Know Where Your Food is Cumin From

Even if you're like me, and haven't posted a Facebook status in about 4 years, everyone still checks their Facebook account pretty much every day, if not more. It makes sense then, that Facebook is still the biggest social media platform in the world, which means, you guessed it, that it's a great place for advertising. Obviously, because so many people are on Facebook, any sort of advertisement is going to reach a lot of viewers, which can also mean it's good value for money.

The good thing about Facebook likes, is that with website cookies, when you like a page, or visit a website, a lot of advertisements will be related to those pages. For example, if you visit the page of Cafe Montagna, other resaurants and food ads could pop up on your home page. Because there are so many cafes, restaurants, and general food products being advertised, this is actually a really effective way for any business involved in food to advertise.

For example, the other day, I went on a website talking about food in Australia, and then I started seeing ads for the Country of Origin Labelling for Food. Basically, they're spreading the fact that new stickers will be put on foods so that we'll be able to tell where it comes from more easily.

Given everyone's recent obsession with organic and healthy food, it's pretty logical to assume that people care about where their food is from, and if it's an Australian product or not. So, making sure people know new labels are coming, and what they mean is a pretty smart idea, and advertising it on Facebook ensures people will be in the know.

Hashtags are a Great Way To Crack Onto New Customers

If you're with a group of people at dinner, and you all get a fancy looking meal at a restaurant or cafe, odds are, someone's going to take photos of it and post it on social media. Everyone makes fun of us Gen Y people for doing this, but let's get real, we all do it. Hashtags are a brilliant way for businesses to get marketing coverage, and take advantage of this trend. A hashtag specifically for a business, for example, #caffepaparazzi means people can search for that restaurant and see what food they have on offer. It's  not uncommon for people to search a hashtag of a cafe or restaurant when they're making up their mind where to eat to check out the food that other people have been getting, so hashtags can be a great way to bring in new customers.

However, generally when people post a photo of food they will also use more generic hashtags such as #food, #brekkie, or #healthy, which means that people who search those hashtags will also get photos of food from a specific restaurant. This means the business will reach a wider audience, and could make them want to visit the restaurant even though they might not have heard of it before.
The good thing is, while Hashtags started on Twitter and Instagram, they're now used on Facebook too, so a hashtag can get a business marketed across more social media platforms, and reach more potential customers.

Dipping into YouTube Advertising

If you've ever watched a YouTube video, the chances are you've been stuck watching an ad before your video begins.
There's two types of ads, ones that can be skipped after 5 seconds, and ones that you're forced to watch for 30. The latter annoys the best of us, but is actually a pretty good way to market. YouTube has a very wide audience, so a company can reach more potential customers.It can bring out the more creative side of advertisers, as their goal is to keep the viewer entertained. This is more effective than marketing through YouTubers themselves because the ad's are specific to the country the viewer is in; Australian viewers won't get ads for products only available in America.

The problem is that it can be difficult to hit your target audience, particularly if that audience is to do with age, as you can't tell how old a viewer is. However, you can make sure your product is advertised in the lead up to videos have a connection to the product/brand.

For example, Hannah Hart's YouTube channel, My Drunk Kitchen, revolves around cooking and food. Therefore advertising, for example, Red Rock Deli Chips, Or McDonalds is a great way to market their product, because chances are, the viewer will be interested in that product, because it's related to what they're watching.

Another problem is YouTube Red, which allows viewers to pay a certain amount, and not have to see any ads. This could damage the effect of advertising on YouTube, as the audience is more limited, but for now, this is a pretty good method of marketing on social media!

People are Nuts About Kayla Itsines' App

Fitness and healthy eating is a recent trend that all of us at least pretend to be on board with, even if we secretly eat a large slice of cake after a 5 minute run. Don't lie - we all do it.
Workout guru Kayla Itsines has recently hit her fame for her workout routines, and healthy lifestyle. Her app, Sweat With Kayla, doesn’t only give workout tips, but daily recipes for healthy eating for a range of diets, how to make an unhealthy meal healthy, and how to shop without buying unnecessary bad food. Kayla promotes her app a lot on Instagram, where she shares photos of recipes and foods that are available through the app, with a download link in the description.

