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Social Media Campaign

By Natalie Webb and Kim Hill

Communications 344: E-Media and Digital Writing

Fall 2014

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Table of Contents

Meeting 1………………………………………………………………………Page 3

Meeting 2………………………………………………………………………Page 4

Meeting 3………………………………………………………………………Page 5

Target Audience Analysis………………………………………....…………...Page 6

SWOT Analysis………………………………………………………………..Page 7

Blog…………………………………………………………………………….Page 8

Evaluation………………………………………………………………………Page 10

Twitter…………………………………………………………………………..Page 11

Evaluation…………………………………………………………………........Page 15

Flickr………………………………………………………………………...….Page 16

Evaluation………………………………………………………………………Page 20

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Meeting 1

We met with our client Mike Meehan, a Communication Specialist at Peabody Energy.

Mr. Meehan has been working there for seven months as the first full time social media worker

at the company. In a typical workday, he manages the content that gets put out for Twitter and

LinkedIn, keeps updated on Hootsuite and any important news related to the field, and addresses

negativity surrounding the company or the market. He gave us an in-depth look at Peabody’s

current social media status and the background of the company.

Peabody Energy has only made social media a priority within the last two years. There

are two major social media sites. The company utilizes Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube to

promote their objectives. Twitter is generally updated once or twice a day whereas LinkedIn is

typically updated once a week. They have started producing videos on the benefits of using coal

and land reclamation.

The overall objectives for their social media campaign are advocacy, education and

promotion of coal as a source of energy. Our ideas for e-media pieces that would benefit the

company are to produce an SMR. Also, since Facebook is an under-utilized medium we would

like to create a campaign centered around this site that they could potentially use in the future.

Mr. Meehan mentioned a desire to start a Flickr account, so we would like to look into the

possibilities this site has to offer. We would also like to create a hash tag campaign for their

current Twitter account.

The meeting as a whole went really well. We got a lot of information and so good

beginnings for pieces we can create for their company. Our next scheduled meeting with Mr.

Meehan is two weeks from now on Tuesday, October 14th.

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Meeting 2

We just completed our second meeting with Mr. Meehan from Peabody Energy. During

our meeting we went over the possible social media channels we laid out as potential project

ideas. Out of those we choose these three:

1.) Blog Post

Ultimately, with input from Mr. Meehan, we decided on a blog as one of our choices because

Peabody is currently looking to enhance their online presence while still trying to cute costs. The

blog is an excellent option because it is relatively free. It would allow Peabody to connect with

and respond to hundreds of readers. Peabody could review and comment on coal articles in this

blog. Peabody could also share pictures and videos. A blog would allow Peabody to respond to

negative comments directly.

2.) Twitter campaign

For our twitter option we plan to develop a hashtag campaign to promote community and

environmental work that Peabody participates in. A possible hashtag idea we created would be

#goodguycoal. We would also ideally generate ideas on how to promote the campaign.

3.) Flickr

For this portion of the final project we would create a mock Flickr page for Peabody. We would

use photos currently up on their website to create a layout. We would organize these photos into

potential albums. We would also develop strategies for posting and updating the Flickr account.

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Meeting 3

We presented the pieces we created for Peabody Energy. Mr. Meehan really liked our

ideas for how they could utilize twitter or blogging for Peabody as they move forward in

developing their e-media presence. In regards to the blog he liked our suggestion of creating

employees spotlight posts that highlight the charities they give to and how Peabody matches

those contributions. They are currently implementing something similar internally, so the

external element would be a great compliment to that.

He was really excited to see our twitter suggestions. Peabody’s social media staff previously

posted more about their charitable contributions and have for the past few months gotten away

from doing so. Our suggestions and critique of their current practices were a good indication that

they needed to get back on track posting more varied, less industry-specific content and become

engaged in larger national and international conversations. He did not have any negative

comments to offer nor any suggestions about how we could have done better.

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Target Audience Analysis

The target audience that we fleshed-out during our initial client meetings was extremely

broad. Peabody energy was simply looking to connect with more of the general public, as their

current messages are already very successfully communicated to company employees. We

decided to narrow the demographic to better direct our social media campaign.

Our primary research about the demographics that are utilizing the media platforms we

chose to use for this campaign suggests the largest audience available is millennial-aged people.

We are specifically targeting millennials between the ages of 18 and 24.

In addition to the suggested age range, our primary research indicates that women still

account for a larger percentage of users on all of the media channels we plan to use. We are not

focusing heavily on education level, income or gender. Our audience will likely, though not

necessarily, have at least some collegiate education and be socially and environmentally

conscious and may have a negative opinion of the company or coal energy. Our main concern is

to be as inclusive as possible and to engage with as many people as possible – although targeting

specifically the millennial generation.

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SWOT Analysis Strengths:

Peabody has a very detailed and organized website.

Peabody also already has a presence on social media sites, particularly Twitter and

LinkedIn – both of which it uses and updates frequently.

