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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART 1: CLIENT BACKGROUND 3
Client 5
Industry 6
Competition 7
Social Media Activity 9
Situational Analysis 11
SWOT Analysis 11
PART 2: SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT 13
Facebook 14
Instagram 16
Twitter 19
Snapchat 25
Websites 25
PART 3: SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY 30
Audiences 31
Strategies 32
Objectives 32
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Technology and Platforms 33
Measurement and Evaluation 34
Timeline 36
Budget 37
Content Calendar 37
Sample Content 39
Facebook 39
Instagram 42
Twitter 43
Website 45
Snapchat 48
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PART 1
Dear Renee Reed,
Thank you for the opportunity to work with you and El Gato Coffeehouse these past few weeks. We have enjoyed monitoring your current social media efforts and have developed a strategy social media plan for you to have more of an online presence.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding the details of our social media plan. We look forward to continue following El Gato Coffeehouse’s social media leading up to the grand opening. We wish you luck with your future endeavors, and cannot wait to visit El Gato when it officially opens this spring.
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Thank you, Your University of Houston, Valenti School of Communication, strategic social media team.
Contact Information:
Emily Villejoin Twitter: @emilyv77 Email: [email protected]
Daniela Hernandez Twitter: @dahdz_ Email: [email protected]
Ellen Morris Twitter: @ellenkmorris Email: [email protected]
Liliana Andrade Twitter: @realandrad Email: [email protected]
Our group began our strategy by doing research on our client and narrowing down their biggest competi-tors. We came to the conclusion that our client’s biggest competitors are Crumbs & Whiskers, Tout Suite, and Blue Cat Cafe. All four coffeehouses either have the same basic premise or are located near our client. While researching our client and their competitors, we looked at their social media presence, the social platforms they used, and their interaction on these platforms.
Client:
Renee Reed is the face behind all of the magic of El Gato Coffeehouse. She’s a CPA (accounting
and finance by trade) so she hasn’t been trained in social media or opening a business. About
two years ago, the Blue Cat Cafe opened in Austin and once Reene heard about it she got in her
car and went to check it out. While being there, she talked to the manager for about 30 minutes
and fell in love with the idea of opening up a cat cafe in Houston, so that is what she decided do.
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Renee has had a passion for rescue cats for years, so what better way to showcase that passion
and make it into a business that no one in the the Houston area has accomplished before. After
researching what area would be the best for her cafe to be located in, the Heights seemed like the
best location. Because of the Houston restaurant laws, they could not keep the cats in the same
building as the coffee, so they have to have two separate places right next door to each other to
separate the cat area (which you can bring your coffee) to the cafe area. This is also helpful for
those who are allergic to cats but still want to grab some coffee and possibly study. Renee has a
good relationship with those at the Houston Humane Society, so the cats that will be kept in the
shop are going to be cats for adoption from there, but you can adopt any of the cats from El Gato
if you decide you wanted to take one home. Renee’s main purpose of starting this business is to
have cats without a home find people to adopt them by putting them in a different setting where
you can relax and drink coffee with the cats. You can even come to the shop and play with the
cats without wanting to adopt. Another purpose of Renee’s business is to showcase cat therapy
for people who need a break from their stressful lives.
Industry:
The cat cafe industry first obtained its popularity in Japan around the 1990’s. Because
many residents in Japan were restricted from keeping animals in their small homes, the cat cafe
became a country-wide tourist attraction. Needless to say, the industry flourished. According to
VICE magazine, from 2005 to 2010, 79 cat cafe’s opened across the nation-- including Washing-
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ton D.C., California, Austin, Dallas, Mexico city, France, Germany, and many more. While this
business continues to grow, so does each of their relationships with the animal adoption facilities.
The adoption facility that El Gato Cafe is partnered with the Houston Humane Society.
According to their website, [they] are dedicated to, and working towards, ending cruelty, abuse,
and the overpopulation of animals while providing the highest quality of life to those in their
care. They rely merely on donations and do not receive local, federal, or state funding. They host
different events around Houston a couple times a month to spread awareness and to gain their
audience's’ interests--- thus, also led them to ally themselves with El Gato Cafe.
The industry has definitely thrived in the past years and will not stop anytime soon. These
cat cafes all over the world have become a sort of safehouse for many residents and has built its
community over the mutual love for cats and coffee.
Competition:
Crumbs & Whiskers is a popular cat cafe located in Los Angeles and D.C. with a relative-
ly large following across their social media platforms. Unlike El Gato Cafe, Crumbs & Whiskers
posts consistently across all their social media. Crumbs & Whiskers is most consistent with their
largest platform, Instagram, and does not wait weeks in-between each post. They also tend to
post at least 2 photos per day. While, El Gato tends to have mostly have hyperlinks to Instagram
posts on their Facebook and a couple of articles in between, Crumbs & Whiskers makes sure to
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post some content that is exclusive to Facebook and shares a lot more content. The twitter is a
little less active and has less followers than their Instagram and Facebook however, they still post
a good amount of content on the platform, especially compared to El Gato’s little twitter activity.
Crumbs & Whiskers has a good amount of interaction on each post, especially on their Insta-
gram. Each of their photos tends to get at least a couple of comments, most getting at least 10.
Like El Gato, the photos with the most likes are photos of cats. The photos that tend to get fewer
likes, although still a good amount of interaction, are photos of people with the cats. The recent
most liked photo has 2068 likes and the most commented on photo recently had 208 comments
on it. The photo with the least amount of interaction however received 1,175 likes and 3 com-
ments. The personality of the coffeeshop is a bit more hip and friendly which helps with the in-
teraction with the public. Crumbs & Whiskers had more interaction than El Gato did, especially
on twitter where the company retweets and replies to many customers.
