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Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
CHIPOTLE - Social Media Monitoring - Final Report
Product review: Chipotle aims to do a few things but exceptionally well. When Chipotle first opened in 1993,the goal was simple; to serve high quality delicious food quickly with an experience that not only exceeded, but redefined the “fast food” experience. Some 16 years and more than 900 restaurants, they compete in a category of dining, now called “fast-casual” the fastest growing segment of the restaurant industry, where customers expect food quality that’s more in line with full-service restaurants , coupled with the speed and convenience of fast food. A chef named Steve Ells is the founded Chipotle. The first Chipotle was opened in Denver, Colorado.Food with integrity: Food with integrity is Chipotle’s commitment to finding the very best ingredients raised with respect for the animals, the environment and the farmers.
Comparison: As mentioned in my first Social Media Monitoring paper, the key competitors of Chipotle are Qdoba Restaurant Corporation, Taco Bell Corp. I compared Chipotle with Qdoba restaurant on Social Mention. I found that Chipotle has a lot more Reach, Strength, equal in Sentiment and less in passion when compared to Qdoba restaurant. Chipotle has more number of active participants and also is more active by itself on social media when compared to Qdoba.
This isn’t necessarily because Qdoba isn’t being mentioned, but Chipotle has been around a lot longer, extremely well-known and reasonable and affordable among common people, and has a significant amount of more finances for marketing, therefore a much larger reach and audience.
I also compared the two restaurants on Icerocket as well. I found that Qdoba’s blog participation is in no comparison with Chipotle’s blog participation as Chipotle is really active on Social media.
As we see in the above graphs, Qdoba has had a good amount of participation during March 13th and March 27th and during March 20th the response has been fair too. Chipotle’s participation has been moderate between March 6th and March 15th and also between March 25th and April 3rd. The blog participation has been immensely high and active during March 20th. In comparison with Qdoba, Chipotle is more active and popular on Social media blogging. Between March 6th and April 3rd Chipotle has had a blog trend of 151.93 posts per day and a total of 4,558 posts in this period, whereas Qdoba has had only 2.47 posts per day and a total of 74 posts between March 6th and April 3rd. Therefore, Chipotle is much more active on Social Media!
The last place I compared the two restaurants was on Facebook. As I mentioned in my first report, Chipotle doesn’t use Facebook as a major part of the company’s marketing strategy. The company has its own page on Facebook. For the purposes of this report, I compared Chipotle company page with Qdoba company page. Both the companies have a similar style of interacting with their fans. Both the companies are in constant contact with their fans on Facebook, they respond, answer to their fans. They also keep their fans updated.
New comic book day, and chipotle.
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000859153100&v=wall&story_fbid=194942167211087
10 minutes ago - by Casey Elliott on facebook
on my way to my cabin :) just stopped and ate at qdoba:) yumm cant wait to get to my cabin:) yayy Volleyball#7 gotta love it:)
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000501680374&v=wall&story_fbid=212510198775701
40 minutes ago - by Kaelin Crawford on facebook
Target Market: I believe Chipotle should continue to focus on its current target market of men and women , ages 18-35. These are the people that are most likely to visit the restaurant, become repeat customers and spread the word about Chipotle on Social Media. The company must take advantage of such a target audience and increase its participation on Facebook.
Recommendations: Chipotle is a big chain and has expanded well in time, and social media has been and will continue to be a crucial marketing tool. The use of Facebook has been an essential way to spread the word about Chipotle promotional appearances and events, but Chipotle does not voluntarily interact with their fans through their pages, they only respond to their fan’s comments.
Facebook: I think the Chipotle page should interact more with its followers. Chipotle should interact with their fans through its page and often and post open-ended conversations and questions to promote responses and conversations rather than only responding to its fans posts.
Youtube: There are only two-three Chipotle videos currently on YouTube. I think there should be more Chipotle commercials produces and posted like the one that exists. Another way to create more buzz around videos would be to have a Mexican cooking or recipe contest and post the video on YouTube and also share the videos on Facebook and Twitter.
