This is a mock social media strategy I created for Taco Bell for my Project 3 in Social Media Management at the University of Florida.

1. B Y : E D W A R D H I R A L D O
2 . 1 9 . 2 0 1 7 – P U R 3 6 2 2
S O C I A L M E D I A
S T R AT E G Y

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
• Executive Summary
• Social Media Audit
– Website Source Traffic
– Demographics
• Social Media Objectives
• Online Brand Persona and Voice
• Strategies and Tools
• Timing and Key Dates
• Social Media Roles and Responsibilities
• Social Media Policy
• Critical Response Plan
• Measurement and Reporting Results

3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• For 2017 and 2018 the main priorities are to drive higher brand favorability, awareness,
and the purchase of products.
• These goals will be achieved by increasing the amount of original content produced,
improving the relationship between the brand and consumers, and delivering greater
value on social.
• Two Strategies will support in meeting these goals:
– Developing and crafting posts that play off of current trends in pop culture and utilize
appeals to different segments of the target market.
– Introducing contests that require interaction and engagement with brand products (food,
sauce, drinks, etc.)

4. SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT
Platform URL Followers Avg Weekly
Activity
Average
Engagement Rate
Facebook https://www.facebook.
com/tacobell/ 10,448,542 2/ week 4%
Instagram https://www.instagram
.com/tacobell/?hl=en 1,000,000 1/ week 2%
Twitter https://twitter.com/tac
obell
1,800,000 3/ day 6%
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.
com/tacobell/ 3,230 2/ week 1%
YouTube https://www.youtube
.com/user/tacobell
59,134 3/ week 3.7%
ASSESSMENT: Currently, Twitter leads the way in engagement per follower/ fan than any
other social media. Facebook contains the brands largest follower base, however with
less engagement. YouTube is promising as it continues to rise in engagement.

5. WEBSITE SOURCES TRAFFIC
Platform Volume Percentage of Overall Traffic
Facebook 3,000 unique visits 15%
Instagram NO DATA NO DATA
Twitter 4,000 unique visits 35%
Pinterest 700 unique visits 4%
YouTube 2,000 unique visits 10%
ASSESSMENT: Twitter still leads in driving traffic to the website as Facebook follows in
second.

6. AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHICS
Age
Distribution
Gender
Distribution
Primary Social
Network
Secondary
Social
Network
Primary Need Secondary
Need
Under 24 (115)
25 - 34 (106)
35 - 44 (101)
45 - 54 (99)
Male index:
101
Female Index:
99
Twitter Facebook Fast, good
food
Trendy, casual
eating
experience

7. COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
Competitor URL Followers
McDonald’s https://www.faceb
ook.com/McDona
ldsUS/
69 million
Burger King https://www.faceb
ook.com/burgerki
ng/
7 million
KFC https://www.faceb
ook.com/KFC/
43 million
Chipotle https://www.faceb
ook.com/chipotle
/
3.1 million

8. SOCIAL MEDIA OBJECTIVES
• Specific Objectives Include:
– Increasing brand favorability by 35% in 6 months via:
• Growing the following base on Pinterest
• Growing followers and pushing engagement on Twitter
• Valuable Partnerships with Influencers
– Increasing sweepstake participation by 15% in 6 months.
– Driving creative content frequency up by 20% in 6 months.
• (Posting more creative content)

9. ONLINE PERSONA & VOICE
• Adjectives That Describe the
Brand
– Young
– Cultured
– Witty
– Exciting
• When interacting with
customers:
– Solution-oriented
– Friendly
– Humorous

10. STRATEGY AND TOOLS
• Paid: Run a Twitter objective ad campaign to promote a limited time offer, and boost
video content posts on Facebook that receive more than 100 views.
• Owned: On brand owned social media, take a page out of Arby’s content strategy and
begin to get creative with Taco Bell’s food items and Ingredients. Then use employees
to make their own TacoBell creations and post them as well with a line of positive
sentiment using a hashtag #HowITacoBell.
• Earned: Partner with 4 types of influencers to create an encompassing story for the
Taco Bell brand. One YouTube Influencer, One Blog influencer, One Twitter Influencer,
One Pinterest Influencer. Then have the use #HowITacoBell.
• Tools to Use
– Hootsuite
– Canva
– Photoshop