Blue Cat cafe is a cat cafe in Austin and is the coffeehouse that inspired the founder of El
Gato Cafe. The Blue Cat Cafe stands out with their unique full vegan menu that offers a variety
of tex-mex snacks, sandwiches, and hotdogs which they call “catdogs”. The Blue Cat Cafe is
more consistent with posting content and uses Facebook a bit more than El Gato does. The Blue
Cat Cafe posts a bit more of original content and videos on Facebook rather than just having hy-
perlinks to their Instagram photos like El Gato. The voice of Blue Cat Cafe is not too profession-
al and has a laid back edge to it like El Gato and they also use a good amount of puns which
helps give the company some personality. Like El Gato, Blue Cat Cafe does not tend to have
much interaction on their posts. Posts on Facebook and Instagram tend to only a get a couple
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comments, and many have no comments. Their interaction on twitter only consists of a few
retweeted articles just like El Gato. Posts that gain the most likes and do gain comments tend to
be photos of cats and adoption photos while the posts that gained little likes or interaction were
photos of customers. The most liked recent photo on Instagram that also had a good amount of
interaction was a photo of a cat being adopted. This post got 340 likes and 9 comments. The In-
stagram photo that gained the least amount of interaction only received 81 likes and 0 comments.
Blue Cat Cafe also tends to not reply to anyone on twitter or Instagram like El Gato Cafe. They
interact a bit more on Facebook than other platforms by replying to some posts but other than
that the interactions between the coffeehouse and customers seems to be somewhat sparse.
Tout Suite is a cafe and bakery located in an old warehouse on the outskirts of Downtown
Houston. The coffeeshop is known for their assortment of desserts and large variety of maca-
roons. Tout Suite’s weekly deals - Macaron Monday, Wine Wednesday, and Thirsty Thursday -
helps them stand out from other coffee shops and cafes in Houston. Tout Suite has a good social
media presence on Instagram and Facebook and is very consistent when it comes to posting on
Instagram. They tend to post at least once a day and each photo gets a decent amount of likes.
Their most liked and commented photos tend to be photos pertaining to Macaron Mondays and
last week their most liked photo got 955 likes and 25 comments. They have a friendly and ap-
proachable tone on their social media platforms which helps attract a younger crowd when it
comes to their followers on Social Media. Although they have a large amount of followers and
many comments on each of their social media posts, they tend to not have much interaction with
their followers.
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Social Media Activity:
Instagram and Facebook were the two most popular social media platforms that El Gato
Cafe, alongside their competitors, rely on to promote their brand and spread awareness. The cof-
feehouse remains consistent with its logo across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Their voice
stays the same across each platform which may be due to the fact that a majority of their Face-
book posts and tweets are hyperlinks to their Instagram posts.
El Gato Cafe is very inconsistent when it comes to updating and posting on their social
media platforms. On both Facebook and Instagram, the coffeehouse will have weeks between
each posts and when they post they tend to post one thing. El Gato Cafe keeps the voice of their
posts personable by using puns and not using a serious tone, however it lacks some personality
compared to other coffeehouses we analyzed. The coffeehouse seems to have little interaction
with their posts along all of their social media and many tend to go without any comments. The
highest amount of comments and interactions on posts tend to be around 2 to 3 comments. The
posts that contain pictures of cats have a larger amount of likes and feedback on them compared
to photos they post of their apparel. The most popular post recently on El Gato’s Instagram was a
photo of a cat which received 91 likes and 3 comments. The post on Instagram with the least
amount of interaction lately was a photo of El Gato apparel which received 24 likes and no
comments. The company tends to not be very responsive to people interacting with their posts.
They will reply back to a few people with questions on their Facebook page but other than that
they tend to not reply on Twitter or on Instagram. El Gato interacts somewhat with its audience
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on Twitter by retweeting articles about them but other than that, their twitter tends to lack any
other interaction with the public.
On January 27, 2017, El Gato Coffeehouse had this many followers on their social media
platforms: Facebook (4,331), Instagram (679) and Twitter (134). As of today, El Gato Coffee-
house has gained followers throughout all their social media platforms. The biggest increase so
far has been on Facebook. The followers as of today on those platforms is as follows:
Facebook(5,311), Instagram(1,060) and Twitter(218).
Their competitors, Blue Cat Cafe, Crumbs & Whiskers and Tout Suite have a lot more
followers throughout all their social media platforms. This might be due to the fact that they post
a lot more content and have been around longer. Social media will be vital for El Gato Coffee-
house since it’s still a very new business and most people aren’t familiar with it.
Situational Analysis:
We believe that El Gato Coffeehouse has an opportunity to reach out towards a larger au-
dience and bring more attention towards adopting cats and good coffee. El Gato Coffeehouse
currently has three social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. However,
El Gato has not yet successfully established the personality of their brand and message or
reached their full potential with their current and potential audience.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
1. It’s the first cat cafe in Houston.
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2. The Heights location is ideal for this business.
3. It’s a cafe that is doing something different by having cat adoptions.
4. It has the ability to grow since it’s still very new and hasn’t opened.
Weaknesses:
1. The entire building as a whole isn’t too spacious.
2. Social media is weak compared to other cat cafes.
3. The cafe is not done and it only has a self-serve station.
4. It’s operating hours aren’t anything compared to other cat cafes.
Opportunities:
1. It’s the only cat cafe in Houston.
2. If the coffee is really good, it could still be successful even if people don’t come for the
cats.
3. Once the cafe is done, business should be even better.
4. Become known by not only everyone in the area, but also people from out of the city, etc.
Threats:
1. There’s a cat cafe in Austin (which is close by), that has been successfully running since
October 2015.
