Potential social media strategy for Wendy's Company.

1. Wendy’s Social Media
Strategy
By: Sabrina Lopez
19 February, 2017

2. Table of Contents
• 1. Executive Summary
• 2. Social Media Audit
• 3. Social Media Objectives
• 4. Online Brand Persona and Voice
• 5. Strategies and Tools
• 6. Timing and Key Dates
• 7. Social Media Roles and Responsibilities
• 8. Social Media Policy
• 9. Critical Response Plan
• 10. Measurement and Reporting Results

3. Executive Summary
• Our major social media priorities for 2017 will be to grow our online
following and improve relations with our existing online communities.
• Our primary focus will be to create and support new and improved revenue
goals by increasing traffic to each of our social media websites by increasing
brand recognition and sharing and creating more engaging, relevant content
and building deeper relationships with our customers.
• Three major social media strategies to support this objective:
 1. Increase the quality of content we publish to our social profiles.
 2. Form deeper connections with the members of our online communities.
 3. Build a greater social media following.

4. Social Media Audit
• The following is an audit of The Wendy’s Company’s current social media
presence to date. It includes an assessment of all social networks, web
traffic, audience demographics, and a competitor analysis.

5. Social Media Audit – Assessment
(as of Feb. 19, 2017)
Social Network URL Follower
Count
Avg. Weekly
Activity
Avg.
Engagement
Rate
Twitter twitter.com/
wendys
1.47 M 10 posts per week 5%
Instagram @wendys 443 K 2 posts per week Average
interactions per
post = 250
Facebook facebook.com/
wendys
8.2 M likes
7.8 M follows
6 posts per week 3%
LinkedIn linkedin.com/co
mpany/wendys-
international
31 K followers 1 post per 3 weeks 1%

6. Audit – Assessment Summary
• Currently, the highest number of interactions per post occurs on Twitter. The
least number of interactions occurs on Linkedin, which makes sense,
because a large majority of the population doesn’t have a Linkedin profile –
there are more users on Twitter than Linkedin. In other words, our customer
demographic is not very active on that network. However, I do not
recommend closing that channel, because it is one of the most important
networks to have. In turn, we should start posting more frequently on it;
about 2 posts every 2 weeks.
• Instagram has a very low engagement rate compared to Twitter or Facebook,
so that should be our main focus.

7. Audit – Website Traffic Sources
Assessment
Source Volume % Overall Traffic Conversion Rate
Twitter 1500 unique visits 15% 2.1%
Instagram NO DATA NO DATA NO DATA
Facebook 3000 unique visits 30% 4.3%
Linkedin 200 unique visits 2% 1%

8. Audit – Website Traffic Sources
Assessment Summary
• Currently, Facebook is the biggest driver of traffic to our website. As a
result, it has the highest conversion rate, just a bit over that of Twitter.
Although Twitter and Instagram do lead traffic to our site, the biggest lead
is our social media site, Facebook.

9. Audit - Audience Demographics
Assessment
Age
Distribution
Gender
Distribution
Primary Social
Network
Secondary
Social Network
Primary Need Secondary
Need
18-30 30%
31-40 40%
41-55 20%
56-80 10%
51% Male
49% Female
45% Twitter
30%
Facebook
25%
Instagram
50% Twitter
30%
Facebook
20%
Instagram
Grabbing a
quick, cheap
meal that is
fresh and
providing
healthy
options
Grabbing a
quick, cheap
meal
Age Distribution
1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr

10. Audit – Audience Demographics
Assessment Summary
• Looking at the demographics assessment, I can conclude that the majority of
our audience is from the ages 31-40, and their core social media sites are
Twitter and Facebook. Their primary motivation for visiting Wendy’s is their
desire to grab a quick, cheap bite to eat that has healthy options. Therefore,
we should dedicate our energies to further develop Instagram content and
encouragement.

11. Audit – Competitor Assessment
Competitor
Name
Social Media
Profile
Strengths Weaknesses
Burger King Twitter:
@BurgerKing
Use of videos and images retains
audience. Tweets are humorous,
friendly, relatable. Inclusion of polls
increases customer sense of
importance
Less likes on content.
Page seems cluttered,
content seems like it’s
trying too hard.
McDonald’s Twitter:
@McDonalds
Larger following on Twitter, more
likes. Use of emojis and photos with
every tweet draws and keeps
audience. High engagement.
Not nearly as many
likes on content.
Number of tweets
makes page seem too
busy.
Chick-Fil-A Twitter:
@chickfila
Lots of consumer interaction. Use of
gifs, photos, emojis makes content
fun, friendly. Use of pop-culture in
tweets makes content relatable.
Joined sooner, has less
followers, less likes.
Repetition of tweets
makes consumer
interaction impersonal.

