Chipotle Mexican Grill Social Media Strategy

Vivian Tang

Social Media Strategy

1. Executive Summary

2. Social Media Audit- Social Media Assessment

- Website Traffic Source Assessment

- Audience Demographic

- Competitor Assessment

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

2016 objectives and goals:

Improve our online presence on major social media platforms

Encourage user engagement and attract higher quality of social media users.

Increase interactions (i.e. retweets, shares, likes, comments, etc.)

2016 strategies:

Increasing online promotions and giveaways

Making our social media campaigns more interactive with users

Encouraging social media check-ins for users when they visit locations

The 2016 campaign will have content that engages users in creative, informative and up-to-date ways. By increasing our social media presence, we will be able to continue establishing a close relationship with consumers through two-way communication.

Account

Name

URL Followers Average

Weekly

Activity

Average

Engagement

Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/

chipotlemexicangrill/?hl=en

383 thousand 2-3 posts 3%

Twitterhttps://twitter.com/ChipotleT

weets

808 thousand 3-4 tweets 6%

Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/c

hipotle/?fref=ts

3,031,618 2-3 posts 5%

Pinteresthttps://www.pinterest.com/c

hipotlemg/

7.6 thousand 7 posts 1%

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/co

mpany/chipotle-mexican-

grill

50.1

thousand

2 posts 2%

Facebook currently has the largest following out of all the Chipotle’s social media

profiles. Currently, the highest level of engagement involves Twitter, followed

closely by Facebook and Instagram. There’s been an increased emphasis on

creating original media content such as videos and photos that entice users to

interact. If we focus on creating multimedia content, it will help increase our reach.

Source Volume % of Overall

Traffic

Conversion

Rate

Instagram 900 2% 1.3%

Twitter 7600 15% 4%

Facebook 3500 10% 3%

Pinterest <500 .25%-.75% .5%

LinkedIn 1000 5% 2%

Age

Distribution

Gender

Distribution

Primary

Social

Network

Secondary

Social

Network

Primary

Need

Secondary

Need

18-30 (54%) Female (47%) Facebook

(55%)

Facebook

(29%)

Interactive

content,

discounts

Ability to

customize

order

31-40 (30%) Male (53%) Twitter (18%) Twitter

(23%)

Healthy

alternative to

fast food

Affordable

option

41-55 (9%) Instagram

(26%)

Instagram

(48%)

56-80 (7%)

Competitor Social Media

Profile(s)

Strengths Weaknesses

Qdoba FaceBook: Qdoba

Twitter:@qdoba

Instagram: qdoba

- Strong consumer

interactions

- Responsive accounts

- Lack of originality in

social media posts

Moe’s Southwest Grill Twitter: @Moes_HQ

Instagram:

moessouthwestgrill

- High engagement

rates

- Consistent turnout of

video content

- Locations aren’t as

available, thus limited

geographic reach

Taco Bell Facebook: Taco Bell

Twitter: @tacobell

Instagram: Taco Bell

- Much higher Twitter

audience

- Evolving menu,

limited time specials

- Poor public image

about food quality

- Weak relationship w/

consumers

2016:

Face the criticism directed at our food safety since the E. Coli breakout in 2015 head on.

Become more engage and interact at a more substantial level with consumers to build

customer loyalty

Increase online promotions and visibility by offering incentives through social media

engagement.

Increase the number of unique visits on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter by 10% by the

end of the year (December 2016):

Increasing Facebook activity such as shares, likes, comments, tags and followers

Increasing Twitter presence through retweets, likes, comments, having customers @Chipotle

directly and quoting tweets.

Increasing the use of #Chipotle, perhaps starting a photo competition to entice users to post

their Chipotle meal.

KPI’s:

Creating and posting at least one video clip on Twitter that’ll garner over 250 retweets.

Increase our Facebook followers by 100 people each month.

Post 3-5 times a week on Instagram with each post having over 100 comments each.

Use Facebook Live once a month to give consumers a behind-the-scenes look of what

Chipotle has cooking up in headquarters with research and development.

Humorous

Interactive

Progressive

Transparent

Personable/relatable

Attentive

Paid

One paid tweet every other week that is sent out right before lunchtime on Fridays.

One sponsored Instagram post on every other Friday before dinner time to encourage customers to visit.

Alternating weeks of promotion between Facebook and Twitter

Owned

Instagram photo contest: Customers can enter as long as they’re dressed up in a costume and their meal is included in the photo. The winner will receive 10 free meals and all those who enter will receive 25% off their next purchase.

Earned

Reach out to consumers about how we can alleviate their fears toward our currently food safety protocols.

Create behind-the-scene videos showing the updated food safety initiatives at restaurants

Tools

Buffer

Hootsuite

Holidays

Halloween

National Guacamole Day, November 16th

Black Friday (beginning of Holiday season till December)

Valentine’s Day

National Burrito Day, April 2nd

Cinco de Mayo

July 4th

Tax Free

Head of Marketing: Mark Shambura Digital marketing, social media presence, overall brand strategy and national message,

event(s) and promotions

Chief Creative and Development Officer: Mark Crumpacker Being the face and voice of Chipotle’s attempt at rebounding from the E. Coli breakout last

year, emphasizes improve food safety precautions

Director of Advertising, Research and Direct: Ryan Murrin Overall direction of how Chipotle will be advertised to consumers and target demographics.

Social Media Manager: Joe Stupp Social media analytics, overseeing the effectiveness of social media and digital advertising.

Social Media Coordinator: Candice Stewart Responds to consumers comments, questions and concerns. Responsible for publishing

original content on the various social media platforms.

Chipotle’s Social Media is meant to promote the brand itself and while we strive to be active, the

utmost importance is to protect the company’s reputation, value and integrity.

Positive promotion of Chipotle is encouraged, but we should never say false or misleading

information on social media.

Being a member on the social media content team, your social media work in regards to Chipotle

must first be approved by designated Social Media Leaders before being published.

Scenario 1: Inappropriate tweet is sent on the official Chipotle account

Capture an image of the inappropriate tweet

Delete as soon as possible

Identify the employee responsible for sending out the tweet

Send the employee information and image of offensive tweet to Ryan Murrin and/or Joe Stupp

Formally apologize on the same social media account and try to appease offended party

without appearing guilty and thus giving the other side leverage.

Scenario 2: Customers is Unsatisfied with Their Order

Take proper documentation of complaint

Acknowledge their complaint/concern

Ask to move this conversation from a public forum to a private message

Offer our sincerest condolences and offer compensation for this meal and the next one as an

apology for not meeting their standards.

Inform the customer that their complaint is being looked into further and the location will be

notified for their subpar service/product.

Source Volume % of Overall

Traffic

Conversion

Rate

Instagram 900 2% 1.3%

Twitter 7600 15% 4%

Facebook 3500 10% 3%

Pinterest <500 .25%-.75% .5%

LinkedIn 1000 5% 2%

When visual content was published on any of Chipotle’s social media platforms, there

was a noticeable increase in user engagement.

The use of hashtags and consumers interacting for online promotions have increased.

Consumers feel dissatisfied with having to pay extra for guacamole in addition to not

necessarily getting the best “bang for their buck” with the portions of rice and meat.