2. Other existing/new coffee shops in the area might want to adopt this idea.
3. Possible flooding in the area it’s located in.
4. Not completing the cafe by the set date; this will affect business since it is supposed to be
a cat cafe.
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PART 2
Social Media Audit
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Facebook We completed a side-by-side comparison of all four brands to see how our client matched up against them on Facebook. Facebook was the largest and most used platform for all of the com-panies. These were the results:
● El Gato Coffeehouse rarely posted in the first six weeks because they were not close to opening, and were still working out the details on opening the business, and on the seventh week, posted a great amount of event reminders since it was becoming closer to the pre-opening party.. El Gato does not keep it very consistent when it comes to how many times a week they post.
● Crumbs & Whiskers post from one to two times a day each week, and they keep it pretty consis-tent. Crumbs & Whiskers post a lot of pictures of their merchandise being worn by people play-ing with their cats, and pictures of the events going on.
● Blue Cat Cafe posts about once a day, but doubling their posts in week seven, adding more posts about events coming up.
● Tout Suite post about once a day most weeks, but only posted twice in week five.
Posts by Organiza-
tion (to page)
02/06 - 12
02/13 - 19
02/20 - 26
02/27 - 0/3/05
03/06 - 12
03/13 - 19
03/20 - 26
03/ 27 - 04/02
El Gato Cof-feehouse
0 1 1 3 4 4 38 5
Crumbs & Whiskers
15 10 11 13 12 10 10 5
Blue Cat Cafe
8 7 8 8 8 15 11 7
Tout Suite 8 8 6 5 2 7 3 5
Post Likes 02/06 - 12
02/13 - 19
02/20 - 26
02/27 - 03/05
03/06 - 12
03/13 - 19
03/20 - 26
03/27 - 04/02
El Gato Cof-feehouse
0 35 244 161 351 113 690 76
Crumbs & Whiskers
1,992 1,528 1,524 2,081 1,532 1,195 1,635 661
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● El Gato Coffeehouse gets more likes when they post about their events, and the more they post, the more likes they get on their posts.
● Crumbs & Whiskers has the largest amount of likes in comparison to the other competitors each week. Their page is very pleasing to look at, and is informational, which people like.
● Blue Cat Cafe’s likes have gone up each week as time goes by on all of their posts. ● Tout Suite’s likes are very inconsistent and could have a lot to do with how many posts they post
during their week. It got the highest likes on the first, sixth, and seventh weeks.
● El Gato Coffeehouse had the most amount of posts shared on week 5. The rest of the weeks got very little to no shares from the public.
● Crumbs & Whiskers had the most amount of shares in the beginning of the eight-week chart, which was around Valentine’s day.
● Blue Cat Cafe hardly had any shares to their post, the max being 6 shares in one week. ● Tout Suite had three weeks in a row with no shares to any of their posts at all, but then drastically
went up to 47, 51, then back down to just one share.
Blue Cat Cafe
373 759 646 709 760 978 803 758
Tout Suite 206 92 85 57 9 237 308 55
Post Shares 02/06 - 12
02/13 - 19
02/20 - 26
02/27 - 03/05
03/06 - 12
03/13 - 19
03/20 - 26
03/27 -
04/02
El Gato Cof-feehouse
0 1 12 2 62 13 4 2
Crumbs & Whiskers
28 21 19 34 11 16 23 3
Blue Cat Cafe
1 0 2 2 3 6 3 5
Tout Suite 22 1 0 0 0 47 51 1
Post Com-ments
02/06 - 12
02/13 - 19
02/20 - 26
02/27 - 03/05
03/06 - 12 03/13 - 19
03/20 - 26
03/27 -
04/02
El Gato Coffeehouse
0 0 13 7 32 66 58 11
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● El Gato Coffeehouse had no comments to any post the first two weeks, but by week six and seven had a larger amount of people interacting with their posts on the opening party and other events.
● Crumbs & Whiskers comments went down as the weeks went by, but still having more than El Gato.
● Blue Cat Cafe comments are not consistent and range from what the posts are actually about in the eight weeks.
● Tout Suite either gets a good amount of comments, or rarely any if at all. It comes in waves with their comments when it is looked at weekly.
Crumbs & Whiskers
239 56 161 80 21 18 56 24
Blue Cat Cafe
10 36 6 78 29 31 17 55
Tout Suite 31 10 6 1 0 84 102 6
Followers
El Gato Coffeehouse 883
Crumbs & Whiskers 24.8K
The Blue Cat Cafe 6,061
Tout Suite Cafe 30.5K
Following
El Gato Coffeehouse 157
Crumbs & Whiskers 96
The Blue Cat Cafe 495
Tout Suite Cafe 218
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● As shown, El Gato posted very little in the first six
weeks. However, on week seven, El Gato had an in-crease in posts due to the picture they uploaded about their events-- in this case, Cats & Yoga. During these type of posts, users/viewers tend to feel a lot more engaged. (A picture of a post with this type of en-gagement is shown to the right) They’re asking about the dates and times so they could possibly attend these events. Unfortunately, they are still inconsistent with how many times they post a week since during week eight, they only posted once.
● Crumbs & Whiskers are pretty consistent with the amount of posts each week. Although they may not post everyday, it is still obvious that they have a steady upload rate.
● The Blue Cat Cafe posted everyday except for three weeks. They had a drastic increase from eight to 21 posts in the beginning of March. The week of March 13 was also Spring Break for most and the start of SXSW in Austin-- this is most likely why they posted so much during this week. The posts during this specific week included local musicians who performed a set at the Cafe along with photos of a new mural.
● Tout Suite also posted once every week except for week seven. They are consistent with their posing on this specific platform. Their posts range anywhere from the different pastries/coffee that they carry to their daily specials.
