This is a hypothetical social media strategy for Cold Stone Creamery.

1. Cold Stone Creamery
Social Media Strategy by: Amanda Nardi
9/17/16

2. Table of Contents
• Executive Summary
• Social Media Audit
• Social Media Assessment
• Traffic Sources Assessment
• Customer Demographics Assessment
• Competitor Assessment
• Social Media Objectives
• Online Brand Persona and Voice
• Strategies and Tools
• Timing and Key Dates
• Social Media Roles and Responsibilities
• Social Media Policy
• Critical Response Plan
• Measurement and Reporting Results

3. Executive Summary
• Our social media goals for 2016-2017 will be growing our online following
and community while increasing customer loyalty.
• The primary focus will be to meet our revenue goals by increasing website
traffic and social media sharing, and to increase loyalty and advocacy by
building deeper relationships with our customers.
• Three major social strategies will support this objective:
• A plan to increase the volume of content we publish to our social
profiles.
• Encourage conversations and discoverability of content.
• Increase positive engagement by monitoring social media feedback
from customers.

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

5. Social Media
Assessment
As of present
time, all social
platforms are
performing well
and evenly, with
high interaction
across the board,
especially on
Instagram.
Social
Network
URL
Follower
Count
Av. Weekly
activity
Av.
Engagement
Rate
Twitter
https://
twitter.com/
ColdStone
56,156
10 posts/
week
10%
Facebook
https://
www.faceboo
k.com/
coldstonecre
amery
2,049,690 5 posts/week 18%
Instagram
https://
instagram.co
m/coldstone/
242,326 5 posts/week
3,000 likes
av./post

6. Website Traffic Sources
Assessment
Up to date, Facebook
brings in more traffic
than Twitter, but not
by much. Both social
platforms are bringing
significant traffic to the
site. Instagram information
is unavailable, but a lot of
social activity occurs on this site.
Source Volume
% of overall
traffic
Conversion
rate
Twitter
8,000
unique
visits
10% 4.6%
Facebook
10,000
unique
visits
20% 1.8%
Instagram N/A N/A N/A

7. Audience Demographics
Assessment
Majority of people who
responded (out
of 2,000
respondents) were
in the 18-30 age range
and mostly female.
Age
distribution
Gender
distribution
Primary
social
network
Secondary
social
network
Primary
need
Secondary
need
70% 18-30 60% female
50%
Facebook
30%
Facebook
Eating ice
cream to
fulfill a
craving or
dessert
desire
To make
others happy
on a date or
friend/family
outing
15% 31-40 40% male
25%
Instagram
40%
Instagram
10% 41-55 25% Twitter 30% Twitter
5% 56-80

8. Competitor Assessment
Cold Stone Creamery
can beat competitors by
establishing higher
brand presence on all
social platforms, using
even more unique
hashtags and using
media content to engage users.
Competitor name
Social media
profile
Strengths Weaknesses
Ben and Jerry’s IG: benandjerrys
Flavors very
distinct, social
media presence
high
Physical store
locations limited
Dairy Queen Tw: @Dairyqueen
High brand
recognition,
good promotions
Creations not as
customizable
Marble Slab
FB: Marble Slab
Creamery
Similar concept
to Cold Stone,
custom unlimited
mix-ins
Not as wide-
known as Cold
Stone

9. Social Media Objectives
• In 2016-2017, the primary focus of our social media strategy will be to meet our revenue goals by increasing website traffic
and social media sharing, and to increase loyalty and advocacy by building deeper relationships with our customers.
• Some specific objectives include:
• Increase unique visitors from social properties to website by 30% in 6 months via:
• Increased brand awareness through increased positive mentions on Twitter
• Increased use of brand hashtags across all social platforms (loyalty)
• Increase Instagram followers by 5,000 in 6 months.
• Increase volume of visual content published on Facebook and Instagram channels by 30% in 6 months.
• KPIs
• Number of unique visitors from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
• Number of Instagram followers
• Number of weekly photo and video posts to
• Facebook and Instagram
• Sentiment analysis
• Key Messages
• A delicious, cold treat that will leave you wanting more
• Customizable ice cream creations made on a cold stone slab just for you

10. Online Brand Persona
and Voice
• Adjectives that describe our brand:
• Delicious
• Tasty
• Creative
• Fun
• When interacting with customers we are:
• Friendly
• Happy
• Accommodating