11. TIMES & KEY DATES
• Holidays
– Cinco de Mayo
– July 4th
– National Taco Day
– Valentine’s Day
– Memorial Day
– MLK Day
– Taco Tuesday (Weekly)
• Internal Events
– March 3-5 Headquarter service retreat
– June 7th – 14th Summer meal days for kids
• Reporting Dates
– At the close of each quarter

12. SOCIAL MEDIA ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES
• Chief Marketing Officer: Marisa Thalberg, oversees the marketing efforts of Taco Bell
Nationally and Internationally
• Social Media Manager: Aaron Shupert, works with CMO to produce messages that
drive product sales and works autonomously to develop brand image on social
• Social Media Coordinator: Destiny Wilde, works with SMM to plan social strategies, ad
placement and spot buys, and develop effective campaigns
• Support: Andres Camilo & Jessie Sloane, help both the SMM and the Coordinator to
ensure implementation runs smoothly and that Taco Bell is receiving the intended
outcome.

13. SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY
• Social media is a tool we use it to spread company messages, interact with customers and
partners, and to share who we are as a brand. As an employee and representative of Taco
Bell you are expected to uphold our best practices and a sense of responsibility in your use
of social media through some simple guidelines:
– Don’t post while you are at work
– Use common sense, and always be respectful
– Stay out of trouble
– Be the solution, not the problem
– Be nice to strangers, and act helpful to customers
– DO NOT post on the behalf of Taco Bell, or try respond to customer complaints by yourself
– DO NOT post things on personal accounts that would jeopardize yourself or the Taco Bell brand
• Violation of Taco Bell’s social media policy can result in corrective action, up to, and
including, termination. You may also be subject to legal action, including criminal
prosecution. The company also reserves the right to take any further action it believes is
appropriate. Should you have any questions or concerns please speak to your Manager or
anyone on the HR team.

14. CRITICAL RESPONSE PLAN
• Scenario 1: Taco Bell stores in NE region get virus in the poultry and meat causing
hundreds to get sick.
– First, draft up a press release of an apology and what is going on with the situation and what
seems to have caused the issue
– Halt all content to be published and re-center social media team toward resolving customer
issues and complaints giving customers coupons, deals, and other incentives to stick with
the brand
– SMManager will monitor the situation on social, and will be responsible for update posts as
the situation is resolved, while PR will work to contain negative sentiments through all other
channels
• Scenario 2: An employee posts something offensive on the official brand account
thinking it was their own personal account.
– Relieve that employee of their position, and gather the social media team to reach out to
audience members directly offended or bothered by the content posted/ shared.
– Delete post, and have SMM draft up content to reconcile the mistake, hoping it makes light
of the situation
– Monitor Social media channels for opportunities to regain brand favorability amongst the
audience until the situation blows over.

15. MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING RESULTS
• Quantitative KPI
• New Website Traffic Assessment
Platform Volume Percent Growth
Facebook 3,000 unique visits 21 3%
Instagram NO DATA NO DATA NO DATA
Twitter 5,200 unique visits 45 10%
Pinterest 1,200 unique visits 11 9%
YouTube 2,300 unique visits 14 4%

16. SOCIAL NETWORK DATA (AS OF FEBRUARY 2017)
Platform URL Follower Count Posts per week
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/
tacobell/ 12,500,000 3/ week
Instagram https://www.instagram.com
/tacobell/?hl=en 1,500,000 2/ week
Twitter https://twitter.com/tacobell 3,000,000 4.5/ day
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/t
acobell/ 12,500 6/ week
YouTube https://www.youtube.com
/user/tacobell
65, 000 5/ week

17. QUALITATIVE KPI’S
• Customer Sentiment:
– Sentiment has been mainly positive on content posted in the last three months
– Positive appeals on dining experiences and food have increased by 3%
– #TacoBell is still trending as well as #BreakfastDefector
• This could put the #HowITacoBell hashtag in a better position to be successful