Social Media Auditing and Tone

 Chapter 3 in the textbook discusses social media marketing and strategy. It emphasizes that brands need a plan and should not post content blindly. There are roughly 10 steps in the process of creating a strong social media marketing plan. Today, I will focus on two steps, which are conducting a social media audit and establishing a tone. A social media audit involves researching various platforms to determine a brand's current image. Tone, on the other hand, is the voice or personality behind a brand on these platforms.

In our last class, we conducted brand audits in small groups for different companies like Chipotle, Nutter Butter and Alani. We researched each company's platforms, whether they were active, their number of followers, types of content, and engagement levels. My group chose Chipotle and created a spreadsheet analyzing their Instagram, X and Facebook accounts. We found that across all platforms, Chipotle consistently posts daily content featuring new menu items, giveaways, food photos, and humorous tweets. This brings me to the topic of tone.

I think tone is one of the most important elements in social media marketing. Establishing a consistent tone across platforms is essential because it represents a company's personality and the way the audience perceives the brand. Tone also helps identify a brand's target market. The textbook highlights Wendy's social media as an example, showing how the company uses a sarcastic and entertaining tone, often poking fun at competitors. While this approach may not appeal to everyone, the consistency is Wendy's brand identity.

Overall, I enjoyed analyzing different companies' brands and learning how they strategically shape the tone behind their content. This chapter has given me a greater appreciation for the work that goes on behind the scenes in a company's social media department. From now on, I will look at ads, posts and tweets differently to understand the message the brands are trying to convey.