12. Audit – Competitor Assessment
Summary
• The competitor assessment analyzed 3 major Wendy’s competitors: Burger
King, McDonald’s, and Chick-Fil-A. I picked these three big-name brands
because they all serve burgers (although in Chick-Fil-A’s case, it’s chicken
sandwiches) and they all have a strong presence on popular social media
platforms, like Twitter and Facebook. Each competitor uses high visual
content to emphasize and promote their content, which is part of the reason
they’re so successful. Overall, though, it looks like Wendy’s has the most
amount of likes on Twitter. McDonald’s is Wendy’s biggest competitor among
social media platforms regarding follower count, so I think the most
important aspect to work on is to gain more followers.

13. Social Media Objectives
• In 2017, the primary focus of our social media strategy will be to increase
sales and numbers by increasing exposure, traffic, and engagement. In order
to accomplish this goal, our main priority will be to gain followers and
increase loyalty by sharing content that is much more engaging and
relatable, making it more likely to be shared. We also plan on interacting
more with our current followers and retweeting user-generated content.
• Specific objectives:
 Increase unique visitors from social properties to website by 35% in 4 months via:
 Increased brand awareness through increased mentions on Twitter
 Implementation of #WhyWendys across all platforms
 Increase Twitter, Instagram and Facebook followers by 3% in 5 months
 Increase amount of visual content published on all social media platforms by 50% in
5 months

14. KPIs and Key Messages
• KPIs
 Number of unique visitors from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
 Number of Instagram followers
 Number of weekly visual content posts
 Number of likes and comments on Instagram
 Number of likes, retweets and mentions on Twitter
• Key Messages
 Fresh, Never Frozen!
 Why Wendy’s?

15. Online Brand Persona and Voice
• Adjectives that describe our voice:
 Bold
 Fun
 Friendly
 Quirky
 Contemporary
• When interacting with customers
we are:
• Helpful
• Supportive
• Understanding
• Funny

16. Strategies
• Paid
 Every Friday boost most popular organic Instagram posts for the weekend. The post
must have a minimum organic reach of 50, with at least 30 likes and 5 comments.
• Owned
 Introduce the use of #WhyWendys to company Instagram and Twitter posts.
Encourage customers to use the hashtag on posts and tweets to explain why they
choose Wendys over competitors. Use the company social media accounts to retweet
and promote user-generated content. Promote the hashtag among all platforms,
including billboards, commercials, and coupons.
• Earned
 Monitor Twitter for keywords and terms: burger, hungry, fast food, fries, beef,
frozen, asiago ranch. Message discount codes to 50 loyal followers/tweeters over the
course of two months.
 Partner with 2 well-known celebrities to help influence those who fall into the 18-30
demographic.

17. Tools
• Approved Tools
 Hootsuite
 Buffer
 Alexa Ranking
• Rejected Tools
 N/A
• Existing Subscriptions and Licenses
 Vimeo
 Photoshop
 InDesign
 Kapost

18. Timing and Key Dates
• Holidays
 Super Bowl Sunday (Feb 5)
 Valentine’s Day (or Single’s Awareness Day) (Feb 14)
 Mother’s Day (May 14)
 National Hamburger Day (May 28)
 Father’s Day (June 18)
 National French Fry Day (July 13)
• Internal Events
 Investor Day (Jan 20)
• Reporting Dates
 Reporting will occur quarterly on: February 16, May 10, August 9, November 13.

19. Social Media Roles and
Responsibilities
• Marketing Director: Melissa Stomber
• Social Media Manager: Ryan Knaak
• Social Media Coordinator: Taylor Mueller
• Supporting Social Media Team Members:
 Erik Lopez
 Ashlyn Cano

20. Social Media Policy
• Here at Wendys, we believe in open communication, and all employees
are encouraged to tell the world about their work and passions. Seeing
as how social media is steadily increasing nowadays, we understand the
importance of proper social media use. As an employee of Wendys, you
are expected to behave in the most respectful manner and demonstrate
the best practices, as well as a sense of etiquette in your use of social
media. Use the following points as a guidelines to your social media use.

