December 2017

Summary of the Client Mission

The Swarthmore Farmers Market believes in building an enriching experience within the larger Swarthmore community. The goal is to create a unique community that makes it easier for local vendors to connect with consumers. By encouraging interconnectedness among the community, local farmers, and artists, the market improves access to fresh and healthy food while connecting the community.

The market itself offers many interactive activities for the community, and often has activities that appeal to children. The farmers market is constantly sharing information about these activities through social media, email newsletters and the market website.

Their goal is to enhance the reach of the market and inspire synergy between different vendors to blend music, art, food, and community by fostering an environment where everyone is welcome and encouraged to contribute. To promote their mission, the Swarthmore Farmers Market utilizes the social media platforms of Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and a blog. In this analysis, the focus will be on the Instagram account of the Farmers Market.

Summary of Social Media Messaging & Storytelling An organization successfully shares their mission by telling stories through various social media platforms. A message can stick with an audience and get a specific point across by using the right platform and addressing the appropriate audience. The audience will in turn act on what they have discovered through that storytelling.

In Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community, Joe Lambert discusses seven concepts of storytelling. Of these seven, the most relevant concepts to our client are Dramatic Questions and Emotional Content. The dramatic question stated by Joe Lambert is why a specific cause is so important to a given organization, and this is linked to emotional content because, if utilized correctly, it can inspire the audience to want to participate. If an organization can effectively use emotional content, an audience will want to contribute to the cause or join what’s happening. Dramatic questions and emotional content are tied in with the technical aspects of content that is produced such as the economy, pacing, and sound track.

Furthermore, the following analysis will focus on the relevance of the Farmers Market’s social media presence. The other article that relates directly to what we are aiming for with the Farmers Market is Gary Vaynerchuk’s The Characteristics of Great Content and Compelling Stories. This article stresses the importance of choosing your content wisely. Quality over quantity. In order to engage the audience, content has to be presented in a non-invasive or “native” way. It should be a seamless integration with the rest of the platform or “feed.”

In The Dragonfly Effect, Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith emphasize engaging people once an organization has grabbed their attention. The authors list nine key ways of creating engaging

Campaigns, those that are relevant to the Swarthmore Farmers Market are: transparency, interactivity, immediacy, commitment, co creation, and collaboration. Some things the market does well are: interactivity, though Instagram takeovers; Immediacy, by posting as the market is taking place; transparency by posting truthful, engaging content; and collaboration with the vendors.

J. Hlinko wrote in his article Share, Retweet, Repeat: Get Your Message Read and Spread the importance of knowing your audiences and the social media platforms that they use. Also, how to adapt to those platforms. Neil Shea describes how it is difficult to stand out due to the constant flow of content on social media in the article How to Tell Powerful Narratives on Instagram. Both of these articles can be used to establish the presence of the Farmers Market’s social media to the correct audience.

Summary of Client Social Media Use

The Swarthmore Farmers Market Instagram account is very active with most of their posts appearing on Saturdays during the Farmers Market. They also post several times a day throughout the week in preparation for their Saturday posts. The majority of their posts feature content about previous or upcoming Farmers Markets such as what will be there and what fun events happened.

As of 11/14/17, the Swarthmore Farmers Market Instagram account had 736 followers, they followed 429 accounts, and had a total of 319 posts. The Farmers Market displays commitment to this social media platform through their active posting and engagement with followers. On average, the Farmers Market posts more than 5 times a week, and multiple times a day on Saturdays when the market is open. In the past three months, the Farmers Market’s Instagram posts have an average engagement of 29.2 per post. Broken down, these engagement averages include 26.2 likes per photo, 24.6 likes per video, and 1.1 comments for both photos and videos. The top time for engagement is Saturday at 2:00 p.m.

Analysis of One Social Media Space: Instagram Our social media analysis focuses on three areas of the Swarthmore Farmers Market Instagram account. The social media strategy of the account, the use of storytelling, and the style of spreading messages throughout the posts are critical elements that are represented on social media. Our analysis aims to find the strengths and weaknesses within the Swarthmore Farmers Market’s Instagram account, that as a result will aim to create a stronger, cohesive visual branding of the Farmers Market on this social media platform.

Social Media Strategy The goal of the Farmers Market’s Instagram is twofold. Firstly, they want to encourage their audience to go to the Farmers Market by showing what a strong community it is. Second, they want to use it as an opportunity to see what works at the market and what doesn’t in terms of programs and events. Posts with more likes would demonstrate that people want to see more things of that nature in the future. Posts with less likes would show that something was not as popular of an event or program.