Posts 2/6-2/12 2/13-2/19
2/20-2/26
2/27-3/5 3/6-3/12
3/13-3/19
3/20-3/26
3/27-4/2
El Gato Coffee-house
1 1 1 3 3 3 10 1
Crumbs & Whiskers
9 9 8 10 10 9 6 9
The Blue Cafe Cafe
12 6 6 8 8 21 12 3
Tout Suite Cafe 12 13 6 9 10 9 5 6
Likes 2/6-2/12 2/13-2/19 2/20-2/26
2/27-3/5
3/6-3/12
3/13-3/19
3/20-3/26
3/27-4/2
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● El Gato had the least amount of likes compared to its competitors. However, the amount of likes do gradually increase up until week eight-- where they had the least amount of likes when com-pared to the first weeks we evaluated. This is probably because, although they didn’t post as fre-quent as their competitors, during week 4-7, they did post relatively more compared to their pre-vious weeks. That is, up until week eight when they only posted once therefore receiving the least amount of likes for the time period we researched.
● Crumbs & Whiskers had the most amount of likes compared to its competitors. As shown, their likes are kept in the thousands value. They had the least amount of likes during week seven, with 8,985-- also, the same week where they uploaded the least amount of posts.
● The Blue Cat Cafe had pretty high numbers all throughout week one to week seven. Their amount of likes drastically dropped more than half during week eight compared to the week before. This is probably because during week seven they uploaded 12 posts and only three during week eight.
● Tout Suite had the second most amount of likes during these two months we evaluated. Their amount of likes are consistent with the amount of uploads they have per week.
● El Gato’s comments and replies are most active when uploads of events are posted-- like during week three and week six. Other than that, their comment section is nearly non-existent.
● Crumbs & Whiskers has the most amount of comments compared to its competitors. People ei-ther comment something directly meant for their post, or rather to tag someone else. Nonetheless,
El Gato Coffee-house
62 71 127 151 159 198 573 61
Crumbs & Whiskers
13,549 12,793 11,211 16,097 15,549 12,552 8,985 12,367
The Blue Cat Cafe
1,384 865 890 1,539 1,440 2,848 1,983 393
Tout Suite Cafe 6,768 7,273 4,203 5,759 6,294 4,249 4,536 3,707
Comments 2/6-2/12 2/13-2/19
2/20-2/26
2/27-3/5 3/6-3/12 3/13-3/19
3/20-3/26
3/27-4/2
El Gato Coffee-house
0 7 11 4 4 19 9 5
C r u m b s & Whiskers
453 126 403 240 155 200 138 138
The Blue Cat Cafe
22 11 16 34 17 33 29 7
Tout Suite Cafe 140 116 151 89 58 84 212 74
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Crumbs & Whiskers receives the most traffic on this specific social media compared to El Gato, The Blue Cat Cafe, and Tout Suite.
● The Blue Cat Cafe receives also receives relatively more comments when they post about events. Nonetheless, their comments are not as high when compared to Crumbs & Whiskers, but are con-sistent.
● Tout Suite receives more comments on posts that involve their daily specials. The first three weeks seemed to be the highest in comments. However, week seven tops it off with 212.
Name URL Bio/Info Followers
El Gato Coffeehouse www.twitter.com/ElGatoCatCafe
“Houston's first cat cafe, opening in Spring 2017. Adopt-able cats provided by Houston Humane Society.”
218
Crumbs & Whiskers www.twitter.com/crumbs_whiskers
“Cat Cafe.” 2,218
Blue Cat Cafe www.twitter.com/bluecatcafe
“We're a Community for an Austin TX adoption Cat Cafe! Please help us build a better began cattery by donating to http://thebluecatcafe.com !”
928
Tout Suite www.twitter.com/toutsuitehtx
“FINE FOOD x BAKED GOODS x COFFEE EADO | HTX”
888
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● El Gato posts graphics mainly about their upcoming events, etc. They don’t post consistently. ● Crumbs & Whiskers only retweets posts from customers. Out of all the posts throughout the 8
weeks, only 1 tweet was not a retweet. ● Blue Cat Cafe does not post consistently. Almost all tweets have a picture. ● Tout Suite posts the most compared to the rest of the cafes. They make sure to tie in humor into
all their posts and don’t taking tweeting too serious. It shows how Tout Suite as a company is. ● Overall, Twitter seems to not be an important platform for the coffee industry unless they have a
strategic Twitter plan like Tout Suite. It just seems like most of the cat cafes don’t really post and don’t really think Twitter is an important platform.
●
● El Gato Coffeehouse got the most favorites week 7. This was due to El Gato constantly posting pictures and graphics promoting their events going on. Also, El Gato posted pictures of the events while they were happening or the day after the events. This shows people what they can expect if they attend as well. This is a good tactic to use in the future because it really makes people start engaging on Twitter.
● Since Crumbs & Whiskers only retweeted for the entire 8 weeks, they only had 11 total favorites on their own personal tweet.
● Blue Cat Cafe got the most favorites on tweets that featured a close-up of the cats.
Posts 02/06 - 12
02/13 - 19
02/20 - 26
02/27 - 03/5
03/06 - 12
03/13 - 19
03/20 - 26
03/ 27 - 04/04
El Gato Cof-feehouse
0 1 1 2 4 8 17 6
Crumbs & Whiskers
5 5 3 1 2 2 2 0
Blue Cat Cafe
4 4 2 2 0 2 0 0
Tout Suite 22 11 11 32 7 17 17 15
Favorites 02/06 - 12
02/13 - 19
02/20 - 26
02/27 - 03/5
03/06 - 12
03/13 - 19
03/20 - 26
03/ 27 - 04/04
El Gato Cof-feehouse
0 1 2 1 2 10 31 8
Crumbs & Whiskers
0 0 0 0 0 0 11 0
Blue Cat Cafe
9 15 4 6 0 3 0 0
Tout Suite 81 7 30 62 41 33 33 25
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● Tout Suite got the most favorites on tweets that were associated with humor.
