It's a Miracle

If you've been on any form of social media lately, I'm sure you've seen the hundreds of posts about UGA Miracle. UGA Miracle raises money throughout the year for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. This past week, Miracle had their $100 day, where each member of UGA Miracle aims to raise $100 in one day. In the spring, towards Miracle's total reveal at Dance Marathon, news feeds are flooded with people aiming to raise money to achieve their personal goal. In order to achieve these goals, members post on social media encouraging donations. Some of their tactics included Venmo requesting people for donations and offering things in exchange for donations. For example, for a $5 donation, they will change their profile picture to an embarrassing picture from middle school, for $50, they will wear a funny costume to class, etc. Additionally, members post a story of how they got involved in Miracle and pictures of themselves with children from Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, where the donations go.

Instagram stories, Snapchat stories, and Facebook posts blow up whenever there is a goal that needs to be reached. Hundreds of people view each post or story, bringing a huge amount of awareness to this cause. With the recent surge of Venmo, it is now easier than ever to donate to people's totals. In addition to sending Venmos to people's totals, the people raising the money are able to send Venmos to people, usually for little amounts such as $1-$5. By Venmo requesting people for small amounts, the people receiving the Venmo requests are not likely to say no, since it is such a small amount, and requesting a small amount from a lot of people quickly adds up.

I'm not affiliated with UGA Miracle, but it is amazing how social media can promote a cause and raise so much money. Through social media, members of UGA Miracle are able to raise money towards their totals, often even raising their total goal. It also raises a huge amount of awareness for Children's Healthcare, since members are creating so many impressions with all of their followers. If you ask any UGA student, they are sure to know what UGA Miracle is and have seen people trying to raise money for it, which is incredible, especially considering that this is a non-profit and does not have a marketing budget. This is word-of-mouth marketing at its finest, and it is even more impressive and phenomenal that it is bringing awareness and raising money for such an amazing cause.

Mama's Boy MarkEATing

Mama's Boy is one of the most popular restaurants in Athens, with up to a 2 hour wait for Sunday brunch. Their infamous biscuits and breakfast dishes result in countless Instagrams of their food and long lines in which customers are more than happy to wait. Mama's Boy is one of the best local social media marketers, using Instagram as their main marketing platform. Mama's Boy's Instagram is filled with pictures of their famous and photogenic food, many of which are submitted by customers. By using customers' content, Mama's Boy is able to both involve their customers and market in new and different ways. In addition to posting pictures of their normal menu items, Mama's Boy also goes to Instagram to promote their daily and weekly specials. For example, every Tuesday is "Pancake Tuesday", the only day when Mama's Boy serves pancakes, and their Instagram features pancakes with that week's special twist. Additionally, they also post pictures of their menu board and of plates featuring their daily specials to help draw in customers.

 

Due to their success, Mama's Boy recently opened up a second location on Macon Highway. This second location has the same menu as the original location, but is bigger and has more parking (a solution to one of the biggest complaints about the original location). Although the new location is bigger and has been open for a few weeks, there is little evidence of this on their social media. On Instagram, their main platform, Mama's Boy did not post anything notifying followers of their new location. Mama's Boy has also not updated their website to include their new location, leaving customers like myself to wonder where it is and if it is even open yet. Mama's Boy does have a new and separate Facebook page for their Macon Highway location, but it seems as though that is their only acknowledgment of the new location. When I searched for Mama's Boy's new location on Google, I couldn't find any information about where the new location was or when it would open, except for a few outdated articles that were written when they decided to look for a second location. If Mama's Boy wants to have a similar loyal customer base as they do with their Oak Street location, they need to make information about the Macon Highway location easily accessible, and should promote their new location to their customers through Instagram.

Life of Kylie

The other day, I was watching Kylie Jenner's new show, Life of Kylie (no judgement please). Obviously, the whole Kardashian/Jenner clan is brilliant at marketing themselves, with each member of the family branching out and creating their own unique brands and products. Love them or hate them, the Kardashians have created an empire with their brands and crash the internet with almost every product release. One of the Kardashian/Jenner's most successful brands is Kylie Jenner's new makeup line, Kylie Cosmetics.

Kylie turned a controversy into a fortune with her new makeup line. It all began when Kylie was accused of getting lip injections when she was as young as 15. After attempting to shut down the rumors, Kylie eventually embraced her key attribute and began manufacturing lip kits for her loyal fans. These lip kits include a lip gloss and lip liner, where consumers can overdraw their lips to achieve a look similar to Kylie's. Kylie became such an icon after these lip kits sold out in literally seconds that E! created a show just about Kylie. A key focus of this show is obviously about Kylie's lip line, since that is her personal claim to fame. On one episode, Kylie takes a tour of the factory where her lip kits are made. In addition to going behind the scenes on the show, Kylie snapchats and Instagrams almost every second of her life. A large part of these posts are also focused on her lip kits. On the factory tour featured on the show, Kylie also posted videos to her Snapchat and Instagram to show fans how their lip kits are made. Additionally, she posts videos whenever she comes out with a new lip color and showing how it looks on different skin tones.

