Exercise: Panera Bread Goodness!

Based on recent events I read on social media news, I selected Panera Bread. To me this company is a sleeping giant as its growing in business. As a restuarant they offer good services and health conscience meals. If you are unaware with the latest social explosion that involved Panera Bread, check out this news story. This isolated situation with the restuarant lead to a post that generated over one million likes.

1.     What are people saying about this organization online? What tools are they using to talk about the organization?

Panera bread is a place people will come to eat or get a delicious pastry and its known for its college demographic appeal. I researched what people saying and how its helping the brand of the company. I used several tools like Twitter, Socialseek.com, Socialmention.com and Facebook to better understand what is being discussed about this brand.

On Twitter I am noticing a pattern of people discussing when they are having a meal. Majority of the time its stating they are eating at Panera Bread with excitement.

@francessc4 haha my boyfriend too! It's like I should just live at panera bread haha

twitter.com/_badjujuu/statuses/247454842119938048

2 minutes ago - by @_badjujuu on twitter

In Facebook, we see a change of what users are talking about with Panera. They tend to offer their reviews of the meals they had or mention what is their favorite. This is where we start seeing some negative comments. Most being regional based such as a bad service at a certain chain.

Overall Panera's posts revolved around posting photography of their meals, so they lead their followers with visuals tasty goods. Great approach especially when they align their post to meal time and timing of snack.

2. Is the organization responding to these people through social media? If so, how effective do you think they are?

Facebook can provide a best scenario of how Panera is addressing to customer’s post.  Oddly I did not see any post where Panera themselves answered but the community itself helped each other. Lets look at the following post on Panera Bread about Gluten Free meals:

Tybois Uphold

I have a friend who is on a Gluten free diet (because her son who has Autism is also) and she really wants to come in, get some soup and a sandwich, but isn't sure if there is Gluten in the Panera menu. So, I am wondering, are any items on the menu Gluten free?

Like · · Yesterday at 12:44pm

    Lindsey Hill There are no baked goods that gluten free, due to cross-contamination issues, but, there are some gluten free items on the menu. You can go to paneranutrition.com to find all ingredients in the menu items. You can also ask an associate when ordering, and they can look it up in the nutrition guide.

    Yesterday at 5:03pm via mobile · Like

    Lindsey Hill That are*

    Yesterday at 5:03pm via mobile · Like

    Tybois Uphold @Lindsey: Thanks! :)

    Yesterday at 5:05pm · Like

    Write a comment...

This show Panera Bread may have set up their community to help each other in general business questions. What I am seeing though negative questions such as bad cleaning habits at certain chains are left unanswered for user to see. I do want to state that Panera Bread can be reaching these individuals privately instead of wall post.

3. What social media tools is the organization using to proactively communicate with their user base (rather than just responding)? How effective do you think they are in building relationships and engaging their customers online?

Surprised with lack of customer support on Facebook, I looked at Twitter account for Panera Bread this where I saw the company address to their customers questions. I did enjoy how they try to make customer's feel they are talking to an individual and not a robot. In an age where customers feel they are calling into a foreign country and dealing with language barriers.  Also to note the twitter account isn't just to address customer's questions but they even tell their followers when new meals are added to the menu:

Panera Bread ‏@panerabread

@AdamLewicki Hi Adam. The Roasted Turkey & Cranberry Panini was just introduced this week! We hope you'll stop by & try it out.

 This shows how the company is really on top of their followers and making sure they are being heard, I do feel based on the recent events at Panera Bread, makes me conclude they have loyal following. The company fosters that within their own organization to serve the best quality. In an age where it takes just one post to tarnish a company's brand, its important to have a strong social presence and good engagement.

 One interesting self-exploration on Panera Bread is how loyal their followers are. I am use to seeing other online communities but never seen one where user's would answer others questions. I do feel this is the work of a good company structure that is transparent when it comes to social media.

Staying on cue in social community

 Starting out in social media for a library can seem out of character but at the end it’s very rewarding as long certain rules are followed. It’s important to plan and understand how they will introduce themselves to the online community, as the saying goes measure twice and cut once. This very much applies to how a library should establish rules and guidelines on how they will interact with their community. Every organization before establishing a social presence needs to find their tone of voice. Everyone will think most libraries will have the same voice and discussion aside for geo-base information but it’s more of the same language but different dialect that will make them unique.

There are universal rules that all libraries must follow to establish a positive community of trust. It can be considered the netiquette most social entities follow.

1.     Always show transparency. Don't lie or hide information that is public. The internet is filled with detectives who will love to reveal something good.
2.     Don't overdo it in maintaining the conversation in your social community. Yes many of us would love to post 584,454,235 in a day but like having face to face conversation, individuals have limits. For Facebook it is considered one to two post a day is sufficient to get your message across, anything more the users will start seeing your social presences as spam and will begin disconnecting. Also this can lead to negative comments. There is consideration for breaking news content.  Make sure what is really breaking news and what be discussed later on or else you fall into every post becoming breaking news. Basically I would make news that affect the lives of my followers as breaking news, anything more above them as a regular post.
3.     Plan ahead what you want to say, this will help have a constant flow of discussion with your community and a sense of engagement that is not based on a day to day post but a conversation. This is how you build a solid community with your library. Aim for 30 days worth of topics/themes to discuss just to know what is planned for the future. Of course like #2 says sometimes breaking news can change things. That is the fun of social media, things can constantly be changing.

Having these foundation points can help a library establish itself in the social community. Of course no matter what there will be negative comments. It’s important for libraries to address this and take it to a one on one resolution approach. You need to make sure the user's issues are addressed but don't need to show the world how it’s resolved. Also to avoid future negative reviews, it’s crucial to have feedback opportunity so the library can make adjustments on how its evolving itself in social media.