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Jessica SchianodiCola & Elisabeth Teichner

Online Culture
Final Paper/Project
Food Networks #BakeItForward Campaign

Introduction
During the holiday season, Food Network introduces new shows and events that
encourage people across the country to be a part of its Food Network family. This year they
teamed up with the No Kid Hungry Organization to create a challenge for its audience that would
benefit and support a great cause. Using the hashtag, #BakeItForward, a participant is
encouraged to join the campaign by baking a dessert and posting a photo of it on various social
media sites. For every post on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, Food Network will donate one
dollar to No Kid Hungry. Every dollar donated is
equivalent to ten meals that the organization is able
to provide children. The overall goal is for Food
Network to serve 1 million meals to this
organization from when it starts the campaign on
November 1st until it ends on December 31st.
Participation in the campaign is open to
absolutely anyone. The main audience would
include avid viewers of the Food Network, those who have a high interest in baking, or people
who enjoy being a part of giving back to charity. Users of any of the three social media sites
used in this campaign are also easily able to participate in this challenge. All that is required of
participants is to bake a dessert of their choice, take a picture of or with it, and post it to one of
their social media pages and use the hashtag, #BakeItForward. It is also encouraged to tag a
friend in the challenge and nominate them to participate as well. Alternatively, you can also
directly donate to the foundation through the Food Networks Bake It Forward website.
Methodology

For our methodology, we decided to start by monitoring and analyzing the Twitter,
Instagram and Facebook platforms that were encouraged to be used during this campaign. We
tracked how many posts each platform was generating and how people were interacting with
each other on them. Overall, each of the platforms did generate a significant amount of posts,
activity and conversation. Since the start of the campaign, twitter has been generating roughly
20 posts per hour, over 17,000 photos had been posted to Instagram, and the campaigns hashtag
had been mentioned over 97,000 times on Facebook. Still, we believe that since these platforms
are so different in their layouts and functionalities, utilizing all of them for one campaign was not
the most effective method.
We think that this campaign would be more successful if the design of it was more
communal, collective and streamlined. By promoting the campaign over three entirely different
social media sites, we think the campaign lacked consistency and maximum outreach. The target
audience that Food Network intended to focus on for this campaign could be better reached if
everything was done on one cohesive platform. Therefore, we decided to redesign a new Food
Network page, which we will discuss in detail later on. First, we want to elaborate on what we
found on each of the social media platforms that were used for the #BakeItForward campaign.
Twitter
Twitter is a micro-blogging social media site that allows users to send and read short,
140-character messages. For the purposes of this campaign, we understand why Food Network
would choose this platform. Twitter is a well-constructed platform to use when understanding
what is happening in the world with spreadable media and how this is occurring in larger
networks and communities of people, rather than in isolation. In the case of this campaign,
something Twitter is useful for is its ability to connect users with a communal interest, regardless

of geographic locations (Jenkins, Ford, & Green, 2013). Twitter fosters great conversation
between different users and what was really special about this campaign was that influencers
such as Food Network star Rachel Ray and the No Kid Hungry Organization were joining in on
the #BakeItForward conversation as well. The No Kid Hungry Organization in particular would
respond frequently to Tweets from users who posted what they had baked and if they used the
hashtag #BakeItForward. This proved that there was strong involvement over this particular
social media platform.
The content we found on the Twitter platform during this campaign usually included a
photo of the users baked good followed by a brief description of what it was they baked and the
hashtag #BakeItForward. Other hashtags that were commonly used include #FoodNetwork,
#NoKidHungry and #ShareLove. Most people mentioned the Food Network and the No Kid
Hungry Organizations Twitters in their posts and some even went a little further by tagging their
friends or family as well with hopes of encouraging them to also take part in the campaign.
Overall, the tone on Twitter during this campaign was very upbeat, happy and friendly and
although a wide variety of people participated, it was primarily women users that we came
across.
We did find some flaws through the use of Twitter for this campaign, however. For
example, there was nothing separating the posts from people who were actually participating in
the #BakeItForward campaign from the posts made by people who were simply talking about it.
When we searched the #BakeItForward hashtag on Twitter, we did find several posts being made
by participants who actually baked something for the campaign, but there were also a number of
posts from people who were just making a comment about the campaign in general but were not
participating.