Constant Contact: Chipotle can create bi-weekly or monthly newsletters about the events and happenings in Chipotle world-wide. These newsletters can be posted and shared on Facebook and Twitter, and also mass e-mails can be sent to all the followers on Facebook, Twitter and other customer database Chipotle holds. This can create a buzz and also help retain loyal customers.
Twitter: Twitter is a part of social media that more and more people are starting to tap into. Chipotle can send posts on Twitter directly to Facebook as Chipotle has and asks open-ended conversations and questions to its followers. This way, they can create more buzz.
If Chipotle continues to embrace the Groundswell and use Social Media as a marketing tool, there is no doubt that they will continue to climb the ladder of success and popularity like they have been. In the past few years Social Media has been responsible to increase the popularity of Chipotle. I am sure; Chipotle will perform even better if they maximize their participation on Social Media. I am a fan of Chipotle, are you?!?
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
CHIPOTLE - Social Media Monitoring
Introduction:Chipotle aims to do a few things but exceptionally well. When Chipotle first opened in 1993, the goal was simple; to serve high quality delicious food quickly with an experience that not only exceeded, but redefined the “fast food” experience. Some 16 years and more than 900 restaurants, they compete in a category of dining, now called “fast-casual” the fastest growing segment of the restaurant industry, where customers expect food quality that’s more in line with full-service restaurants , coupled with the speed and convenience of fast food. A chef named Steve Ells is the founded Chipotle. The first Chipotle was opened in Denver, Colorado.
Food with integrity: Food with integrity is Chipotle’s commitment to finding the very best ingredients raised with respect for the animals, the environment and the farmers.
Target Demographics:
- · 59.7% Female, 40.3% Male
- · Between the ages of 18-35
- · Income earned is between $10k-$70k
- · 82% Caucasian
Pschographics:
· Environmentally Conscious
· Active lifestyle
· Socially focused
· Tech Savvy
· Image conscious
· Financially unfocussed
Therefore, based on Chipotle’s mission and target audience, the main objective of Chipotle would be: To establish Chipotle as the primary choice over other fast food competitors for the target audience. Their strategy would be and has been: To convince the target audience to buy Chipotle instead of fast food competitors because Chipotle serves quality ingredients and allows consumers to customize their meals on spot.
The menu in Chipotle isn’t long – but it’s long on options. The customers can start with the basics and customize as needed to build their perfect meal. Some of the popular dishes in the menu are: Burrito, Burrito bowl, Crispy Tacos, Soft Tacos, Salad, Chips and Guac and there is a separate kids menu too.
Glenn Bell opened the first Taco Bell restaurant in Downey CA serving his customers “Tay-Kohi”. The first franchisee restaurant was opened in Torrance CA. Some of the popular dishes in the menu are: Burritos, Gorditas, Salads, Nachos, Chalupa, and specialties.
In terms of media presence they have been active in traditional and non-traditional media. Let’s look at Chipotle’s participation in Social Media. While monitoring Chipotle’s Social Media presence since February, through various Social Media tools such as Addictomatic, Ice-Rocket, Social Mention, I came across varied responses to Chipotle from varied people. It was fun to monitor Chipotle!
While monitoring Chipotle on Addictomatic, I found them spread and present all over Social Media. They are talked about on Twitter, Facebook, You tube, Friend-feed, people are blogging and writing actively about Chipotle. Let’s look at blogging trends of and with Chipotle in the following graph:
Based on IceRocket’s blog trend tool, the average no. of blogs posted from February 27th 2011 till March 22nd 2011 are 164.83 posts per day. Therefore, on an average, there were 0.0437% of posts. So, on a total, 4,945 blogs were posted during that time frame. People have been posting various blogs on varied topics with positive and negative responses. The customers blog about their experience at Chipotle, what they ate, how that dish tasted, how the service at that Chipotle franchisee was, how the interiors were and many relevant topics. As a vegetarian, I read various blogs on new vegetarian options introduced in Chipotle. Kathy Freston,
the New York Times bestselling author of Quantum wellness who is a vegan and lost weight by converting to a vegan suggested Chipotle as a money-saving option due to Chipotle’s vegan option. There was another blog wherein the author has written the recipe of Vegetarian Nachos, vegan chocolate cake, vegan salsa. Now, that sounds healthy to me. People go to the grocery store and buy Chipotle products reading various blog posts. Here’s a link that gives an example of the same: http://kate-inspired.blogspot.com/2011/03/going-to-grocery-store.html
Let’s look at Facebook and Chipotle now. The official Chipotle grill page on Facebook has 1,260,367 likes! According to Social Mention, on a average, per mention is made in 3 minutes. There are 25 unique authors for Chipotle on Facebook. Sentimentally, 9% sound positive about Chipotle, 13% are neutral and 3% are negative responses. There is 50% likelihood that Chipotle is discussed on facebook. There is a 50% r
each of Chipotle on Facebook i.e. the measure of range of influence due to various Chipotle mentions is 50%. Here are some examples of mixed responses on Facebook:
I swear I have two stomachs one for chipotle and one for other foods
27 minutes ago via Text Message
if someone brung me Chipotle steak burrito wit everything and a lemon that would be the best birthday present omg!