Retweets 02/06 - 12
02/13 - 19
02/20 - 26
02/27 - 03/05
03/06 - 12
03/13 - 19
03/20 - 26
03/ 27 - 04/04
El Gato Cof-feehouse
0 1 0 0 0 2 8 3
Crumbs & Whiskers
0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Blue Cat Cafe
0 2 0 3 0 1 0 0
Tout Suite 30 1 5 16 13 9 11 4
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● El Gato Coffeehouse got the most retweets on a tweet explaining what event was going on and the link to get tickets.
● Crumbs & Whiskers got the most retweets on the post they tweeted to a celebrity.
● Blue Cat Cafe got the most retweets on a cat they featured and introduced to the followers. ● Tout Suite got the most retweets on a 4 part tweet that explained how they had to buy a magic
eraser because someone was vandalizing the restroom stalls. People engaged with this set of tweets because people really like humor.
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● El Gato Coffeehouse doesn’t have any replies, therefore it doesn’t make it an interactive experi-ence for customers to ask questions/leave comments.
● Crumbs & Whiskers has only “@” at a celebrity. It does not reply to any comments from people. Bringing a celebrity into a business always helps get a business attention.
● Blue Cat Cafe recently just started replying to its customers, but when we were monitoring during
these 8 weeks, they had not replied to anyone. Making a platform that wasn’t open to engage with.
● Tout Suite does an exceptional job at replying to all its customers questions. They never fail to leave one unanswered.
Replies 02/06 - 12
02/13 - 19
02/20 - 26
02/27 - 03/05
03/06 - 12
03/13 - 19
03/20 - 26
03/ 27 - 04/04
El Gato Cof-feehouse
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Crumbs & Whiskers
0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Blue Cat Cafe
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Tout Suite 4 3 4 12 2 3 5 5
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●
Snapchat Our client was the only one out of the coffeehouses who currently has a Snapchat. Due to the nature of the social media platform, we were not able to go back and look at past posts, how much our client post-ed, and the interactions with the posts. The type of posts El Gato posts are usually videos of the cats cur-rently at the coffeehouse, and the occasional look behind the scenes at the cafe coming together. . Websites
The homepage of the El Gato Coffeehouse website is very colorful and full of many different images, pat-terns, colors, and fonts which could make it very distracting to those who are visiting the webpage. The top part of the website has a bright, patterned background which makes it hard to see the links which are very small and a light color. The front page of the website could be more appealing if they put more sim-ple colors and graphics. The newsletter link on the webpage could be confusing to visitors of the website since the link leads you to a page where you have to click on another link to finally get to a page where you can input your information to receive updates. Currently, the El Gato website has a link to all of their social media pages except for their Snapchat on the home page. However, the information for their Snapchat can be found when going through many pages on the site (blog — opening calendar — calendar of cats). The link to their Snapchat should be put on the main page with the links to the other social media so anyone who visits the website can easily find it. The social media links at the bottom of each page should be changed so they are consistent and have the updated links to each social media page. To maxi-mize the use of the blog, El Gato should contain unique content rather than content that can be found
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throughout other parts of the website. The website currently does not have a link to their future menu for the coffeehouse.
Blue Cat Cafe has a bright and patterned homepage but has their links about the print so they can still be seen. The coffeehouse has all of their social media links at the top of the page which allows them to be noticed right away. The website is full of information and even includes a list of do’s and don’ts at the cafe on their homepage. The links at the top of the website contains a link to donate to the coffeehouse easily. They also have links to their menu, services such as events and trainings, plus a cats link which gives information on how to adopt a cat from the cafe and rescue resources in the area. Blue Cat Cafe in-cludes interesting facts throughout the website about cats which helps them stand out from other cat cafe websites.
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Tout Suite has a minimalist homepage with easy to read links at the top. The coffeeshop’s webpage in-cludes all the links to their social media at the bottom of the homepage and has an easy to find email sign-up which you can enter your contact information in without being directed to another page or having to click on another link. The website not only contains a menu link which shows the deserts, food, and drinks Tout Suite has to offer, they also have link called specials which shows the daily specials they have during the week (Macaroon Monday, Truffle Tuesday, etc.). Tout Suite’s gallery link shows the photos the coffeehouse posts on their Instagram. The page helps show off photos of the food and drinks they offer and photos of customers. This link makes it easy to look at their Instagram posts without having to leave their website.
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Crumbs & Whiskers has a simple homepage with links to their Washington DC and Los Angeles loca-tion webpages. Both links lead to a page that has links to book an appointment, menu, how to contact them, and their merchandise. Crumbs & Whiskers has a link to all of their social media and even has a bar at the bottom with their most recent Instagram posts. Visitors of the webpage can easily sign up for email updates since the company has a link at the bottom of their page where you can enter your email without being redirected to a brand new page. What stands out most about Crumbs & Whiskers website is the “cat” page, which contains all the cats that are currently at the DC location. The page contains photos of
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each cat alongside basic information about the cat (age, name, gender) and funny descriptions about the cat’s personality. The bottom of the webpage also contains a link for those who are interested in adoption ing a cat currently at Crumbs & Whiskers or a link for those who just want to donate to the local shelter in the are.
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PART 3
AUDIENCES ● (Target) Young mothers in their mid-twenties to mid-thirties, that are educated and have a
love for animals. Those who use social media extremely often, and are their opinion lead-ers in their friend/mom groups. They live in the Houston area and all surrounding areas.
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● (Target) Men in their early to mid twenties and love animals. They are looking for a place to study or work.