Instagram is an especially good way to market her healthy food recipes, because she can share a wide range of dishes for followers to see and make them look appealing. While she doesn’t use a lot of hashtags she still gets her followers to engage and act by downloading the app. Instagram is also a good way for her to market because she knows that all her followers are interested in the content she has on the app, and when people like the post, all their followers can see it which generates more publicity. 

Snapchat's Brewing Up Marketing Opportunities

It turns out Snapchat has more uses than sending sneaky photos that you really don't want to see the light of day after those 10 seconds are up.
Live feeds on Snapchat have quickly become a popular way to market; different from ‘Discover,’ they’re only up for 24 hours, and generally involve travel, festivals, and events. People in these places can send in their related Snaps for everyone to see. Just last week, everyones favourite unofficial holiday “Beer Day” was celebrated, and was one of the live feeds. People sent in anything from beer drinking contests, how to brew beer, or just having a drink at the bar to celebrate the glorious invention that is beer.

Companies such as Guinness, or Golden Road Brewing took advantage of it, with people tweeting specific brands or breweries. This was a really smart way to market a product or brand, because not only does everyone of Snapchat have the opportunity to view these Snaps, but it would be very rare for negative publicity to come from it. Plus, everyone loves a good pint, so it gives everyone a good chance to get involved!

 Also, a lot of breweries had Snaps about how they make the beer, giving everyone a bit of an educational experience, which might make them want to visit their brewery to learn more about it, or just buy more of their brand after they've seen it.

Because if we're all being honest, we only need a little but of encouragement to have a cold one!

The Sugar Tax is Eggs-actly What the UK Needed

Jamie Oliver's one of the most famous chefs in the world, and he's managed to get us all addicted to his 15 Minute Meals. From late 2015 to early 2016, he's shown his support for sugar taxation on soft drink products in the UK. Oliver went on social media to campaign for the sugar tax.

He used three main platforms, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to promote the campaign to as many viewers as possible. Because of this, and the millions of followers he has across all forms of social media, his marketing strategy using social media was to aim for reach rather than frequency. He used social media to share his plan for success, show his support, along with videos and articles that support his point of view. By promoting his campaign three platforms, he was able to reach millions of different users from multiple social media platforms.

In September of 2015, Jamie Oliver did a live stream on Facebook about his documentary Sugar Rush. This was promoted on Facebook using the hashtag #SugarRush. This meant he was able to attract thousands of viewers to promote the documentary, and allowed people to get involved and show their support by signing a petition. This also meant he was able to communicate with viewers, and answer questions they had about the tax or his views.

His campaign across social media was very successful – on the 21^st of March the levy passed, and the UK now has a sugar tax in place. Again, Jamie Oliver went on social media to celebrate the success, and urge other countries like Australia and Canada to do the same.

Can Youtube Stars Ap-PEA-se Marketers?

As a social media platform, YouTube has grown massively over the past couple years. Along with it, people who post videos have become ‘YouTube celebrities,’ with millions of followers and views to each video they post. Because YouTube's become such a big platform, businesses have taken the opportunity to advertise their products. Companies can pay for adverts that appear before a video plays, but another way is through the YouTubers themselves.

Naturebox is a company that allows you to order healthy snacks online and have them delivered to your door, has used hugely successful YouTubers such as Tyler Oakley and Colleen Ballinger to promote their product in their videos. They talk about the brand in general, and offer a discount on purchases, and free shipping when a specific code word is used.

This is both an effective, and ineffective marketing strategy; these YouTube stars have a very large audience, so millions of people will see this promotions; Naturebox is clearly aiming for reach rather than frequency in their strategy. This is pretty successful, because a brand that might’ve been somewhat unknown by people not very interested in healthy eating is now known to millions of people across the world, in many different countries.

However, a lot of the audience of these celebrities are from the younger demographic, being under 18. A lot of them probably still live at home and therefore might not buy household food. Additionally, this brand, and home delivery service the YouTubers advertise are only available in the United States and Canada. So the majority of viewers that see these ads are unable to buy anything, and the cost of advertisements through the Youtubers might not really be that beneficial.