Social media paper

Chewy’s Social Media Strategy: Insights, Challenges, and Performance Team Members’ Names Professor’s Name Subject and Section October 15, 2024 Chewy, Inc. is an American online pet food, treats, toys, medications, and other pet-related products selling company. It was established in 2011, and the company proliferated, with the primary objective of localization of the pet services industry while putting the customer at the center of its operations. Since the pet care industry is growing each day due to the rise in pet adoption and the adoption of online platforms for shopping, it has developed a good market niche. These indicate that they pride themselves in offering excellent customer service, an extensive stock of products, and an elaborative online presence, establishing them as a one-stop shop for pet owners across the United States. Additionally, the company takes the best care of its customers, and in its social media accounts, it always responds to customers and shares valuable posts that market its products. During the last seven (7) weeks, Chewy has had a presence of mind on various social platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. This paper aims to assess Chewy’s social media outreach during this period and precisely analyze the amount and type of engagement on their accounts, the type of content they post, and how audiences interact. Based on the marks' recent posts that involve commercials and infomercials, KPIs, engagement rates, views, and likes, it will be identified how Chewy keeps up the robust competition on social media. This paper aims to assess the company’s social media environment, analyze its strategies in response to trends, and determine outside pressures affecting the firm. Furthermore, we will review other industry scholarly articles on digital marketing and consumer behavior to complement the Chewy analysis. By linking its social media interaction with these outside pressures, this paper will advise on changes to help the company improve its social media marketing techniques and sustain its dominance in the pet care trade. Seven-week Analysis of Chewy's Social Media Activity YouTube Performance Chewy’s channel on YouTube, with nearly 96.4K people subscribed, could be named one of the leading instrumental platforms that contribute to creating informative videos and advertisements. In the past seven weeks, the company uploaded several videos, mainly commercials of their products and informative videos for the target audience. The table below summarizes the data collected from the company's YouTube account. Table 1. Seven-week Analysis of YouTube Posts Youtube (96.4K subscribers) Title Post date Number of Viewers Likes Description How To Get Rid of Ear Mites on Your Cat 8/15/24 2.2k views 31 Informercial Summit, the Adventure Dog | Chewy commercial 8/19/24 7.3k views 38 Commercial Roo, the very vocal dog | Chewy commercial 8/19/24 11.8k views 107 Commercial Radar, the sound sniffing dog | Chewy commercial 8/19/24 3.9k views 24 Commercial Cash, the bodega cat | Chewy commercial 8/19/24 7.9k views 50 Commercial How To Treat a Bee Sting on Your Cat 9/16/24 552 views 24 Informercial How To Stop Your Dog From Door Dashing 9/30/24 664 views 26 Informercial As derived from the findings, it is clear that commercials cause higher engagement than infomercials. For example, the video "Roo, the Very Vocal Dog" received the most views, with 11,800 and 107 likes. The tendency indicates that viewers are eager to watch fun, emotionally appealing, and charismatic pets located in challenging environments, shown in clips of “Cash the Bodega Cat” or “Summit the Adventure Dog” spots included (Chewy.com – YouTube Channel, 2024). On the other hand, educational infomercials such as “How to Remove Ear Mites on Your Cat” and “How to Remove Bee Sting on Your Cat” would tag along with a few views and likes. While these videos help gain knowledge, long-form videos are less attractive to ordinary people, focusing on a transition required within the content delivery for educational content. Instagram Performance Chewy’s Instagram account, with 932K followers, has seen moderate activity over the past seven weeks. The account maintained a low posting frequency of 0.03 daily posts, resulting in relatively low engagement compared to platforms like TikTok. The data for this period shows an average engagement rate of 1.50% per day, with total engagement for the past seven weeks reaching 3.2K. The content shared on Instagram comprises a mix of infomercials and commercials that educate pet owners and promote specific products. Table 2. Instagram Seven-week Performance Analysis. Instagram Account Followers Publishing Frequency Average Engagement per Day Engagement for the Past 7 Weeks Media Content Chewy (932K followers) 932K 0.03 posts per day 1.50% 3.2K Mixed infomercials and commercials Notably, the said account could be more active, as the company posts rarely and receives better engagement. When many people pay attention, it may be possible to get them to respond more by posting more often or trying out formats apt to generate engagement, including stories or reels. Since Instagram is mainly a picture-sharing platform, social media managers could add even more content by sharing more videos about the behind-the-scenes, more about customer stories, or more about how to use some products that are relevant to Instagram users. TikTok Performance TikTok has become a significant platform for Chewy, especially in reaching younger audiences. With 279.2K followers, the company posted 17 times over