● (Current) People who live in the Heights area who are large supporters of the local busi-nesses in the area. They love going to these small businesses because they like supporting their own community as much as they can.
● (Current) Students (undergraduate + graduate + even high schoolers) who hear about lo-cal businesses whether it’d be through friends or their part time workplace. They love ex-perimenting new places and trying new things-- especially if it’s the only location in Houston.
PERSONAS 1. Randa Peairson just moved to the medical center from Austin, TX for her husband’s new
job with their two 6-year-old twin boys. Her boys want a pet to play with when they get home from their new school. Randa’s friend lives in the Heights area and tells her about El Gato Cat Cafe. Randa is a coffee connoisseur, so it is the perfect place for her to go!
2. John Peters is from San Antonio and is currently a junior at the University of Houston. John loves animals and misses his cats back home but he is not able to get a cat since his landlord does not allow any animals in the house he is renting. He is currently looking for a new place to study and work on homework since he has become bored of his usual cof-feeshop he goes to. John hears about El Gato’s study with cat days through a friend and goes to the event one Tuesday. John loves that he now has a new place work on school-work and study and a place to play with cats.
3. Joan and Craig Duplantis: This couple has been living in the area even before all the gen-trification started. Their house is actually one of the few houses in the area that can’t be altered because it’s in the historic district. Even though they aren’t huge fans of all the new construction that’s been happening in the area, they still make it a goal to support these new businesses popping up. They have 10 birds, so naturally they cannot have cats around. They love that this new cat cafe opened up because it gives them a chance to play with cats finally. They also love how it is very close to their house!
4. Vanessa Fuentes is an out of state grad student at Rice University. She is a TA (teaching assistant) for organic chemistry at Rice. She may have a ton of things on her plate, but no doubt-- she loves to destress with some cats and coffee. Typically her and a group of friends whom she’s told El Gato about, sign up for Cats with Yoga and Caturday morning cartoons, again, helping them unwind from a stressful week at school.
STRATEGIES
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- Take pictures with a professional camera. - Don’t use cat puns too much. It can get a little too much and seems uncreative. - Post when a cat gets adopted (with their new family, if the family wants). - Increase followers, enhance engagement + awareness on all platforms. - Interacting + engaging with your targeted audience whether that’d be through replying to
comments on platforms, hosting contests/sweepstakes, etc. - Post at least once a day on each social media platform.
OBJECTIVES - Facebook goal: The main/ long-term goal for Facebook is to gain more page likes and
follows. Need to make engaging posts on how all of the cats at the cafe are adoptable from the cafe, and they are through the Houston Humane Society. Doing this will show the public that the purpose of the cat cafe is not just playing with cats, but to find a home for each cat who just wants someone to constantly love and care for them. Also, to con-tinue to gain a larger audience to know about the event and Houston’s first ever cat cafe. Facebook should be the main platform (other than the website) for the audience to easily track the events being held by El Gato. Increase awareness of the brand for those who are not familiar with El Gato yet.
- A short-term goal would be to triple the size of the audience in two months, so that afterward, it’s the customers who are posting about you, and getting their friends to follow you. This is so you don’t have to do as much work in gaining followers later, because your audience should be doing it themselves after two months.
- Instargram goal: With Instagram being a visual platform, the main goal would be for the audience to not only know what El Gato exactly is (a cat cafe), but for them to visually and emotionally be able to connect with what El Gato exactly stands for through an aes-thetically pleasing Instagram feed. Once that relationship is established, it will become easier for the post likes and for the number of followers to increase.
- A short term goal would be to post pictures of the cats that are currently at El Gato. Also include pictures of the kitties when they become adopted + their new families. Another short term goal for Instagram would be to at least raise the number of followers from 1,060(ish) to 1,250.
- Twitter goal: The main goal for Twitter will be to start engaging with followers more. This will help form a virtual relationship with customers. Since customer service is regu-larly done on Twitter, El Gato will need to make sure every question or concerns is being
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answered in a timely manner. Not only is customer service important ontwitter, but also showing followers that El Gato is ran by humans and not robots. Make sure to add some humor and keep it light-hearted at times.
- A short-term goal will be to promote the new El Gato coffee hours as much as possible since regular hours will begin soon. By keeping customers well informed they will not only show up, but also spread the word through social media and get more people to go.
- Website goal: The main goals for the website are to make it more aesthetically pleasing, easier to use, and to be full of information about El Gato. The long term goals for El Gato’s website would be to completely redo the site and make it more minimalist and get-ting people to revisit the site. Having a more simple layout with links that can be easily found will allow users who are on the website to find the links they need with little hassle and will make it easier for them to book events, sign up for the newsletter, and communi-cate with El Gato. The website will contain information such as the links to all of El Gato’s social media pages, dates and times for events, and information about the cats cur-rently at the cafe. Having people constantly revisiting the site would mean that customers rely on the information on the webpage.
- Short term goal would be updating all the social media links on the front page of the website to ensure that people can find links to the platforms easily and getting people to visit your website.
- Snapchat goal: The main goal of snapchat would be to show a behind the scenes view of events, the cats, and the coffee at El Gato. Utilizing the stickers, geotags, and the filters exclusively on the app will help set it apart from Instagram stories. Creating a custom El Gato geofilter for the official opening day would help spread the word about the opening. It would be best to post at least once a day on Snapchat.
TECHNOLOGY AND PLATFORMS - It is important to invest in a quality camera for your social media posts. The cameras on
the iphone are getting better, but everyone has them these days. As a business the pictures need to be better quality than what most of the population has, especially if you want the post to be eye-catching. It is so secret that the majority of people are visual learners, so seeing a really nice, quality picture of a cat would get more interaction and engagement than an average picture of a cat, no matter what the post is promoting. A Canon EOS
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Rebel T7i DSLR would be a great camera for the job, or a Nikon D3400, and there would be no worry to get a new camera until a few years.
