As an ongoing feature here on my blog, I will be performing social media audits on brands, celebrities and sports teams to assess what they’re doing right and what I think they may be doing wrong…and how they can improve upon the success of their social media endeavors.
These audits are very similar in nature to the audits I would perform on a client’s social profiles. However if I have admin access on Facebook, I can dive a little deeper. But even in this format, the profile being audited can get a very good assessment as to the health of their social media marketing.
Today I will be performing a social media audit on Checkers Rally Hamburgers. and it’s not at all going to be pretty. For a brand of this size, I’m actually shocked by the lack of social media proficiency exhibited by Checkers.
It’s so bad that perhaps they would be better off deleting their social profiles than even having them available for the world to see. I often get asked by people if social media is something that all businesses should be involved in. Contrary to what most may think, I answer no.
In this instance, if you’re a brand or a business and you’re not going to make a commitment to social media…a real commitment with competent staffing, allocation of resources (money and content), and are prepared to go the distance, then no. Don’t get involved in social media.
Because a half-assed approach is going to be damaging to your brand and the end result is…well this Checkers social media audit will show you what the result is.
Brand Name: Checkers, Inc., Rally’s, Inc., Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc. Checkers is owned by the private equity firm, Wellspring Capital Management.
Brand Background: Checkers /Rally’s is the nation’s largest chain of double drive-thru restaurants. Based upon data found in their Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) of December 31, 2012, the average Checkers grosses approximately $940,000 per year and the average Rally’s grosses $845,000 annually. There are 489 Checkers restaurants and 288 Rally’s. Combined there are 777 locations.
The Chief Marketing Officer is Terri Snyder and she’s held the position since 2007.
In this post, I will examine the social media profiles of the Checkers Rally Hamburgers. I will also be making recommendations as to how I believe they can better engage with their audience. For information on the team’s social profiles, please click on the tabs below.
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Facebook: ( page link ) Currently Checkers has 221,475 fans as of October 14, 2013. They are enjoying an engagement rate of approximately 2.3%. That’s actually not bad for FB engagement.
Checkers currently averages less than 1 Facebook post per day. From September 27, 2013 through October 13, 2013, they only published 11 posts that generated just under 5,000 engagements for an average of 447 engagements per post.
The most engaging type of content has been photos. However this may be skewed as photos were the most posted content over videos, polls etc.
As for sentiment, 79% of the activity is neutral or positive in nature. The optimal posting time is on Friday evening between 10pm and 11pm. (click image to see full sized chart)
All of this indicates that there is a base of fans who have an interest in the Checkers content. However, where the problem comes in is regarding the actual reach on the page. During this measured time frame, Checkers was only able to obtain an engagement rate of 2.3%.
This is primarily due to the fact that Facebook’s algorithm is only showing the content to a fraction of Checkers fan base. There are a few ways to over come this to increase engagement. Currently Checkers’ response to the comments from the audience is basically non-existent.
Additionally, once you’ve seen a hamburger, it doesn’t really matter how many more times you post it…it’s still a hamburger and a hamburger isn’t compelling content. Your audience merely looks at this as self-promotional pablum. It doesn’t resonate at all.
Recommendations: With a base of this size, this profile can be turned around fairly quickly with the right focus and resource allocation. Here’s what I believe Checkers needs to do:
- Employ Facebook ads to reach a higher percentage of fans and friends of fans.
- Immediately begin engaging more with the fans who do respond. You need to get your response rate up. Let your fans know that you appreciate them. Simply ignoring their responses, especially on a page this small, is social media failure.
- Create content that people actually care about. Lose the CMO mantra of pushing your product. It simply comes off like a commercial on social media.
- Show your audience that you actually care about something…maybe even show your audience that you care about them. There’s a novel concept.
- And begin creating, developing, and executing exciting social promotions on an ongoing basis.
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Twitter: ( page link ) Checkers currently has 1,953 followers on Twitter and are following 17 people as of October 14, 2013. Currently the Checkers Twitter account is “unverified” which is odd for a brand of this size. But we certainly know why.
This Twitter profile is dead. I’m not being funny. It’s actually dead. It’s so dead that I had to go to Checker’s main web page to make sure I had the right link. Once I confirmed that I had the right link I realized I was looking at a tremendous social media fail. A fail of epic proportions.
Checkers is actually promoting, via a hyper-linked image, a dead and abandoned Twitter profile. As you can see by the image below, Checkers has not tweeted since January 21, 2013. They have simply given up on Twitter.
This must be a conscious decision. And it’s a very bad one. Earlier I stated that social media wasn’t for every business and that not having a presence was better than having a bad presence. Checkers’ Twitter profile exemplifies my statement.
The measurement period of this Twitter audit is September 13, 2013 through October 14, 2013. I bet you thought I was exaggerating when I said their Twitter profile was dead. Well, as you can see below, I wasn’t making it up.
While it’s dead as far as the people at Checkers may think, it’s obvious that they don’t understand social media. Those of us who work in the stream of activity on a daily basis know the reality of social media. You no longer control the conversation about your brand. The consumers do!
As you can clearly see below, that even though Checkers has done their best Elvis impersonation and left the building, the conversation about Checkers continues. Over the last 30 days there have been over 392 unique people making nearly 500 tweets regarding Checkers. The conversation doesn’t stop simply because you choose to pick up your toys and go home. (click image to see full sized chart)
Recommendations: This is an easy one. If Checkers isn’t going to be active on Twitter, take the page down and take the hyper-linked image off of their website. It’s damaging the brand.
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YouTube: ( page link ) Currently Checkers has 180 subscribers to their YouTube channel. They have uploaded a total of 39 videos. Total views of all videos is 71,771. This gives Checkers an average of 1,840 views per video.
The videos are not being posted regularly. The last video posted was on July 28, 2013. So although this isn’t quite as bad as Twitter.
Checkers is pretty bad in their utilization of YouTube. In regards to the content that they actually do post, it’s basically a lackluster effort of posting television commercials on YouTube.
Here’s an example below. It’s the last video that they posted.
(click on the snapshot below to enlarge the image)
Recommendations: If Checkers wants a vibrant presence on YouTube they must commit to a regular frequency of postings and the content has to be compelling. Users are not going to share commercials.
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Instagram: Currently Checkers does not have an Instagram account. I could not locate one on Instagram and there wasn’t a link on their website.
Obviously Instagram is huge. I can’t believe that Checkers doesn’t have a presence there. It’s actually quite unbelievable.
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Google+: Currently Checkers doesn’t have a Google+ page. Google+ is becoming a major force in social media. Checkers has chosen not to create a presence there.
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It’s apparent that Checkers is in dire need of competent social media management. It’s also apparent that top level executives have chosen to ignore social media. This audit uncovered a very real opportunity for an agency, as Checkers is a large chain and quick service restaurants do well on social media.
If you would like a free, comprehensive social media audit performed on your social profiles, please click here to contact me.
