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Florida FFA Social Media Marketing Analysis and Recommendations

Florida FFA is a youth leadership organization that hosts a variety of events each year. To

increase attendance, alumni funding, and overall brand awareness, this organization needs to

utilize social media in their marketing strategy.

Florida FFA’s social media platforms rely heavily on pull marketing attempts to draw in

consumers. They do not purchase ads or spam users with content to push their agenda. Social

media is being used as more of a one-way channel of communication. Much of the information

being shared are reminders and updates that do not foster back-and-forth between business and

consumer. The brand does rely on traditional media sources such as print and digital pieces to

share information with their consumers. However, the organization has done a good job at

gaining a social media presence as they have over 4,500 followers on Instagram and 18,000 likes

on Facebook. This provides a good base to build the brand’s social media marketing on. The

brand is a 2 when ranking contribution to social media clutter. They do not have an excessive

amount of ad messages or posts that would aggravate consumers. However, they are not utilizing

their potential to attract consumers by posting at the correct times so some of their information

may not be received.

• Instagram: 40% brand posts, 60% consumer posts

• Facebook: 25% brand posts, 75% consumer posts;

• Twitter: 75% brand posts, 25% consumer posts.

Apart from using Facebook or other social media analytics to determine how followers

are interacting with the brand, Affinio will be used to conduct an audience interest analysis. This

will highlight what posts are receiving negative feedback so that new posts can be edited to
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exclude these aspects. To fix negative talk, the department must gather and be on the same

page before moving forward. They must then collaborate with other departments to ensure

that each area is aware of what may be causing the brand to receive negative feedback. Not

only should new posts evolve to avoid these issues, but it would be beneficial for the

customer service department to work with public relations and develop appropriate responses

to any negative talk that has occurred. Each department needs to be on the same page when

determining what comments (positive or negative) require a response.

Based on research, student inclusion is a key actionable consumer insight. Considering

recent issues regarding exclusion of others among different FFA organizations, it is clear that

consumers want to be included. Students elect to join the organization, so they do not want

the worry of being bullied. It is apparent that other campaigns by different FFA organizations

have had successful marketing by promoting this key consumer insight. A chapter in Arizona

recently announced that it would be conducting bilingual opening and closing ceremonies at

all FFA events. Another chapter in North Carolina was praised for it being founded at a

School for the Deaf. Both of these stories gained attention that increased consumer support

of the brand.

A big idea for Florida FFA would be to have a “member of the month” highlighting a

student who has done something to help others and encourage the idea of inclusion. This big idea

has legs as it could be developed into a spotlight post on social media, a one-pager featuring the

student in print or digital media, and can even be used as an interview in a video or podcast.

To be successful, the organization needs to integrate social media into its brand marketing

strategy. During events/conferences Florida FFA always produces materials to give to students
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that highlight the topic of that conference. It would be beneficial to include Florida FFA’s snap-

code and social media handles on these print materials so that students know how to interact with

them on social media. New apps such as Zappar would give Florida FFA the opportunity to

create a QR code (Zapcode). These Zapcodes can be printed onto any event materials or shared

on social media. Florida FFA can design through Zappar so that whenever a student scans a

Zapcode, information such as newsletters, videos, magazine articles, etc. will pop up in an

interactive way for students to look at. Many of these traditional marketing efforts can also be

linked into social media headers or posts.