Peabody has made videos about coal and land reclamation – which it posts on its video

gallery on its website.

Weaknesses

While Peabody utilizes Twitter, its tweets are not very exciting. The posts are matter-of-

fact, solely coal-based. However, Peabody is missing the opportunity to become a part of

larger conversations with a larger audience. Peabody’s tweets tend to get lost amidst the

more exciting news-related content on Twitter.

Peabody does not have a presence on photo-sharing websites – although they do have a

lot of photos they could share.

Peabody is not present on Facebook; so, it is losing an opportunity to connect with

college students and the younger generation – many of whom are against coal because

they are not aware of the benefits of coal.

Peabody has a wealth of great videos. However, these videos are not advertised very

well; they occupy a place on the website – though, not a very prominent one.

Opportunities

Because Peabody’s message is so widespread and applies to everyone (almost everyone

who uses electricity), it could potentially join any social media website.

If Peabody would advertise its videos better, these videos would be a great opportunity

for Peabody to get its message out

Many people feel negatively toward Peabody because these people think that coal mining

is bad for the environment, and that carbon dioxide emissions will damage the

atmosphere. Peabody has the opportunity to educate these people through social media

sites if they would post more videos and pictures of land reclamation and the benefits and

safety of coal.

Threats

If Peabody got a Facebook, one downside would be negative comments. However, these

negative comments would happen – and do happen – whether or not Peabody has a

Facebook.

Negative comments are always a threat to companies, but they can quickly become

opportunities for education if they are addressed properly. Peabody could address the

comments that accuse Peabody of being against the environment with comments,

pictures, and videos that explain how coal mining and usage has greatly improved over

the last few decades.

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Blog

Campaign Title: Powering Change

Goals

Show what Peabody is doing in the community

Highlight individual employees to make Peabody more accessible

Overview

The blog would serve as a platform to increase Peabody’s visibility and direct traffic to

their twitter, company website, and sister sites for Advanced Energy for Life. The posts would

provide information on the St. Louis community and international charitable works Peabody is a

part of currently.

The biggest component of the blog would be doing employee spotlight posts- Post

featuring individual interviews about Peabody employees and how and why they give back. This

mirrors some of the internal communication elements (personal interviews in regards to job

description) that Peabody is doing internally and posting in linked in. The concept is designed to

put a more personal face on a large organization and show that they, as a company, are devoted

to giving back and having a positive impact on the world.

Timeline

The blog requires slightly less maintenance than twitter. We suggest posting at least once

a week. This gives enough time to plan for content and shoot video to incorporate with the post

as is necessary and to ensure quality of each post. It could be updated more if content allows.

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Blog Post

Employee Profile: Write about who they are. Their position within the company and what

charitable organizations they give to that Peabody matches and why they feel so strongly about

the cause.

Go on to include information on that charitable organization with links and images to

their website or other relevant content like event details if the non-profit is hosting upcoming

projects.

Dollars for Doers is a Peabody community outreach program that encourages employees

to give of their talent and personal time through volunteering. All part-time, full-time,

represented and non-represented employees, globally, may request up to a USD$1,000 company

donation toward an eligible nonprofit or its foreign equivalent, based on up to 40 volunteer hours

invested with organizations each calendar year.

End with a question: What charities do you think are most important and why? Be sure to

comment below…

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Evaluation

An important component of the blog would be including SEO words to help generate

traffic and links to the charitable organizations mentioned in employee spotlight posts. We would

use Hittail to figure out the best key words to incorporate in each post to help get our target

audience and to accomplish the goals outlined above. This would also help us analyze what

keywords are being used how the keywords change throughout the course of the campaign.

The second evaluation tool we would utilize is Statcounter. The URL and HTML

formatted into the blog would allow us to monitor traffic to the website. Saved logs of data from

Statcounter would be taken at each evaluation interval, so that we can compare them to previous

numbers. If traffic is not increasing by our set evaluation dates, we will look at the what

Because the blog will be updated less frequently than twitter, we expect that result of our

efforts will take longer to become noticeable; therefore the timeline of our evaluation will be

adjusted slightly. After two months we will analyze all of our data, as well as reader feedback or

engagement in order to make any necessary adjustments to SEO words, content and

personalization of pages.

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Twitter

Campaign Title: Powering Change

Goals

Increase followers

Increase retweets

Increase awareness of coal’s benefits and its new image

Become involved in larger conversations

Overview

This Twitter campaign is known as “Powering Change.” Many people today, when they

think of coal, call to mind images of child laborers and grime-covered men. In reality today, that

is not so. People need to be aware that coal mining today is a cleaner, safer process – and that it

does not harm the environment like it did in the past. The face of coal has changed, and coal has

the ability to foster change as well: change in the community, change in the environment, and

change in people’s everyday lives.