Because her lip kits are so popular, Kylie Cosmetics knock offs are being sold. One episode features Kylie and her best friend attempting to buy a knock off and asking questions to the vendors, only to be shut down and told that they were not allowed to buy since they had cameras. The goal was to show Kylie's fans and customers how dangerous knock off lip kits are and how hard it is to spot the difference between a fake and the real thing.

Kylie has mastered her social media, allowing fans and customers to feel like they are a part of the lip kit process, from manufacturing to purchase. Her social media presence also shows fans that Kylie cares about their wellbeing by addressing the fact that fake lip kits were being sold and that they are not safe to use. By engaging her audience, Kylie has created loyal fans and customers, who will gladly wait in line for hours or sell out a supply in seconds for what is no more than a common lip gloss. Kylie has made a distinct brand, differentiating herself from her famous sisters and creating her own successful empire.

One for the Brooks

Thursday night in Atlanta, Garth Brooks performed the inagural concert in the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The new stadium was completely sold out, with over 80,000 fans in attendance to see the 6 time ACM Entertainer of the Year on his world tour. Between the infamous performer and the fact that Brooks was opening up Mercedes-Benz Stadium for concerts, there was understandably a lot of hype for this enormous event.

However, when the opener for Brooks began to play, Mercedes-Benz Stadium began receiving complaints that the sound was unclear and the acoustics were off, perhaps due to the metal stadium and closed metal roof. MBS responded to these complaints with a tweet saying, "Audio engineers are working through the sound issues with the artists. Garth Brooks will take the stage soon." When Brooks took the stage, the sound problem got even worse due to the fact that Brooks' band and vocals were louder than the opener's. Especially in the upper levels of the stadium, the sound quality was so poor that fans left only a few songs into Brooks' set, even after spending hundreds of dollars on tickets. Fans with floor seats were able to hear the songs more clearly, however they still reported a poor sound quality.

The only public statement that Mercedes-Benz Stadium made about the sound issues was the tweet before Brooks took the stage, but no mention of the sound during or after Brooks' set. After the concert, an email survey was sent to ticket holders to rate their concert experience. Many of these questions seemed to be leading fans to blame the sound problem on Brooks, although it was clearly a stadium problem. From most of the online reviews, fans seem to acknowledge the facts that it was not Brooks' fault for the poor sound, and that a world renowned performer would certainly have all of his equipment in check and working. Although there have been numerous national articles written about this concert in a negative light, Mercedes-Benz Stadium has not officially addressed the complaints and is not offering blanket refunds for tickets.

Especially with it being the first ever concert in the new stadium, Mercedes-Benz Stadium should make a public statement acknowledging the issues with the new stadium and offer some sort of refund or credit to attendees, no matter how small. At the very least, Mercedes-Benz should inform fans that they are working to fix the sound issues in the future, to ease future ticket holders' concerns about upcoming concerts, and reduce the risk of impacting ticket sales because of the negative publicity. Because it is a new stadium, optics for Mercedes-Benz Stadium are more important than ever, and Mercedes-Benz Stadium has done a very poor job of easing fans' minds and making fans feel like they are heard, something that could easily be done with social media in today's world.

Fans Brave the New Stadium

While at SparkSouth this past Friday, I sat in on the keynote speech about the social media marketing that went into the opening of SunTrust Park, the new home of the Atlanta Braves. The marketing team did a great job of promoting the new stadium and addressing concerns that fans had about the new stadium. Being from Atlanta, I was very aware of all of the concerns and complaints that came along with the move from Turner Field to SunTrust Park, and I was pleasantly surprised with how well the Braves' marketing team handled all of these issues.

One of the examples shown in the keynote speech about how they addressed fan concerns was a video about the parking matter. Fans were rightfully worried about where to park when attending a Braves game, especially since Cobb County seems to have less parking than downtown Atlanta. The Braves released a video poking fun at how fans were focused on parking more than they were on baseball. The video featured Allen Iverson at a press conference fielding questions about parking at the new stadium to which he responded, "Parking? The best franchise in all of baseball and we're in here talking about parking?", showing that the Braves had of course considered that issue and had already solved it before it became a problem. This video was posted on the Braves' Facebook page and was shared by fans, making the promotion of this video completely free. People also loved the humor of the video, prompting it to get liked and shared even more, which both promoted the Braves and shared information about the new stadium.

SunTrust Park has over 14,000 parking spots in addition to an Uber lot that is just for dropping off and picking up fans. In order to park at SunTrust Park, fans must purchase a parking pass for a specific lot before arriving to the game, unlike at Turner Field where you could just show up and pay a parking attendant to park in a lot. This has made parking easier and more efficient, especially with the fact that parking has now been streamlined and is linked to your phone with a digital parking pass.

The Braves' marketing team anticipated the concerns of fans, listened to new concerns, and addressed these concerns before the doors of SunTrust Park even opened. This made the opening of SunTrust Park more enjoyable for fans, since they knew all of their worries had been considered. Fans were able to focus on the game instead of worrying about parking and other issues that usually come with a new stadium. Through the promotion of the parking video, the Braves were able to address concerns, share the answers to frequently asked questions, and also promote the Braves and the new stadium. All of this cost the Braves very little, but the return was immense, prompting happy customers who will continue to return to SunTrust Park.

