Strategy
Competitor Analysis
As part of a larger content analysis created by Myself, Anna Lewis and Ca’Ryn Newman,
this focuses on competitors that the INstagram page,
@SewFunACademy,
might face. The first two businesses are direct competitors,
while the last two represent
“Best In Class”
for their respective audiences.
From design to copy to research, this section of the project was completely done by me.
Target Audience: This brand is not restricted from adults or older teenagers, this is just the age group that tends to be promoted across the social media pages. They serve South Florida, primarily the Boca Raton/Miami area. Social Listening: Although they do not receive a lot of comments, they do frequently reply to comments. They have been frequently tagged by parents and this helped increase overall engagement and interaction.
Voice: This brand uses informal, friendly language that evokes a feeling of positivity and excitement. They also establish themselves as a brand rather than a person through the usage of collective pronouns and emojis. Positioning: They focus on demonstrating the successes of their students by showing their creative processes. They also establish themselves in the community through sponsoring local schools and events. For the purposes of this project: I used Education, Promotion, Inspiration, Entertainment and Connection as our 5 content pillars
Some of their promotional materials are pictures that promote their camps rather than posting fliers. Occasionally they do post fliers, but they do not do as well as photo posts of student work. Their reels use kid-friendly music that encourages parents to actually show the content to their kids.
Content (Data + Posting): They rely mostly on owned and earned media. Their earned media comes mostly from mother's posting photos/videos of their kids work and their kids at the venue. They created 100% of their media. The hashtags they use are specifically relevant to their city and mom groups (#bocaraton, #westonmoms). They were featured in several local guides, including the Royal Palm Palace and CampSci. They were also featured on a local mom’s blog, “Modern Boca Mom.” They have content that includes fliers, promotions and student work. Content based on their students’ work tends to do the best. Amplification: They rely heavily on digital and physical word of mouth through engagement with parents and positive online reviews. Community interactions such as being a sponsor to a local elementary school aids in their efforts to connect with the community. The idea of "shopping local" is part of the appeal.
Target Audience: This brand’s focus is primarily on adults looking for local experiences, they place a higher priority towards women and young adults. They serve the Tampa Bay area, but focus on St. Pete. Social Listening: They tend to receive more comments with posts that emphasize engagement (asking interactive questions through the caption), and they frequently reply to their comments. This leads to more positive views towards the business. They often collaborate with other businesses.
Voice: Voice: Posts by @sewpinellas are usually longer, and slightly more formal. They tend to resemble an explanation of events and work. They also use collective pronouns and emojis to help make the posts slightly less formal. They increase engagement by asking questions through the captions. Positioning: They set themselves apart by creating fun, unique names for their classes and events (“Intro to Sewing Stars”). By collaborating with nearby businesses and teachers, they help emphasize their uniqueness as a brand. They provide scholarships for their classes, either through merit or sponsorship.
Their content actively shows student work by showing what students made and how they use it. Their posts are often very wordy and can be very overwhelming. The reel shows how they collaborate with local businesses/news sources and how it helps increase engagement.
Content (Data + Posting): They predominantly rely on owned and earned media. All of their media is self-generated. Their primary hashtags reflect their brand identity (#sewpinellas, #sewingclasses), but their secondary hashtags are tailored to the content of the post. They have gained exposure from local news stations, such as Daytime WFLA and ABC Action News, and smaller businesses, such as Creative Loafing Tampa, ILovetheBurg. They are part of the St. Pete Art Alliance. Posts about their fliers and group photos perform similarly in terms of engagement. However, their reels garner less interaction compared to reels and posts made in collaboration with other businesses. The reels that they post independent of other businesses do not do well because they are not done well. Amplification: Through their connections to other blogs and local businesses, they amplify their content. Along with participating in local events, this helps connect them to locals and build their importance to their community.
Target Audience: The target audience for their social media largely relies on nostalgia for parents to show and educate their kids about sesame street. Which is why this is included. While the age range for Sew Fun Academy is a little bit older than that of Sesame Street, we still want to help drive home the point about building a generational brand and using nostalgia to help support your brand. Social Listening: They do not interact with their comments, if they do its rare. They also do not repurpose user generated content. While most brands are definitely not in a position like Sesame Street, we wanted to demonstrate an extreme goal and use some of their tactics in Sew Fun.
Voice: Sesame Street has a very positive, kid-friendly voice. It's like as if you were talking directly to kids, rather than their parents. The assumed hope is that parents would want to show their kids the social media page and get the kids excited. Their voice keeps the customer in focus by using collective pronouns and referring the conversation back to the consumer. Positioning: They emphasize their nostalgia by making their content something adults can relate to. When adults see a more positive part of their childhood, they are more likely to help connect kids (their children) to the brand and get them engaged. They use platforms like X that are not typically used by kids but still maintain that nostalgic connection.
They rely on a strict rotating post schedule of photo post, text post, photo/video post. The post on the right shows how they emphasize positivity in a way that is not exclusive to an adult or child audience but rather helps start conversations about the brand between adults and children. The post on the left shows how the utilize collaborations to help promote the brand’s character page(s) and the brand’s name page.
Content (Data + Posting): Each of the characters from Sesame Street have individual social media pages. These specifically do the best as they combine both the audience of sesame street and the specific character. If they use hashtags it is directly related to an issue that they are posting to. They post mostly pictures and reels from the show, taking content that they already have. They very rarely interact with consumers, if they do, it is extremely intentional or part of a brand collaboration. For example, if they have SZA on Sesame Street and she comments on a post about her episode, they would interact with it. Amplification: They follow a very specific content rotation and content to help increase virality. They use that virality to build more interaction and engagement. They rely on their brand recognition and nostalgia and play into that by posting throwback photos/videos every so often.
Target Audience: The target audience for their social media largely relies on nostalgia. They want consumers to view their brand as returning to a family tradition (sewing) and have emphasized on building a new generation of young people who love to sew. Social Listening: They interact frequently with consumers through both comments and reposting work on their page.
Voice: Joann stores often avoids referring to themselves in the post and redirects the conversation to the audience. They are overall very positive and use exclamation marks and emojis frequently. All of their content is very bright and colorful. They ask engaging questions and encourage click throughs by using these questions or links to products. Brand personality: Because of their generational value, Joann's has almost become a safe space for a lot of consumers; they go there when overwhelmed and rely heavily on it. Positioning: Joann is repositioning themselves through their social media to be more relevant to younger adults. They lean into the generational brand reputation that they have built but prioritize younger consumer views through refocusing on consumer work and an intentional brand voice.
Their content includes links to their shop and specific products. They pay attention to trending topics (the Met Gala on the right post) and use trending audios (the trending audio) that appeal to young adults and teenagers.
Content (Data + Posting): This brand uses all types of media, but largely relies on earned and owned media for their social media. They have a curation creation ratio of 6:4. They usually do not use hashtags, if they do, it is usually because it is a collaboration or repost from a consumer. Most of the work that they post is reposted from consumers, but they occasionally use their page to sell products. They connect using viral topics and trends, they also post on holidays they feel connect with their brand. They have frequently been in the news as of recent, but this is due to recent financial issues. They do have a TikTok but it isn't used as frequently as the IG, they maintain the same data for the most part. They do draw a differentiation between TikTok and IG by posting different content, but the overall content type is the same. They also share some of the content between TikTok and Instagram. They do better overall on IG. (Examples on the left) Amplification: Joann’s relies heavily on user-generated content and their loyal fanbase to amplify their content. They also rely on Instagram shoppers by connecting through the virtual retail option.