Facebook Posts: On The Grind vs. Emily's Coffee Shoppe

Social media is always causing a battle between businesses in the world today, especially smaller businesses where most of their popularity is from social media. In todays society it makes it much easier to follow the processes of what's going on around us without actually having to put out any effort. This is what we tend to do on social media, is we follow something that we are interested in so we can have access to it at all times. Following a small business can allow you to not only show support but it can keep you updated on certain promotions, new products and events they are taking apart in around the community.

Smaller businesses that usually thrive on social media a lot of the times are the least popular. This is often because they only get attention when something beneficial is being posted by them that other people want to take advantage of. In this case I examined On The Grind, an uprising business in the small community of New Braunfels, TX and I also examined Emily's Coffee Shoppe, an even smaller coffee shop in the heart of Cibolo, TX. Both of these businesses use their Facebook accounts for the exact reason of wanting to get their business seen to get people to come try their coffee. Conducting a small analysis of a small sampling of likes, comments, and shares on their Facebook pages, I have come across some interesting results for each individual business I examined. I have found that if the company is making a connection with the audience and the audience is getting something out of it, it can than become a successful post.

Going through the Facebook page of OTG I found that they have definitely created a mass audience for themselves, well at least more of an audience than Emily's Place. I found that most of the posts that got the most activity were for specials that the company was giving such as 4 drinks for $10, or 9 stamps on a stamp card for 1 drink, or 1$ smalls, $2 mediums and $3 large drinks. These types of things benefit people because they can not only save money, but they can also enjoy their favorite drink with benefitting towards the next purchase. This not only gives a reason for the customers to come back but it also gives them a chance to engage with the company and share the great news with their followers to help them save some money.

 

This was an example of a post that was shared over 50 times. This is because someone had the opportunity to win free coffee for an entire month. This has something beneficial not only for the customer but to the business as well. People are going to share this because its an opportunity to win free coffee, who wouldn't want free coffee for an entire month. So the company is aware that this is going to get shared. Now the company not only made this a high shared post, but they also integrated a contest into the post. Now people are having to go to the stand, order a drink, decorate the cup, post a picture of it online and cross their fingers in hopes to win. This is now promoting OTG and getting interaction with their customers in a positive way. This totally works in every aspect of a successful post. 

 

Here is another example of one of their high posts. This one is buying 4 drinks for only $10. This post is connecting with the audience because they are posting it out and they know its going to be shared, and its also giving the audience something in return, which is the promotion. These types of posts seem to be the ones that work best for OTG and are the ones with the highest activity of likes, shares and comments.

 

However Emily's Place has an entire different agenda, this company doesn't have as great of an audiences as OTG has. This coffee shop is located in an even smaller town Cibolo. Here is mainly local people and less traffic comes through the area, but it is interesting as to how the same style posts as OTG also work for Emily's Place.

Here is the graph showing results for likes, comments and shares for Emily's Place.

 

 

 

This post has one of the highest counts of social media activity on their page. This post invites the customers to come out and take a picture in this fall theme booth and advertises their wonderful coffee. This makes a connection with the audience and it also gives them something, a great picture spot. Emily's place also fails in some other ways:

This post is one that didn't get all that much interaction whatsoever. This is just inviting their customers to come to their coffee shop. However, as someone on social media there is no reason to share this. It does not establish a connection with the audience and it doesn't give them anything. Not only this, but they don't even use a graphic that helps share who they are. A picture of their coffee shop would be much more effective, but this generic picture kind of makes them seem un-legit. These are the types of posts are almost irrelevant to the social media world and will not hold up. If someone saw a post like this versus a post from OTG people in Cibolo are probably more likely to drive to New Braunfels to save some money and get a great coffee.

Social media posts are more likely to be effective with proper imaging, making a connection with the audience they are targeting and giving the audience something they want. When all or some of these connections are made, the post gets higher numbers. Everyone loves coffee but which shop would you be more likely to go to based on these posts?