Terry-fic Connections

The Terry College of Business is one of the most accredited programs at UGA. One of the reasons for this is because of Terry's loyal alumni that feel a strong connection to Terry, even if they did not graduate recently. One of the ways Terry maintains this connection is through its social media. Terry uses its social media platforms, specifically Facebook and Instagram, to stay connected and build relationships with Terry students and alumni. 

With Terry being in the middle of building the new Business Learning Community, it is important for the members of the Terry community to feel connected to Terry, especially alumni. Since the alumni were not able to experience the new Terry buildings, it is essential for Terry to still make them feel a part of the business school, even though a new era of Terry has begun. One way Terry kept both current students and alumni connected and informed during the construction of the new Business Learning Center is through Facebook and Instagram updates. Every time there was significant progress on any of the new buildings, Terry uploaded a picture to both their Facebook and Instagram profiles. In addition to pictures, Terry's Facebook page posted drone videos, showing aerials of the new BLC, and 360° views of the BLC courtyard to generate excitement. 

In addition to keeping members of the business school updated on construction, Terry uses its social media to highlight accomplished alumni and students. On the alumni side, Terry informs students when notable alumni are coming to speak for "Terry Talks". On the student side, Terry posts to notify followers when students win contests such as sales competitions. Additionally, pictures of outstanding students are posted with quotes about how Terry has positively impacted their life or advice for post-grad life. 

One thing Terry really prides itself in is the quality of learning the business school provides and the success of their students after graduation. Terry was recently ranked the #14 public business school by U.S. News and World Report. This report also ranks Terry as having the #2 (#1 public) risk management program, #5 (#3 public) real estate program, #12 (#7 public) accounting program, and the #14 (#10 public) MIS program. After graduation, 97% of Terry undergraduate students and 93% of full-time MBA students were employed within 3 months of graduation. Terry posted links to these articles and statistics on their Facebook page, which enabled followers to share and like the post, and therefore increased the post's reach and allowed the article to receive more attention. 

Terry College climbs in U.S. News & World Report rankings

Through their social media marketing, The Terry College of Business is able to connect with prospective students, current students, and alumni. By updating their social media regularly, Terry makes all of their members feel like they are a part of the Terry community, regardless of campus, age, or graduation year. The ultimate goal of Terry's social media marketing is to increase loyalty to the Terry College of Business, create a larger network within the Terry community, and promote giving to Terry. Building these relationships with students and alumni through social media makes them feel like they are still part of the Terry family, which builds loyalty and makes alumni more likely to give back to Terry. Ultimately, this all increases Terry's national presence and will make Terry stronger and more successful in years to come. 

Chick-fil-bae Beechwood

If you've ever been to Chick-fil-a Beechwood, then you'll agree that it is one of the most efficiently run businesses ever. Between their incredible customer service, scary fast drive thru, and unbelievable food, CFA keeps their customers coming back regularly. One of CFA Beechwood's biggest incentives to come back (besides a #3 combo) is their regular giveaways and freebies that only require you to visit the Beechwood location in order to redeem them.

Every few weeks, Chick-fil-a Beechwood will post a week worth of giveaways. For example, yesterday they posted their "Summer Send-Off" offers, which included a different offer for each day. Offers include BOGO milkshakes, BOGO chicken biscuits, and a free drink with the purchase of a breakfast meal. One of their most popular promotions is college night. Every Thursday, CFA Beechwood offers a free entrée or dessert with the purchase of a meal when you show your college ID. If you try to go to CFA on a Thursday night, the line will be out the door and there will inevitably be a wait to get a seat. For such a simple giveaway as a small dessert, CFA is able to draw a huge crowd every Thursday night and increase customer loyalty.

Another popular promotion is receipt night. For receipt night, if you bring your receipt back within a specified period of time, you can receive your same order from receipt night for free. This both increases customer loyalty and encourages customers to make a return visit, which will hopefully prompt another purchase and/or prompt more visits to CFA Beechwood. All of these promotions are posted on CFA Beechwood's Instagram account which is updated daily, and also features photos of their employees and menu items around meal times to put CFA in their followers' minds when they're thinking about where to eat.

On their Facebook page, CFA Beechwood posts all of their promotions featured on Instagram, and in addition, posts videos of their staff, new food truck, and posts contests where followers can win free CFA. They also allow customers to RSVP to their events such as college night and breakfast for dinner in order to promote the event and encourage people's friends to go to the events as well. On game day, CFA's Facebook page wishes everyone a happy game day with a picture of CFA food to remind customers to come into CFA before or after the game, or use their catering trays for tailgates. At the game, CFA updates customers on where the CFA food truck will be in relation to the game and where CFA will be sold once customers get into the game.

Chick-fil-a Beechwood is one of the best restaurants, and businesses in general, that I have ever been to. Their marketing team ensures that their followers on Instagram and Facebook are kept informed about their various promotions and offers to increase store traffic, and ultimately, revenue. CFA Beechwood has some of the most loyal customers I have ever seen, which is due to a perfect mix of efficiency, customer service, and social media interaction with their customers.