people see your page and products. “A
Facebook page is a great first step for your organization to engage with people.
Think of a Facebook page as a personal profile, but for a company” (pg. 216. Scott).

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It doesn’t cost anything and if done correctly it can lead to a big bonus in extra sales
and potential leads in the future for any company. Facebook is also good if you want
to spend small amounts of money advertising. You can purchase ad space that is
narrowed down to location, gender, age and “trigger” words that the Facebook users
use in their posts. For example, Conpacks could make an ad with the focus words
being bag, comic con, convention, nerd and pick the location and age of the person.
Every time this happens with one of those words the ad would pop up on their
timeline when they view their friends feeds. Here is an example of the Conpacks
advertisement that would pop up on the feed.

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So when a person types in those key words within a few hours an ad like this will
pop up onto their feed. This will take them directly to the Conpacks Facebook
business page.
Next up is Twitter. Twitter is a bit different than Facebook in that you only
have 140 characters to get your point across, so something short and to the point is
key to success. Success on Twitter is also about whom Conpacks follows and post to.
Retweeting popular posts and posts from targeted Twitter members in your
industry can help gain exposure and followers. Both of which can lead to more sales
in the future. Here is an example of a post from Conpacks.
The post will get people’s attention on Twitter because both Stan Lee and San Diego
Comic Con have a combined 1.5 million followers between them. “With attendance
topping 130,000 in recent years” San Diego Comic Con attendees will be watching
the Twitter for special updates on the convention and can see the tagged post that
was made. This gives Conpacks’ post a chance to be retweeted by thousands.

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Another great social media tool is Pinterest. Pinterest is a great site that allows you
to post pictures that other users can “pin” to a board, which allows others to see that
board and do it again. You can post pictures of products, places Conpacks sells at, as
well as models/fans with the Conpacks bags. Users can search for “nerd bags” and a
picture of a Conpacks bag would show up along with the board it was “pinned” on
and a link to the site. This is an easy way to create branding and drive an audience
to your site or store. It helps promote Conpacks as well as having fun creating
unique boards and finding pictures you like from other brands or users. Here is an
example of a Conpacks “pinned” picture on Pinterest.
This is not the bag we made but it is something that will be very similar to. They
posted the bag and it was pinned 6 times and has 1 like. It has a link to the store in

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the comments below that you can easily click on the link to their online store
directly to the product you are looking at. This makes it easy to see, pin and
possibly buy the product within a few clicks.
Another social media site that most companies tend to forget about is
YouTube. YouTube is a great source for visual social media. Instead of reading a
Tweet or Facebook post you are watching a video stating a similar thing. Conpacks
plans on creating mini commercials to promote the brand with funny commercials
that knock cheesy info commercials but filmed at a Comic Con. Conpacks will also
use it to promote the brand at shows with famous actors and comic industry people
talking about the bags. Another benefit of YouTube is that “YouTube does not
require users to register before they can watch videos, but the advantage for
members is their unlimited number of video uploads” (Social Media Today). Being
able to upload any amount of videos for anyone to view is a great feature for
YouTube and Conpacks.
Social media is extremely important to businesses in the 21st century
and will continue to be that way for a long time. If we want Conpacks to grow, it will
have to be alongside and with social media. Conpacks will not only go alongside
social media but it will actively use and embrace all the factors of social media to
future Conpacks as a business. Hopefully we can keep up with all of the social media
sites now and the ones in the future. Excelsior!

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Work Cited
Scott, D. M. (2011). The new rules of marketing & pr. (3rd
ed., pp. 205-8). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Pinterest, 2014.
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/514958538611837613/
San Diego Comic Con, 2014. http://www.comic-
con.org/about
Twitter, 2014. https://twitter.com/ConPacks
Twitter, 2014. https://twitter.com/TheRealStanLee
Twitter, 2014. https://twitter.com/Comic_Con
Elliott, Aaron. Social Media Today, August 7, 2013.
http://socialmediatoday.com/socialbarrel/1650226/secon
d-largest-search-engine-infographic
Facebook, 2014.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Conpacks/56235856385
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