In today’s podcast we talk to Elly who is Garrett Popcorn Shop’s Global Digital Marketing and Social Media Director. They use the same recipes today, which Garrett invented in 1949. Their popcorn is made fresh daily, they have seven signature recipes and 40 shops located around the world.
We asked Elly what social media trends she’s seeing at the moment. She tells us how it’s all about consumer engagement, driving relationships, connecting with people and humanising the brand. She talks about their target demographic being shifted to millennial in that they’re easy to connect with and are digitally aware. There are new apps popping up all the time and she has to figure out the best way to interact with their fans on new networks. She refers to Snapchat, Instagram and Meerkat which all tend to focus on video marketing.
Popcorn shops have been using Instagram and YouTube, but they now want to focus on fans in real time and engage them. They are looking at new ways of doing this on Instagram, Meerkat and Periscope. We asked her what advice she would give to small businesses trying to do the same. She said it’s important to understand your customer demographic before engaging on social channels. Make sure your customers are actually on those channels in the first place and make sure you have a brand strategy before engaging on that channel. Research and understand them and understand the technology which is predominantly mobile, think about ways you can reach customers directly through their fingertips. Follow the brands that are doing great jobs, it’ll give you a better idea of how businesses are using these channels. What’s the next big thing in social media marketing? Elly tells us it will be instant payments online (Snapchat now has Snapcash). This will be implemented a lot more in retail and bigger brands by marketing through mobile and using beacon technology to attract new fans, customers or purchases.
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