- With a Canon EOS Rebel, you can also take videos and make some promotional videos for the events that happen regularly like cat yoga or work days. You can make edit these promotional videos on iMovie, or purchase Final Cut Pro, if you want to go the extra mile. With creating video, YouTube could become another social media outlet to promote El Gato and the amazing things that go one daily in the cafe.
- VSCO app: This editing app will help with any pictures you might be posting on social media. It is completely free and it also provides various filters.
- Canva app: This is a great app to make all types of graphics. It also includes dimensions to all different types of platforms you might need to post on. It’s very easy to use and you can also use in on a desktop for easier editing.
MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION - Facebook: Use Facebook Analytics to keep updated with what has been catching the fol-
lower’s eye, and what they like to engage with on Facebook and through El Gato’s posts. Facebook also has an “insights” tool, which shows data on your posts, and data on your specific audience that is engaging with the posts. There are six helpful key metrics that help you track and understand you Facebook performance:
- 1. Fan Reach: this is available on an excel file, or available by download. Fan Reach simply corresponds to the number of fans of your Page who have seen any of El Gato’s posts.
- 2. Organic Reach: this corresponds the number of people, fans or not, who have seen a specific post. Organic Reach only views records that are not resulted from a friend’s action.
- 3. Engagement: the number of people who have clicked anywhere on your posts. - 4. “People Talking About This” (also called Storytellers): is part of the engage-
ment metric. So the number of people “talking about the post” is the same number of people that have engaged in the post.
- 5. Click-Through Rate: tells you how many people have clicked on a link in your content. This metric is the oldest and has been around for years.
- 6. Negative Feedback: occurs when a negative action, which could hiding a post, or reporting it as spam, happens by a fan on your content. This is important to know to see what your followers are not enjoying from your content, so you can change it.
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- Instagram: Instagram for business is a strategy that Instagram has recently developed. Along with Instagram Insights, brands can easily receive and monitor different types of insights and how users engage and navigate through El Gato’s Instagram page. Below are some different types of ways that El Gato can successfully use Instagram for business.
1. Ad/Account Insights: Through reach, impressions and engagement, El Gato is al-lowed to see just how much their brand awareness is flourishing through this plat-form. Ad insights is the execution of the paid ads compared to the impressions, reach, and engagement for each ad that has reached the targeted audience.
2. Engagement: Instagram Insights lets you keep track of a. Impressions- the total number of times that your post or story was seen. b. Saves- the number of times that each instagram account saved your post. c. Follower activity: The time range during the day that your followers are
most active. d. Reach: the number of account who saw your post or story. e. Website Clicks: Since you’re allowed to post a link in your bio (in this
case, elgatocoffeehouse.com, would be the best bet), this feature lets you track how many times that link was clicked.
f. Exits: This lets you track the number of times that your IG story was swiped left to view someone else's, or exited and went back to their post feed.
- Twitter: Twitter makes monitoring activity on your page easy. You can easily click on the activity analytics page and it provides you with how many impressions have been done in a 28 day period. It also shows a breakdown of each month and it shows you who was your top follower and what was your top tweet that month. It also shows total number of tweets that month, total number of impressions that month, total number of profile visits that month and finally, how many followers you have gained or lost that month.The fol-lowing are everything that the twitter activity analytics measures:
1. Impressions: Number of times users saw the Tweet on Twitter 2. Engagement Rate: The number of engagements divided by the total number of
impressions 3. Link Clicks: How many times a user clicks on a link posted on your page 4. Retweets: How many times users retweeted your tweets 5. Likes: How many times users liked your tweets 6. Replies: How many times users replied to your tweets
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- Website: Google Analytics can be used to track visitors that visit your website and the amount of time they spend on your site. The tool helps give a more indepth look at how those who are visiting your website are utilizing it. You can easily get Google Analytics by signing up on the Analytics website and registering your page. Google analytics al-lows you to:
1. See your visitors location demographics 2. Show your top content 3. How many times a user has visited your website 4. The average number of pages a visitor is looking at on your website before leav-
ing 5. Average time on the website
TIMELINE - We recommend El Gato Coffeehouse to implement and create a social media plan month-
ly, starting the first date of each month. Post twice a day from the times 11-12:30 p.m. And 4-5:30 p.m.
● Month one: Start posting at least once a day on each social media platform. Post every-day about how the cafe is finally open to the public, including hours of operations! In-clude posts about the coffee and the company that the coffee is from for the people who are also interested in the coffee aspect, and not just the cats.
● Month two: Start posting at least twice a day on Instagram on days with events and con-tinue to post at least once a day on other platforms. Continue to post about how well the opening has been and continue to promote the events for people to come who haven't yet. It would be best to redo the website within the first two months.
● Month three: Start promoting at least one El Gato event post a week on facebook. Con-tinue to post more than once a day on Instagram. During this month, your followers will have a better feel and will start familiarizing themselves with just how many times a day + week that El Gato is posting. Check analytics to see what strategies are working and if your audience is continuing to grow and engage with your posts.
● Month four: Have four times the amount of followers on Facebook, and three times the amount of followers on the other social media platforms, so you are reaching to the largest audience and getting more brand recognition.
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● Month six: After half a year you should be posting a couple times a day on each social media platform, especially Instagram and Snapchat. Have about 2-3 more hashtags added to your month posting calendar. One can be for an event, or one can be for the coffee in-corporating the cats. Keeping fresh hashtags and new ideas flowing help your followers stay interested in the post. Be sure to check analytics to see if your strategies are working.
