Week 8

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog! This week my Kelly was out of the store so my task for my week was to stick to our reels posting schedule and take photos to post on instagram stories to keep the instagram account active. After talking with the assistant manager she concluded that most customers find the store either through the neighborhood/community or by searching sustainable shops online. However, she does admit that our presence on social media keeps Rue Saint Paul relevant and gets people excited about new products and events. This week we posted the “We work at RSP” video as well as the “Espresso” video. Both did decently well and the espresso video got 3,057 views in under 24 hours and received 25% more plays than any of our last reels, which was a great outcome. The “We work at RSP” video got 1,862 views which is less, but it got almost twice the amount of likes. I think that since the “Espresso” video was only 6 seconds long, it was easy for people to rewatch and that was why it got so many views. For the instagram stories, I took pictures trying on some of the new jewelry items we have in the store. After almost 24 hours the views on each story are about 140. I posted 9 consecutive stories and each one had less views than the previous one which makes me think that people do not actually pay attention to what their stories are and they just mindlessly tap through. I also did stories of new pre-loved items we got in the store, as well as trying on their nail polish colors. I just posted the pre-loved stories so I will see how they have done after 24 hours. I don’t think that stories are the best way to get the attention of new customers, but I think it is a good way to stay active on social media and cater to current followers. 

Outside of my placement I began reading about humor in social media. “Creating Valuable Content on Social Media” by Natalia Pozdniakova. Pozdniakova describes how marketing is now somewhat a form of entertainment. In the past advertisements were something that interrupted people’s entertainment on TV, however now, it is concentrated on social media to the point where it is intermixed with people’s social media feeds. This is why humor has now become a huge part of social media marketing. She noted how it is important for companies to know their audience and understand what would be funny to them. In a 2013 study by Milward Brown, researchers found that “ about half of all advertisements around the world involve humor to some extent. Also over 60 percent of humoristic advertisements have a great impact on the audience which makes them most memorable” (Pozdniakova 16). Rue Saint Paul knows its audience and has been able to make humorous content that builds their image and appeals to customers. Right now we’ve also been working on looking at current trends online and identifying if they can be altered to fit the company’s instagram personality. 

In the upcoming weeks I plan to start closing up my survey (I am going to keep it open a while longer to try to get as many responses as possible) and reviewing results. I plan to continue reading about humor and social media and start on my final presentation and deliverable.