21. Social Guidelines
• Be truthful
• Be respectful and polite to the competition
• Be respectful of all genders, ethnicities, races
• Use common sense
• Be helpful
• Be nice to strangers
• If you’re unsure about your message, don’t be afraid to ask before you post
• Don’t give in to conflict
• Don’t comment on legal matters unless you are a spokesperson

22. Social Media Policy Continued
• Wendys is extremely serious about all matters concerning social media.
Wendys employees are expected to uphold every social media guideline. Any
violations of the guidelines and social media policy may result in corrective
action, upto, and including, termination. You may also be subject to legal
action, including criminal prosecution. The company also reserves the right
to take any further action it believes is appropriate. Please address any
questions or concerns to your Manager or anyone on the HR team.

23. Critical Response Plan
• Scenario 1 – Inappropriate tweet sent from @Wendys
 1. When Tweet is detected
 Take screenshot
 Delete tweet
 Alert Melissa Stomber (Social Media Manager). If unavailable, alert Ryan Knaak (Social
Media Director).
 2. Melissa and Ryan to discuss impact and evaluate further action.
 3. Melissa to develop appropriate follow up tweet. Ryan to approve.
 4. If media has picked up the tweet, Ryan to manage all direct contact. If Ryan is
unavailable, Sabrina (owner) will manage all contact.
 5. Melissa and Ryan to sync with employee responsible for publishing tweet to see if
disciplinary action is required.
• Pre-approved messaging
 Messaging will depend on the nature of the tweet. Melissa and Ryan will discuss
proper messaging on a case-by-case basis.

24. Critical Response Plan
• Scenario 2 – Instance of food poisoning complaint via Twitter
 1. Once Tweet is detected, screenshot it.
 2. Immediately contact Owner (Sabrina Lopez). Melissa Stomber (Social Media
Manager) to sync with Ryan Knaak (Social Media Director) and evaluate popularity
of the incident.
 3. Melissa and Ryan to discuss impact and evaluate further action.
 4. Do not stop monitoring the situation across all platforms.
 5. Melissa and Ryan to create a statement. Sabrina to approve.
 6. Offer consolidations to producer of the complaint.
 7. Publish follow-up tweet ensuring all customers that the problem will be looked
into.
• Pre-approved messaging:
 Twitter: @______ We are so sorry to hear that! Please DM us so that we can help you
right away.
 Follow up on Twitter: We are currently investigating allegations of indecent food. If
you have any questions, DM us!

25. Measurement and Reporting
• Website Traffic Sources Assessment
Source Volume Percentage of
Overall Traffic
Conversion Rate
Twitter 1600 unique
visits + 10%
growth
17% 2.1%
Facebook 3200 unique
visits + 20%
growth
36% 4.3%
Linkedin 210 unique visits
+ 10% growth
3% 1%

26. Social Network Data
Social
Network
URL Follower
Count
Average
Weekly
Activity
Engagement
Rate
Twitter twitter.com/
wendys
1.47 M + 15%
growth
10 posts per
week + 13%
increase
7%
Instagram @wendys 443 K + 20%
growth
2 posts per
week + 200%
increase
Average
interactions
per post = 450
Facebook facebook.com/
wendys
8.2 M likes
7.8 M follows
+ 13% growth
6 posts per
week + 200%
increase
4%
Linkedin linkedin.com/c
ompany/wend
ys-
international
31 K followers
+5% growth
1 post per 3
weeks + 1%
increase
1.2%

27. Social Network Data Summary
• Our Twitter following has grown by 1600 in 4 months, which is on par with
our strategy. It’s important to note that the average interactions per post
have increased from 250 to 450.

28. #WhyWendys Hashtag Performance
• Between February 2017 and March 2017, the hashtag was mentioned 4000
times on Twitter and 2000 times on Instagram.
• 40 Instagram posts with the hashtag yielded higher average numbers of
comment interactions, typically involving users tagging their friends in the
comments.

29. Qualitative KPIs
• An analysis of the interactions of 100 Facebook posts, 100 Instagram posts,
and 100 Tweets revealed the following:
 An abundance of positive sentiment from customers of their food accompanied with
pictures of their orders and reasons they choose Wendys over competitors.
 Negative comments mostly revolved around customers getting sub-par meals or not
getting what they ordered.

30. Proposed Action Items
• Continue #WhyWendys campaign
• Increase content publishing on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to increase
engagement
• Create secondary campaign for Facebook and Instagram to increase
relations with followers