In order to gain more traction, Peabody needs to join a larger conversation, and this is an

important and beneficial conversation for them to join. If Peabody can promote a good image

for the company and for coal, - by promoting the image of caring for the community, addressing

people’s issues, becoming involved in trending topics that people care about - then they can more

adequately share their messages with everyone, and people will more readily accept those

messages. And if people see that Peabody and the coal industry are trying to make a difference –

which Peabody is – then people’s view of coal can be more easily changed.

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Timeline

As Twitter needs to be updated regularly, it would be best to post once a day. At least

once every two days, though, Peabody should tweet about a trending topic, or about the way in

which Peabody is “Powering Change.” These tweets can be in addition to the tweets that

Peabody already sends out daily.

Sample Tweets

[Include these two pictures]

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[Include the picture below or another Land Reclamation picture]

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Evaluation

Prior to the start of the campaign, we would take note of how many followers Peabody

has, and how many retweets and favorites they get. After one week of the campaign – in which

Peabody joined conversations and made their tweets more relatable to people – we would

evaluate any increases in followers, retweets, and favorites. We would continue to do the same

each week for a month, and then only evaluate every month.

Hootsuite is an ideal tool for managing Twitter – and Peabody already utilizes it. On

Hootsuite, the user can keep track of retweets, followers, mentions, and favorites. In addition,

the user can schedule tweets, view their home feeds, and keep track of new followers. Hootsuite

would be ideal particularly for the ability to have a stream of “mentions.” Viewing this stream,

one can keep track of who is saying what about the campaign, so that Peabody can address these

issues. Hootsuite also allows the user to search hashtags. For this campaign, it would be

beneficial to keep a search for “#PoweringChange” to make sure that no one is using a bash-tag

against Peabody.

Another evaluation tool that could be utilized is called “Twtrland.” This site analyzes

retweets per hundred tweets, tweet distribution (what types of tweets that people retweet most),

the most retweeted tweets, and the types of followers by country or by most dedicated. It also

lets the user view other user profiles that are similar to his/her own. Peabody could particularly

use this site when evaluating the types of tweets that people are retweeting most so that they

would know which types of tweets are most popular among followers.

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Flickr

Goals

Share Peabody’s photos

Make these photos more accessible to customers through public sharing and organization

of files

Spread Peabody’s message through pictures

Overview

Flickr is a photo-sharing website. Users can upload and store photos (up to 1 terabyte of

storage with the free account) to their account. They can also view others photos, “fave” (or

like) those photos, and even post comments. Users can see how many have viewed, faved, and

commented on their photos and on other people’s photos.

When Peabody would get a Flickr, they will need a “buddy icon” – an image that would

appear next to their name. The Peabody logo would work well for this image. As far as albums

and photo organizing, we thought of three major categories which are also listed below: Land

Reclamation, Coal Cares, and New Face of Coal.

Implementation

Flickr is a great website for storing photos. Perhaps on the website, there could be a link

to the Flickr page not only on the homepage, but also on the photo gallery page.

Timeline

Flickr is not like Twitter in that it needs to be updated everyday, although it would be

good to upload new photos as often as possible. After events, a goal could be to upload photos

within a week after the event takes place. That way, people can view the photos while the event

is still fresh in their minds.

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Album Ideas:

Land Reclamation

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Coal Cares – Pictures of Peabody in the community

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New Face of Coal

(Side by side comparisons of coal mining then versus now)

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Evaluation

Evaluation websites for Flickr are difficult to find as Flickr is mainly a photo-sharing

website. Flickr is not like Twitter which is constantly being updated by users. Twitter has to be

updated frequently in order for followers to stay interested. On Flickr, however, photos can be

added whenever the user would like – which does not have to be every day. For Peabody, we

recommended that they upload photos as often as they could in order to keep their profile fresh

and up-to-date. Ideally, event photos should be posted within a week after the events take place.

On Flickr, the user can see how many people have “faved,” viewed, and commented on

theirs and other people’s photos. Peabody could use this information to see which of their

photos get the most “faves,” so that they can post similar pictures. Peabody could view and

respond to comments on their photos; responding to comments on Flickr – especially negative

comments – could prove to be a great outlet for Peabody to spread their message. Peabody could

also see how many people have viewed their images so that they know about how many their

message is reaching.

Hootsuite recently added a Flickr app to their website. This app allows the user to create

and manage photo streams, search for photos, share photos, comment and fave photos, and view

other photo and user statistics. The user can also view their home feed from Hootsuite. Peabody

already utilizes Hootsuite for its Twitter account, and so adding this app to its account would not

be difficult. On Hootsuite, Peabody could monitor what people are saying about them and their

pictures; they could search for other images; they could upload images through Hootsuite as

well.

The purpose of the Flickr account is so that Peabody can have a place to upload and post

photos – in this way they can promote their messages of clean coal, land reclamation, and

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community service. Also, Flickr is a place for people to comment on photos, so through this,

Peabody can directly address any issues that people may have. In the next few months, it is the

goal that Peabody should see increased traction – in the form of faves and comments – through

sharing their photos on Flickr.