BUDGET - Social Media is not something people initially thinks needs a budget, but it’s actually ex-
tremely important to invest in for the business if they want to continue to grow in today’s day and age. Not only do you need to pay the person in charge of all social media plat-forms, but that person will also want to post sponsored content to reach a larger audience from time to time. If you give yourself a budget of $3,250 the first year of operation, you can use your money in helping your social media with these things:
- After the first year, you would need to repurchase the Nikon D3400, so you can adjust the budget as you take things away or add things as needed.
CONTENT CALENDAR - May 2017
Item Cost Units Total
Iconosqaure Plus $81 x1 $81
Facebook Post Boost
$5 x52 $260
HootSuite (Free Plan)
$0 x1 $0
Nikon D3400 $500 x1 $500
Custom Snapchat Geofilter
$9 x1 $9
Social Media In-tern
$150 x16 $2400
$3250
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Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednes-day
Thursday Friday Saturday
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Facebook: A re-minder of the events of the up-coming week.
Instagram: #Mon-daysAre-ForMeow-ing
Twitter: “RT for a possible chance to win a free cat yoga class.”
Facebook: #Resi-dentoftheWeek
Insta-gram: #Whisker Wednes-day
Facebook: #CatYoga
Twitter: #EGClipofthe-Week
Instagram: #FELINE-friday
Twitter: #Furever-HomeFri-day
Facebook: #FAQFri-days
Facebook: #Catur-dayMorn-ings
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Facebook: A re-minder of the events of the up-coming week.
Instagram: #Mon-daysAre-ForMeow-ing
Twitter: “RT for a chance to win an El Gato shirt.”
Facebook: #Resi-dentoftheWeek
Insta-gram: #Whisker Wednes-day
Facebook: #CatYoga
Twitter: #EGClipofthe-Week
Instagram: #FELINE-friday
Twitter: #Furever-HomeFri-day
Facebook: #FAQFri-days
Facebook: #Catur-dayMorn-ings
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Facebook: A re-minder of the events of the up-coming week.
Instagram: #Mon-daysAre-ForMeow-ing
Twitter: “RT for a chance to win a free cat yoga class.”
Facebook: #Resi-dentoftheWeek
Insta-gram: #Whisker Wednes-day
Facebook: #CatYoga
Twitter: #EGClipofthe-Week
Instagram: #FELINE-friday
#Furever-HomeFri-day
Facebook: #FAQFri-days
Facebook: #Catur-dayMorn-ings
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Facebook: A re-minder of the events of the up-coming week.
Instagram: #Mon-daysAre-ForMeow-ing
Twitter: “RT for a chance to win a free cat pillow.”
Facebook: #Resi-dentoftheWeek
Insta-gram: #Whisker Wednes-day
Facebook: #CatYoga
Twitter: #EGClipofthe-Week
Instagram: #FELINE-friday
Twitter: #Furever-HomeFri-day
Facebook: #FAQFri-days
Facebook: #Catur-dayMorn-ings
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Facebook: A re-minder of the events of the up-coming week.
Instagram: #Mon-daysAre-ForMeow-ing
Twitter: “RT for a chance to win a cat painting.”
Facebook: #Resi-dentoftheWeek
Insta-gram: #Whisker Wednes-day
Facebook: #CatYoga
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Facebook Ideal Facebook Cover photo, that is a picture exclusive to El Gato, and preferably from the shop, itself. Here is a quick one that is made from a picture of the artist painting the cat mural in the back room of the cafe. You can also use one similar to the one in the Ideal Facebook Page pic-ture.
Ideal Facebook Page:
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Ideal Facebook Post:
When posting events, such as Cat Yoga, use picture from the previous events from El Gato. You have enough photos of the events, to where you no longer need to have clip art pic-tures of cats and yoga. Showing that they are your pictures also shows originality. You should post a contest every two weeks that helps benefit your social media. For ex-ample: You can post about a contest where you randomly choose one person to get into an event for half-off, or for free, if they like your page, share one of your events, and make a Facebook review. This would interact your followers more, and help you gain more. Also, going to El Gato can be a little pricey for broke college students, so it would give them more incentive to want to go, if they get discounted pricing. Post when a cat gets adopted (with their new family, if the family wants). This gives peo-ple a reminder that it is a great place to adopt cats from, and see the cats that finally get their home sweet home. Changing the logo to the colors of the logo outside of the cafe is also highly encouraged. Logos should be consistent, and stay one way for years. The different colors on social media, and at the location can be a little confusing to some people.
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Instagram Ideal post + feed:
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Twit-ter
This is ex-ample con-tent that you could post. The one to the left
shows a newly adopted cat with it’s new family. Since this will be a common occurrence, it would be nice to showcase all of these “#FureverHomeFriday” moments. The tweet to the right gives an incentive to followers and helps gain even more by doing it.
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Website
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Making the website a bit more minimalist will help make the overall website more attractive to those who visit the webpage. Having the newsletter signup at the bottom of the front page will make it easier for those who visit the webpage to sign up for updates. More people will likely sign up since they will not have to go through multiple links and pages just to sign up. It is also important to make sure that all social media links can be found together on the front page. Adding a page that contains photos of the cats with descriptions about each of them will help those who might be interested learn about the cats they may want to adopt. It would be best to retake photos of each of the cats and the merchandise so that the photos are better quality and look more professional. This will help make the website look more professional and will be more attractive to people who visit the page.
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Snapchat - Snapchat is a great way to share videos of the cats at El Gato, showcase the food and coffee offered, show behind the scene views at events, and can be a great way to re-mind people of events that are coming up. Utilizing the stickers, filters, and geotags exclusively on Snapchat will help set apart the content that can also be found on Instagram stories. Creating a custom El Gato geotag for the official opening would be a great way to get those who are near El Gato or attending the opening who use the geofilter on their photos or videos to help spread the word to their friends and followers on their snapchats.
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