Another thing we found was that some of the tweets we came across suggested people
were confused in terms of how to participate and when the start and end dates of the campaign
were. Even though Food Network did tweet how to participate and where to go to donate, more
specific information about the campaign and the organization Food Network was pairing up with
could really only be found on the Food Network website.
Instagram
We felt as though Instagram was a much simpler and more straightforward social media
platform. The posts found when we searched the #BakeItForward hashtag always included a
picture, which was no surprise being Instagram functions solely as an online photo-sharing and
video-sharing social networking service. Some of the pictures were just of the baked good itself
and other times the user was in the picture as well. Texts accompanying the picture usually
described what the baked good was with hashtags such as #BakeItForward, #GlutenFree,
#CinnamonFree, #InstaFood, #Foodie, #FoodPorn, #Holidays, #Homemade and #NoKidHungry.
We found that food bloggers on Instagram would most likely also share a link in the text
area of their posts, which directed followers to another page where they could find recipes.
Instagram bloggers who took part in this campaign also encouraged conversation through the
comment section, underneath the picture posts. The conversations we followed talked mostly
about the holidays, reviews on the desserts that were posted, and recipe tips and alternatives.
The Instagram posts that received the most likes during this campaign were the ones
posted by celebrities and the Food Network family, such as Sarah Gellar, Katie Lee and Jonathan
Bennett. Not only did these influencers encourage conversation among Instagram users through
the comment section, but they also motivated users to participate with the #BakeItForward
hashtag and shared information on the overall campaign.

Facebook
Being Facebook was another one of the main platforms used during this campaign, we
did look at how people used it and what kind of content it generated. However, we didnt delve
too deeply into this particular platform, as we found it to not be as relevant or popular as the
other two platforms. Also, the design of Facebook is not as organized or straightforward as
Instagrams. Pictures, people, videos, and any other posts made with the words bake it
forward, would come up in a search of the campaigns hashtag. Generally, though, we found a
decent amount of engagement between Facebook users and the #BakeItForward campaign.
Users typically posted a photo of their baked good and comments and likes from their personal
friend groups would most likely follow. Facebook posts related to this campaign were not shared
as frequently or as easily as those made over Twitter or Instagram.
Food Networks #BakeItForward Page
Through the main Food Network website there is another page devoted entirely to the
#BakeItForward campaign. It claims the domain foodnetwork.com/bakeitforward, which is
easily accessible to anyone who would want to learn additional information about the challenge.
It explains the purpose of the campaign and how anyone can get involved. This is also the area
where direct donations to the charity can be made it if an individual does not want to participate
in the campaign but still wants to help the No Kid Hungry foundation in some way. The site also
provides a live stream linked to Instagram that shows a few recent posts from participants who
posted a picture with the #BakeItForward hashtag. While there is a video explaining what the
challenge is, as well as some clickable links, this is not a platform for users to post their pictures
on or submit any of the recipes that they used while participating.
Changes

After reviewing each of the currently used platforms in this campaign and the Food
Network page devoted specifically to the #BakeItForward campaign, we decided to focus our
redesign of the campaign primarily on the Bake It Forward homepage, which is found through
the Food Network website and uses the domain foodnetwork.com/bakeitforward. We decided
that creating a single platform would be more effective than running the campaign over several
different platforms. This would allow the participants to all interact with each other more
effectively, rather than being spread over three separate platforms.
The exchange of advice and knowledge through the internet has become an integral part
of our lives and campaigns, such as #BakeItForward, give people in a community the ability to
easily share their knowledge and love of the same interests through the internet (Delwiche &
Henderson, 2012). It is important that the changes we make facilitate an easier exchange of
knowledge for participants. Our redesign layout keeps the Food Networks Bake It Forward page
the exactly same above the fold. The existing content on this page could be greatly expanded
upon and has the opportunity to provide users with a more interactive experience; therefore,
below the fold is where we imagine applying our changes.
One specific change we would implement in our redesign is to have participants submit
their #BakeItForward photos onto the Food Network Page that uses the domain
foodnetwork.com/bakeitforward/submissons. To encourage people to submit something, a short
video will be placed next a submission box and will feature Food Network stars who ask, What
are you waiting for? Click right there to submit your post and show us what youre baking this
holiday season! We believe this is a beneficial change, as it will encourage participants to post
more often and to use other new features on the site that we will introduce, such as the Chat
Room.