11. Strategies and Tools
• Paid:
• Every Friday boost most popular organic Facebook posts for the weekend. The post must have a minimum organic
reach of 1,000, as well as a minimum of 300 likes or 150 comments.
• Twitter Advertisements announcing new flavors, such as creme brûlée this month.
• Owned:
• Introduce the use of #ColdStoneCreations to consumer Instagram posts. Encourage adoption by customers and
source a minimum of 3 pieces of user-generated content per week to regram/shout out. Promote hashtag across all
social properties, email newsletters as well as printed promotional material. Encourage consumers to take pictures
of their ice cream creations to post on Instagram with the hashtag for recognition.
• Earned:
• Monitor Twitter for keywords and terms: ice cream, dessert, cold, treats. Extend 50 discount codes to warm leads/
prospects over the course of 3 months = unexpected delight. Develop a video series showing Cold Stone creating
different flavors and types of desserts to be shared on social channels, such as Facebook. Repost content on all
social media platforms.
• Tools
• Approved Tools
• Hootsuite
• Twitter Deck

12. Key Dates and Timing
• Holiday Dates
• Valentine’s Day
• Christmas/Hanukkah
• St. Patrick’s Day
• Easter
• Halloween
• Thanksgiving
• Labor Day (Long Weekend)
• Internal Events
• N/A
• Reporting Dates
• Reporting will occur once a quarter in January, April, August and December. Precise dates TBA.

13. Social Media Roles
and Responsibilities
• Marketing Director - Donald Sutherland
• Social Media Manager - Susan Sutherland
• Social Media Coordinator - Chris Coldstone
• Supporting Social Media Team Members
• Jessica Blue
• Frank Dough

14. Social Media Policy
• Cold Stone’s social media policy will remain positive and conducive to creativity, while enforcing strict
conduct codes to ensure posts fit the company culture and attitudes.
• Be respectful to all
• Be polite
• Be helpful to all
• Be excited about the company
• Be positive about the company
• Use common sense
• Use appropriate language and online etiquette
• Cold Stone Creamery is serious about the appropriate use of social media by our employees.
Violation of the social policy may result in corrective action, up to, 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. Should you have any questions or concerns
please speak to your Manager or anyone on the HR team.

15. Critical Response
Plan
• Scenario 1 - Inappropriate Tweet sent from @ColdStoneCreamery accidentally
• Action Plan
• When Tweet is detected:
• Take screenshot of Tweet
• Delete Tweet immediately after
• Alert Sutherland (Social Media Manager). If unavailable, alert Marketing Director.
• Discuss impact and reach the Tweet had and evaluate further action
• Marketing Director develop appropriate follow up Tweet to get approved by SM Manager.
• If media picked up Tweet already, have Marketing Manager deal with them and issue a
statement of apology.
• Speak with employee responsible for publishing the Tweet to see if disciplinary action is
required.

16. Critical Response
Continued
• Scenario 2 - Non-edible item found in ice-cream by customer
• Action Plan
• Employee apology and alert manager
• Manager offer customer free ice cream and upgrade size
• Manager contacts ice cream maker to report and discuss
issue
• Social media team investigates all mentions of incident online
• Continue monitoring social media for next couple of days

17. Measurement and
Reporting
• Quantitative KPIs
• Reporting Period: 3 months
• Data as of January 1, 2016
• Our Instagram following has grown by 6,100 in 3 months, surpassing the
target of 5,000 followers in a 6 month timeframe. The social content team
has done a remarkable job of curating and creating great visual content
to upload on all social platforms. We have met our goal of increasing
overall consumer loyalty, and have increased visual content by 40% in 6
months on our Facebook and Instagram channels.
• The hashtag #ColdStoneCreations has been well received by customers
and has improved engagement on all social media platforms. More than
1,000 customers have photographed and shared their creations over the
6 month period using the hashtag.

18. Reporting Continued
• Qualitative KPIs
• Sentiment Analysis - an analysis of the interactions on 100 Facebook posts, 100
Instagram posts and 100 Tweets revealed the following:
• Positive sentiment from customers following their visit. This includes shout
outs, sharing photos and stories of their experience and recommendation of
the ice cream to their friends/family/followers. Many customers used the new
hashtag. However, some customers had negative views on pricing. The
quality of the visit and the ice cream was great overall, but some people
complained it was overpriced.
• Proposed Action Items
• Continue #ColdStoneCreations Campaign and maybe offer a prize for the best
picture post
• Prepare calendar with new creations and promotions for upcoming holidays