·
· 2 people like this.
If u culd b wht u wanted 2 b wen u were a kid wht wuld u b? I wanted 2 b a nutritionist. But chipotle is not healthy sonographer is my dream now :-)
Some of the top key words used on Facebook are “love, tacos, menu, empanizado, cherry, cheddar, topped, rice."
Now, let’s look at twitter. Each mention is made on an average of 17 seconds. There are 428 unique authors and 21 retweets. According to Social Mention and Trendistic, there is 18% likelihood that Chipotle is discussed on Twitter. Sentimentally, a ratio of 5:1 is positive mentions to those that are generally negative. Based on the various mentions on Twitter, there’s a likelihood that 13% of the individuals are passionate and are talking repeatedly about Chipotle. Some of the top keywords used are food, Mexican, grill, burrito, chicken, sauce in order of popularity descending. Let's look at the graph in the trends followed by Chipotle:
Here are some Twitter mixed comments shared between various customers about Chipotle:
I just murdered that Chipotle burrito RIP chipotle chicken burrito 5:58pm-6:07pm #First48
2 min ago from Echofon · Retweet · Reply· Favorite · Translate
RT @Diosa_Preciosa: #HonestlyChipotle is good, but it's not great. It's so over rated.
8 min ago from Twitter for Android ·Retweet · Reply · Favorite · Translate
@SquidMaccc I still lubb yah Chipotle
10 min ago from Tweet Button · Retweet ·Reply · Favorite · Translate
The customers also share pictures on Twitter by clicking them live:
Chipotle is mentioned highly on the following social media sources: Identica, Digg, Twitter, Photobucket, Stumbleupon. Since there are many Chipotle customers or target customers using Facebook, Google_blog, Youtube and Picasaweb. We should figure out various ways and strategies in increasing the popularity among the target customers in the above mentioned Social media sources. I have also posted a couple of videos that have been shared by various fans of Chipotle in my blog. Based on these trends, let’s look at some of the Social Media recommendations that I will discuss in my next blog.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Groundswell Transforms!
The Groundswell Transforms attempts to prepare the reader for implications of embracing these new ways of engaging the consumer. A major consideration, and one that organizations are not always prepared for is the notion of giving up control. This is an essential step to truly leverage the power of the Groundswell, but requires a fundamental change throughout the organization.Another impact to the organization as a whole is the idea of leveraging the tools of the Groundswell inside the company itself. When I worked in CNN, the company provided employees with blogs, wikis and forums to generate internal collaboration. It is not enough, however, to simply make the tools available. Often it is felt that leaders must drive the use of these tools, or they will not be widely adopted. If the company's leadership does not recognize the significance of such relationships or means of engagement, that perception will be perpetuated down the ranks. On the flip-side, however, it is recognized that it's "nearly impossible to force social technologies on organizations from top sown, because by their definition, these technologies require the participation of [the] employees." It's important that everyone in the organization embrace this new way of doing business.
The last chapter, the future of the Groundswell, paints a picture of what the future holds. Again, this is not focused on specific technologies or tools, but rather on how relationships are evolving and how to be prepared for them.
