This post is the second in a five part series called “From the Bottom of the Freezer to Top of Mind” that provides a social media case study for a national brand that entered the realm of social media in 2013 with no prior presence. See Part 1, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 here.

Michelina’s is a nationally-distributed frozen food brand based out of Minneapolis, but had no social media presence before coming to Spyder Trap in late 2012. Through a combination of new responsive website design, paid online advertising and organic social media engagement we were able to not only establish the brand on Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels, but were able to make the brand relevant in a crowded digital space.

Creating Social Media Strategy With A Holistic Approach

After taking the time to research how Michelina’s stacked up online and finding that they were behind their competitors, we set to work creating a social media strategy for them. We knew that this was going to require much more than a Facebook page and some tweets. Social media may be an valuable part of a brand’s online presence, but it can’t be the focal point of your digital strategy.

With that in mind, we took a holistic approach to the Michelina’s digital strategy, taking into account everything from email marketing and community management to search engine optimization and paid advertising.

Our research, planning and discussions led us to build a social media strategy around building brand loyalty in an industry lacking it. Social media would help Michelina’s connect one-on-one, amplify existing advocates, create new advocates and build brand awareness.

With the strategy created, we then set out to leverage the following tactical components to deliver on this:

• Design and launch the new Michelinas.com using responsive web design
• Establish Facebook and Twitter profiles
• Launch paid advertising effort to build audience and awareness
• Revamp the email marketing strategy
• Integrate all digital tools to support and benefit each other

A Website Redesign For All

First and foremost was creating a new Michelinas.com website that would encompass that new branding we were given, and serve as the central hub for our other online efforts.

The old site had many flash elements, so iOS devices like the iPad and iPhone left the user with a giant hole in their web experience. The new website was redesigned using responsive web design to create an engaging website for all users on any type of device.

Establishing Social Media Profiles

Social media profiles were also created for Facebook and Twitter. However, because it is 2013 and Michelina is a common first name, the username “Michelinas” wasn’t available. Instead, we moved forward with “Mama Michelina” as our social media username and persona that would be used across all social media channels.

This not only allowed us to have a consistent username between Facebook, Twitter, and any future social media channels, but provides ample opportunity to make the brand more personable by making Mama Michelina the focal point during our community management.

Pro tip: Consistency is as crucial for social media profiles as it is for your website!

Finding the Voice of Mama Michelina: The Value of Tone and Content Strategy

Tone was a major part of the new branding we were given, and had to be incorporated our social media plan and our content strategy. Our content strategy was two-fold.

First, the tone of our prewritten content matched the new branding and reflected the language on the website. Important themes were positivity and life enthusiasm, as well as warm and wholesome language.

Second, because one on one community engagement was a key part of our early outreach plan, the tone on Twitter was adjusted to better fit the channel. The way many of the users who were talking about Michelina’s on Twitter were tweeting didn’t provide as many opportunities to use the warm and wholesome branded tone. To counter that, we introduced more humor into our community engagement for broader appeal, while keeping the overall positivity in tone.

Case Study Part Two Recap:

1. Consider your website, mobile, and e-commerce goals when developing your social media strategy.
2. Consistency in channel and account names is crucial, make it easy for your audience!
3. Tone is an important part of your social media content strategy.

Up Next In Part Three

In the next post in this From the Bottom of the Freezer to Top of Mind series, I’ll provide the first lesson we learned from this experience, about the importance of agility in digital marketing.