The Swarthmore Farmers Market Instagram account lives up to the transparency characteristic that Aaker & Smith describe. Aaker & Smith describe transparency as sharing information that comes up in real time, and not hiding anything from their audience. Social media platforms that are transparent are open with their followers and don’t hide. They post while the market is occurring, and encourage their followers to visit certain stands. These posts align with their mission to provide healthy living to their community, and overall support to the vendors that are present on that day. Using the proposed strategy allows for extra exposure to these vendors, and can persuade people to go back to a stand.

Infographics have been a common way the market tries to get information across the platform in an interactive way. The visuals are bright and colorful containing a variety of different font. Although a great way to present information to audiences, these posts seem to generate the least amount of engagement with their followers. The infographics in Figures 1 and 2 only generated 10-15 likes and 0 outside comments per post as of 11/14/17.

Additionally, the market utilizes collaboration with several of the vendors throughout the account. Aaker and Smith define collaboration as a relationship between producers and consumers that aims to develop and strengthen the brand. The Farmers Market has exemplified effective collaboration on Instagram with their vendors through their posts. The Farmers Market conducts various Instagram takeovers with a variety of vendors as a way to broaden their engagement with the vendor’s followers and vice versa. The takeover allows for producers to speak directly to followers and show what their brand is about and stands for. Below, figures three and four exemplify this collaboration. The takeovers with the vendors broaden the market’s engagement with the vendor’s followers and vice versa. The takeover allows for producers to speak directly to followers and show what their brand is about and stands for.

Something the Farmers Market does well is describing the experiences of the market through an Instagram post. One way they describe the market is through creating collage posts. The collages typically show a variety of different goods and services available that day, as well as highlighting the diverse variety of vendors at the market. These posts seem to typically generate strong buzz on the page, for the latest collage post as of 11/14/17 received 42 likes and 0 comments. The post featured the Trotter Hill Alpacas and their variety of hand knit and woven products. The photos contain consistent lighting and colors that tie the collage together nicely.

Aside from the Trotter Hill Alpacas post, a majority of the collage posts lack visual consistency, for each photo in the college is filtered and lit differently, creating a clear contrast of quality throughout the collage. The top image in the Figure 6 below is extremely blurry, the middle right image of the gourds is very bright and colorful, while the bottom left image of the pumpkin has a large shadow cast over it and appears dark. The tone of the collages is colorful and friendly, but lack an overall consistency in the photo quality themselves.

Storytelling Storytelling is an influential way to connect with followers on social media in a way that is provoking, emotional, and informational. Aaker and Smith discuss the importance of storytelling marketing through the organization Kiva, a nonprofit micro lending enterprise. Kiva’s use of

sharing personal stories of their entrepreneurs created a close bond between lenders and caught the attention of the media. It is possible for the Farmers Market to take the tactics used by Kiva and adopt the use of storytelling within a social media space. A variety of social media influencers are excellent examples of this initiative. Jedidiah Jenkins (@jedidiahjenkins) and Ruddy Roye (@ruddyroye) are two content creators that tell inspiring stories through Instagram that have gained widespread popularity and engagement. In Figure 7 Jenkins uses an aesthetic image with bright colors that grabs the viewer’s attention. Once drawn to the image, Jenkins tells the meaning behind this image through his lengthy caption.

Roye uses a similar approach by grabbing the user with a striking image in Figure 8. The piercing eyes of the young subject draw users in to learn more about her story. Roye utilizes the 2200 character limit on the platform to tell her story and how it connects to his life’s work. His techniques are a perfect example of engaging a user on the social media platform.

The Farmers Market has been utilizing Instagram to tell short stories on Instagram. Through vendor introductions, recaps of the latest Saturday at the market, or showcasing the local community, the market has opened a dialogue between themselves and their users.

The Farmers Market tells stories through their captivating, friendly images. Bright, colorful produce sold at the market, friendly faces enjoying the market (both humans and animals), and vendors working their stands are the majority of images posted on the platform. When scrolling through the profile of the Farmers Market’s account, the images that pull users in at a glance are the colorful, mouthwatering images of the food sold at the market. There is an opportunity to create an enticing story around these images, from where the produce was grown to how the food is prepared and how people enjoy the food.

