LJ Hugs - Secondary Research [Social Media]

Secondary Research

http://www.ljhugs.co.uk/

 For this project to be a success I decided to do a lot of secondary research on LJ and his social media sites and website, in order to give me his current visual and aesthetic as well as gather the relevant information necessary. Firstly I decided to look on his website to see the kind of content he has on there. My first impression of his website was that I think it was the best representation of the brand and it included information regarding hours, location, but it also had some amazing photographs that gave the true vibe and look of the food available.

 In regards to content on the website there is one page, separated by five different sections in the header, which scrolls down to the relevant page, however the one section that doesn't have a separate title is his social media sites. It is located above the menu, then again at the bottom of the site with little icons with the corresponding links. Visually, because his Twitter and Instagram are lacking in quality/appropriate aesthetic for a business, it doesn't come across as something you would 'want to click on'. It doesn't advertise any offers for customers or any food photographs so you can essentially be seeing what he has to offer, which in my opinion is paramount for a food business. The screen shots below show what the social sites look like from his website!

After finding out that his website has all the 'important' information on, as well as some nice visuals on the location and food, I decided to look at the social media sites he particularly decided to advertise (twitter and instagram) and also the ones in which were located at the bottom of the site with icons (Facebook as well as twitter & instagram).

 Firstly I looked at all of his social media sites to see the current following, however the order in which they were put in on his website was interesting as it advertised twitter first, interestingly the site where he has the lowest following on.

Twitter

Upon researching his twitter, I came across a little interaction with customers and what they've tweeted him in regards to their food, this was interesting to see as it shows that some of his customers do take to twitter to review / praise the food! On the other had I can see that the only communication LJ has and uses himself on there is posts to Instagram that he uploads and can automatically post to all social sites. This meaning that I didn't see any tweets other than links to his Instagram, and the retweet's of customers: 

  In regards to analytics, the interaction that he typically has is up to 2 likes / 2 retweets, he also has 515 followers, his smallest following out of every social media.

Facebook

 His Facebook page is interesting because they layout of a Facebook page for a business is different to an average account, for example it shows his 5 star rating immediately. In the pictures below you can see the difference of the layout and how it might encourage people to dig deeper! 

As content and layout / overall aesthetic is something I really want to focus my attention on, I also looked at the videos in which he has posted and I can see the quality is very low, however what he does give off in them is the vibe, the fun and carefree atmosphere which is something I really liked. so for me, when thinking about improving his social media, I don't want to take everything away that he is happy and comfortable with as it is his business and his life. When wanted to make more professional videos I still would want them to have a friendly happy vibe just like the ones he currently creates, just of a higher more professional standard. 

 In addition to this I feel like these types of videos would be good for a YouTube channel, which is something he currently doesn't have. Youtube is a very popular media site and way of expressing opinions, tips,music, everything. By turing this into more of a professional yet approachable feel, LJ could do something like a longer tutorial on a youtube channel, a vlog at home in his kitchen, something that gives us more of an idea of what his life is like outside of the genre of Bath!

                                 

Instagram

Lastly I did some secondary research into his Instagram account, which is the one that he seems to want to focus on the most. When looking at the content that he uploads, it seems to be the biggest mixture out of all his social media sites. I can see some professional pictures advertising his merchandise, some of the videos such as the ones above that he posts to Facebook, and some advertisements of special deals that he has to offer. I like the way he is trying to include and communicate to people through his Instagram, I think it shows a good representation of who he is as a person and businessman. If I were to change and improve this I would want to create some type of loose schedule for posting, have a good but professional mixture of content, including higher quality videos, better advertisements and an overall theme he could include. 

Conclusion

 To conclude, after seeing all of LJ Hug's social media sites and the content he uploads as well as the response he gets from the community. I am strongly driven to improve his sites, in particular his Instagram (for more visual and aesthetic reasons) and his Facebook and/or Youtube (for more profession 'how to' video). For this I will need to undertake some primary research such as surveys and questionnaires asking about LJ's business and audience, and also the type of social media they use, as well as the type of content they like to see. By undertaking this research it is clear to me now the primary research I want to undertake into the specific areas in order to succeed at this project!