Groundswell is a well-crafted thoughtful book. The book is not a high-level theoretical tome on how organizations must adapt to this new way of business. Rather, it provides guidance, encouragement and plenty of anecdotal evidence to individuals who sense the change, and want to be on the forefront.
Now that I have read the book, I feel even more prepared to actually put these practices in place. This book has provided plenty of evidence showing the benefits of this shift, and hopefully will help accelerate this evolution in how organizations conduct business.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Facebook "like" button - a new marketing strategy
Facebook "Like" button update
After months of updates to "Like" button, Facebook has released an update that fundamentally changes the button's functionality to that of a "Share" button. Now after hitting the Like button, a full story with a headline, blurb and thumbnail will be posted to our profile wall. We will also be given an option to comment on the story link. Previously, only a link to the story would appear in the recent activity, often going unnoticed by users. I feel this is a great marketing strategy to reach out to out target audience and also to give out the message out there in the world! Though, users might think twice about hitting the button, given how prominently it will appear on their walls and in their networks' news feeds, it should ultimately increase traffic to publishers' websites.
Perhaps the change was necessary. Because it was never made clear to users as many never understood what it meant to click Like on a piece of content. Making the result of the same as the Share button could bring stronger user expectations, ultimately fashioning a better user experience.
Facebook "Like" button update
Come to think of it, it was quite a logical move to get rid of the Share button and replace it with the Like one. It also brings more benefits if you have a commercial website. I just hope that they will ass the functionality to change the meta data (like what the "Share" button does), because many times what has been passed from the source is not exactly what you want your friends to look at. Same does for a thumbnail (for example, something unrelated, like a PDF icon). Liking something is much different from wanting to share it. I like things more frequently than I share them - and make a conscious decision to share. Therefore I feel that this idea holds good for commercial websites and organizations. This new action may make it sound dynamic and noticeable initially, but Share button is already doing its job as a good tool for bookmarking content. I also think that the "Like" button is such a casual action by the user. Putting it in prominence to actual comments doesn't make sense. What does make sense it will drive traffic and more page views for those links. From a user's perspective I think it's annoying!
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Energize and Embrace the Groundswell!
I mentioned in my last review, that Groundswell can be termed as a "Social Media Bible" for many Social Media professionals. The next few chapters of Part 2 went deeper into how to energize and embrace the Groundswell and how to create an organizational environment where our employess can accept the change as well. Organizational behavior and cultual shift is an area of great interest for me, and a favouraite topic to discuss in my own presentations.Let me start with one of the chapters in the second half of the book that dealt with energizing the Groundswell. Chapter 7 was an excellent chapter as the autors went into detail about the steps to harnessing the energy and momentum generated by a Groundswell. I particularly like the way they offer techniques for "energizing your enthusiasts" and a breakdown of complex information into helpful case studies including the following: Dell, ebags, Constant Contact and Lego. Another favouraite part of Groundswell, several of the case histories throughout the book included an "ROI Ratings and Reviews" section. I love a book that can break out a cost analysis and a profit analysis at the end of each example:
Dell
Constant Contact.
I might be a little biased toward this subject, but I thought an internal organization look at the Groundswell was covered nicely, "How Connecting with the Groundswell Transforms Your Company," and "The Groundswell inside your company," which gets the employees involved and participating in Groundswell thinking. I believe that anything you want to achieve externally, must be accepted and valued within the organization first. The employees are the greatest brand champions and should be used to organization's advantage. However, culture can be one of the toughest challenges. Even if you listen, plan and social outreach programs in place, a lack of buy-in or participation on behalf of organization's employees will prove counter-productive towards overall social success.
Groundswell outlines the best approach to getting the entire organization on board. A few of the helpful hints included:
- "First, start small" and pick your battles strategically
- "Second, educate your executives" by showing them the research
- "Third, get the right people to run your strategy" who usually are the people who are most passionate about relationships with customers
- "Fourth, get your agency and technology partners in synch" and make sure they understand the Groundswell
- "Fifth, plan for the next step and the long term" so you know exactly where the Groundswell thinking will take your company
Energize!
Embrace!
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