the past seven weeks, resulting in an impressive average engagement rate of 3.60% per day and 2.5 million total engagements. The media content on TikTok, similar to Instagram, included a mix of infomercials and commercials. However, the platform's highly visual and interactive nature contributed to higher engagement levels than Instagram. Table 3. TikTok’s Seven-week Performance Analysis. TikTok Account Followers Posts for the Past 7 Weeks Average Engagement per Day Engagement for Past 7 Weeks Media Content Chewy (279.2K followers) 279.2K 17 posts 3.60% 2.5 million Mixed infomercials and commercials To generalize, translating content from one platform to another may not work due to differences in their unique features. However, in Chewy's case, TikTok is a short video-sharing app that fits the bill with its entertainingly informative content. The platform also ranks such content in its algorithm, rewarding viral videos and encouraging them to spread in the community. In order to build on TikTok's opportunity, Chewy may establish content based on trends, TikTok challenge participation, or use TikTok influencers' collaboration. This approach could not only help increase company exposure but also improve customer commitment to a brand among the young audience who uses TikTok for product awareness (Gesmundo et al., 2022). Summary of Social Media Activity The analysis of Chewy’s social media activity over the last seven weeks reveals several key insights: * YouTube: It can be summarized that commercials are more effective than info commercials; however, the company should continue exploring ways to make learning content more engaging (Ashley & Tuten, 2015). * Instagram: On the other hand, Chewy’s posting frequency is low, and there is a potential to enhance engagement by posting more relevant and diverse content to Instagram, which targets a highly visual audience. * TikTok: The higher engagement ratios of the site prove that TikTok has a future to offer, and therefore, the generation of contents that float around trends and capture the younger demographic. Chewy's seven-week social media audit revealed some patterns on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. There was also more traffic to commercials on YouTube, where the highest figures are witnessed from videos such as "Roo, the Very Vocal Dog." This means that pet-related and funny videos receive a response from the viewership. However, while infomercials are informative, they garner far less engagement, and therefore, there is a great potential to make more informative content enjoyable for a wider audience. Its Instagram account has 932K followers, has posted less often, and has a 1.50% engagement. However, it also has a vast audience that could benefit from more often, not only text-based ones but also pictures and videos that can be more effective with Instagram's interface. On the contrary, TikTok was found to be Chewy’s best platform for accomplishing engagement. The account had 279.2K followers and 17 posts in the last seven weeks, which resulted in a 3.60% engagement rate, with 2.5 million total engagements. Finally, the performance presents how TikTok gets it right by providing short, fun videos that fit its users perfectly. To better saturate the TikTok audience and deepen the brand’s association with young people, Chewy can engage in even more trend-related posts and enjoy the popularity of viral challenges (Marti-Ochoa et al., 2024). Identification of External Challenges As Chewy tries to expand its pet care market share, it has several threats to counter from outside the business. This section will explore two primary external challenges: other market competitors within electronic commerce, the increasing presence of advanced technologies, and changing customer preferences and demands (Katsikeas et al., 2020). All the issues discussed above are challenges stemming from the dynamics of the marketplace, making it crucial for the company to change its strategies to remain among the key Internet-based pet care companies. Competitive Challenges The pet care market has become saturated and focused on e-commerce, especially in developed nations. The company's competitors include giant online stores like Amazon and physical stores like Petco and Walmart, which have formidable capital and superior supply chain systems (An & Chung, 2023). However, Amazon is one of Chewy’s direct competitors because it sells a broad range of products with fast delivery and provides same or next-day delivery with the help of its Prime services. Another threat is Petco, which operates as a pet store with a sizeable and continuing expansion of its online sales channel, needing more than the said hybrid model. To establish itself in this environment, Chewy has centered its strategy on fostering a highly customized approach targeting its customers with Autoship. This subscription service allows clients to receive pet supplies regularly. It is the model that not only generates repeat business but also develops loyalty (Janzer, 2020). The company has also made the company highly personalized, providing customers with hand-written notes, drawings of their pets, and, at times, free 24/7 vet consultations through an online portal that makes buying from Chewy unique and quite different from, for instance, Amazon, which tends to generalize services. Concerning digital marketing, Chewy is ambitious in creating customized and interactive content from YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. However, it does compete with Amazon and Petco, where these firms have ad...