In a similar lens, the Farmers Market uses the caption space in an Instagram post to spread information and awareness about upcoming events at the market, local vendor information, and recaps of the latest Saturday at the market. There is a friendly tone in the copy that lets the personality of the market shine through the post in an engaging way. Although this is a productive way to keep users informed, there is a lack of a story in these captions. While the

images are bright, colorful, and fun, the captions lack depth that would create a connection with users that would resonate with them.

The Instagram for the Farmers Market has a tendency of overusing hashtags in each of their posts. This makes the post itself look cluttered and seems aggressively self-promoting. It fails to seamlessly insert the post into the platform of Instagram.

Spreading Messages The Farmers Market is able to keep their “core story” constant throughout their posts (Vaynerchuck). They tell the story of the market through different means such as pictures and videos, but their identity remains the same in each post. The posts are native to the Instagram platform, and although they must learn some tips on how to improve their content, the context works well. However, it does not flow seamlessly into our entertainment and doesn’t leverage pop culture. Vaynerchuck suggests the Farmers Market Instagram also does not make demands of their followers, and makes content for the audience they have.

The quality of their posts is sufficient to relay information, and also show some aspects of the market and Swarthmore that makes for an emotional connection. The emotional connection is “truthful” and gives us insight into a suburban towns Saturday mornings and afternoons (Lambert). Since there is a “constant flow of images and text boxes” which means it is harder

than ever to stand out (Shea). The way that the Swarthmore Instagram has been run so far, it has nice images and the captions are fine. They don’t stand out and it doesn’t present anything exciting. The posts can get lost in your feed, and since the market posts so frequently, the posts become forgettable. The target audience of the Farmers Market is adults and young families. It is in the interest of the Market to “learn who among your supporters are members of social media communities and to focus your message on what appeals to them” (Hlinko). The engagement on the Instagram is relatively low, so it would be in the best interest of the Market to alter the way they are presenting their message so that more adults and families will take an interest in what is occurring on the platform.

Conclusions and Suggestions

Overall, the Swarthmore Farmers Market’s Instagram presence is active, colorful, and chatty to its 715 followers. They excel in creating engaging posts with colorful filters, fun and cheerful captions that are informative and interactive, and are extremely committed to establishing a strong social media presence by posting multiple times a week. They collaborate and utilize co- creation by highlight their wide variety of vendors through Instagram takeovers and the use of tagging the vendor accounts.

In terms of storytelling, a consistent theme is critical to help new users understand what the Swarthmore Farmers Market is all about. Unlike the Beautiful Social Instagram account that has each photo edited with the same filter, the Farmers Market has a different filter and style on each photo. This makes the account overwhelming to look at and the sensory overload can be a bit distracting when visiting the page for the first time. There is a setting on Instagram that allows the account to create a custom filter that can be saved in the app that allows the user to create a consistent post every time. By creating a classic filter that can be used on each photo, the vibe and story of the Farmers Market can shine through the account. The market can dig deeper with storytelling by adopting the additional ways Jenkins and Roye tell stories on Instagram.

Although the Farmers Market excels in many aspects on the Instagram platform, there is still room for growth. There seems to be a lack of an overall theme or tone in the account as a whole. There are various opportunities for consistency and visual aesthetics in the posts themselves, filtering methods of the posts, as well as creating succinct captions that would limit the overuse of hashtags. Creating a classic filter for the account that would be used on every future post would be a great way to create a branded personality of the Farmers Market and maintain consistency across all of the posts. Limiting the use of hashtags would also clean up the visual tone and help tell a more compelling story to new users. A way to also make their Instagram feel less cluttered would be to use the carousel option when posting multiple picture. It allows for more pictures to be featured and shown, instead of jamming a lot of pictures into one post. However, if the Farmers Market would like to keep the collages, another option for them would be to not use a lot of text. For example, when using numerous pictures in a collage that all have text in them, it becomes jumbled and hard to take in.

Works Cited List

Vaynerchuck, Gary. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World. New York: Harper Business, 2013.

Lambert, J. Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community. Berkeley, CA: Digital Diner Press, 2006.

Shea, Neil. “How to Tell Powerful Narratives on Instagram.” NiemanStoryboard, 23 September 2015, http://niemanstoryboard.org/stories/how-to-tell-powerful-narratives-on-instagram/. Accessed 24 October 2017.

Hlinko, J. Share, Retweet, Repeat: Get Your Message Read and Spread. New York: Pretenice Hall, 2012.