Reflection #3

When thinking of successful social media campaigns, the one that I immediately thought of was Qdoba's campaign a few years ago.  This was a campaign where users could vote on which flavor of queso would remain on the menu.  Qdoba had introduced "Diablo Queso" and "Queso Verde" to the menu for a limited time.  Using Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook users were able to vote on adding one of the quesos as a permanent option to the menu.  "The campaign yielded 30,000 votes! The Diablo Queso won and was firstfeatured in stores for a limited time for free and then became a permanent option on the menu!"(Digital Media Case Study).

A major part of what made this campaign a success is the live updates provided by Qdoba on their social media accounts.  This made the voting appear almost as if it was in real time and really encouraged people to vote on their favorite option. According to Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlien, "What is true for different types of Social Media also holds for the relationship between Social Media and traditional media: Integration is key!"(Kaplan).  

The fact that this poll directly integrated with and connected with the menu in Qdoba's brick and mortar stores really helped show the direct connection between the companies social media and their actual business.  I believe this really encouraged engagement.

A lesson to be learned from this is, social media is a great way to get customers involved in your business.  If social media is treated as a participatory way for consumers to affect the offerings of a business engagement can see a spike.  Social media is a tool to connect with consumers, and when treated as such users will appreciate and interact with a business more so than if they just use social media as a way to share promotional items.

Kaplan, Andreas M., “Users of the World, Unite! The Challenges and Opportunities of Social Media,” Business Horizons (2010) 53, 59-68

"Digital Media Case Study: Qdoba's Queso Showdown (with Images, Tweet) · Phythys." Storify. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Mar. 2017.