Cafe chain Jamaica Blue is obviously a very different company from Black Milk. Despite some demographic overlap, they operate in very different industries and have wildly different philosophies.
For instance, Jamaica Blue outsources some of its social media, and is extremely stringent in taking down negative comments.
And yet they share Facebook prowess. In fact, Jamaica Blue had the highest engagement rate out of any Australian Facebook site during the month of October.
Marketing manager Drew Eide tells SmartCompany that despite the differences between the two companies, there’s a similar sense of “focus and direction”.
“Our core audience is females aged between 25-49, and we now that the vast majority of our customers in that demographic are on Facebook. So we tailor our communications based to that audience.”
A quick glimpse at the Facebook page reveals as much. The company posts simple little pictures and encourages discussions. It’s nothing huge or especially meaningful, they’re mostly pictures of drinks or dreamy holiday destinations. But Eide says given the core audience also makes up the core Facebook user group, it’s important to keep things thematically in sync.
And for that same reason, Jamaica Blue actually outsources some of its social responsibilities.
“We think it’s important to align with experts in this field, and they monitor our pages 24 hours a day. We have a policy place that if there’s anything general it gets responded to quickly, and that anything more controversial requires attention from us.”
It’s the exact opposite to Black Milk, but it works – the responses aren’t in corporate speak and they gel well with the audience. The company requires less of a personal touch, and can get away with outsourcing its media routines.
Having such a dedicated plan in place also erases question marks in a crisis. Like earlier this year when customers threatened to boycott Jamaica Blue unless it pulled sponsorship from a radio program after a guest insulted a decorated soldier.
Because the page is so tightly monitored, it was able to generate a fast response – a feat perhaps more important that the content of the response itself.
“We don’t hide from negative comments, we don’t remove negative comments, as some companies might. We get back to each of them.”
It’s a different strategy to Black Milk, but it works all the same. At core, both companies have the same goal – engagement.
“We follow regular questions, and anyone engaging with the brand in a positive way will be responded to,” he says, adding that studying each post is critical to understanding what will generate future discussion.
“We look at how people respond, how they react, which posts get the most engagement, and which ones are likely to nurture the community. We look at each post closely.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