We do believe that it is important to keep the social and sharing aspect of this campaign
present, as it encourages the spreadability of media and facilitates users to make create
connections with other communities online (Jenkins, et al. 2013). For that reason, we are
keeping the Twitter, Instagram and Facebook platforms involved in this campaign, but without
making them the primary source required to participate. Instead, users will have the option to
share whatever content they submit on the Food Network page to their personal social media
pages. By doing this, the #BakeItForward content will all be in one cohesive place, but still have
the opportunity to be shared among a multitude of different social media platforms.
Building off this idea to keep the social aspect strong throughout the campaign, we
believe a chat room feature would work well on the Food Network #BakeItForward page. The
chat room really adds to making this campaign a communal effort, as people can use it to discuss
the campaign, talk about recipes they used, look for advice when trying to bake something
different or simply meet other people with similar interest.
Taking into consideration the high interest people had in sharing recipes with each other,
another available feature on this newly designed page will include an option for people to
manually post a recipe or paste a link to where their recipe can be found with their
#BakeItForward submissions. This not only caters to the interest of the targeted audience who
are looking for recipes to try or give suggestions on, but it also further encourages interaction
and conversation among the campaign participants. In todays world, participatory culture and
knowledge involves a multitude of people that collectively classify, organize, and build
information off of one another, also labeled as an emergence of collective intelligence
(Delwiche & Henderson, 2013 p. 3). By providing a submission section for recipes, participants
are able to build off of one another's creativity and share the experience together.

In Delwiche and Hendersons book, The Participatory Cultures Handbook, Henry Jenkins
is quoted saying, A participatory culture, is also one in which members believe their
contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connections with one another (at least they
care what other people think about what they have created) (2012, p. 2). Participants in this
campaign want to know that their submission and donation is making a difference. Also, people
just generally like to be acknowledged for their work and contributions. From these
understandings, we decided to keep the feature currently present on the Food Network page that
shows a live stream of submissions. The only thing that would be modified in this feature is the
fact that right now, live stream content comes straight from Instagram posts, whereas on the
redesigned page, live stream content would come from all general submissions.
In addition to this, we want to add a spotlight feature to acknowledge participants and
make them feel a little extra special for helping out with this campaign. This spotlight feature
would change daily throughout the campaign and simply show the submission that is receiving
the most amount of shares across social media after being submitted on the Food Network page.
Our hope is that these two features will encourage more participation from people and make
them feel good for taking part in the #BakeItForward campaign.

Feature List of Redesign Changes:

1.

Food Network Page where #BakeItForward posts are submitted

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2.

Submitted posts can also be linked to a participants social media pages for sharing, including

Twitter, Instagram and Facebook

3. Chatroom option for participants to talk about their experience with the challenge and talk about
what they chose to bake
4. When submitting, available option to post a recipe
5. Tracker to show people how many submissions/dollars have been raised
6. Keep the live stream that exists on the page now, but pull most frequent/shared submissions right
from the site

Instagram Wireframe

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Twitter Wireframe

Original

FoodNetwork.com/bakeitforward Wireframe

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Redesign of

Foodnetwork.com/bakeitforward

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*Above

the fold

*Below the fold

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Submission Page Wireframe

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References
Delwiche, A., Henderson, J.J, (2012). The participatory cultures handbook. Routledge
Publishing. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com/books?id=5GBFpLpTWCoC
Jenkins, H., Ford, S., & Green, J. (2013). Spreadable media : Creating value and meaning in a
networked culture. New york, ny, usa: New york university press (nyu press). Retrieved from
http://www.ebrary.com