Digital & Social Media Communication
April 21, 2025 - (Week 1 - Week 14)
Linchenyi/ 0367008
Graphic design/Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Digital & Social Media Communication
INSTRUCTIONS
Table of Contents
- Instructions
- Final Submission
> Task 1: Social Media Analysis
> Task 2: Content Ideation
> Task 3: Content Planning
> Final Project: Presentation and Design Application and Development
- Feedback
- Reflection
🗂️Task 1 – Brand Information (Week 1 - Week 4)
📌Task Objective:
Choose a suitable brand and create a content strategy for its social media platforms. Final submission in the form of a presentation (PPT).
Week 1: Understand social media structure and regional differences
- Trends vary significantly in different regions, so regionality must be considered when studying social media performance.
- Consumers’ behaviors, interests, and interaction methods vary by region.
The "three-stage marketing funnel" in social media content strategy:
1.TOFU (top of the funnel)
Goal: Increase brand exposure and visibility
Content: Attract attention and cover a wide range of people
2.MOFU (middle of the funnel)
Goal: Establish brand connection and interaction
Content: Encourage audience participation, comments, and sharing
Focus: Continue to reach and increase interest
3.BOFU (bottom of the funnel)
Goal: Convert to actual purchase or registration
Content: Strong "call to action" (CTA)
Focus: Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
Platform type:
- Social (such as Facebook, Instagram)
- Interest (such as Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok)
Week 2: Build an effective social media strategy
Basic principles:
Establish real connections with fans and enhance stickiness
Accurately understand the target audience
High interaction rate (likes, shares) helps convert to actual purchase behavior
Understand your audience (audience portrait):
- Demographic characteristics: age, gender, region, educational background, etc.
- Psychographic characteristics: interests, values, life attitudes, etc.
- Behavioral characteristics: How do they interact with content and what kind of posts do they like?
- Pain point problem: What challenges do they face? How does your brand solve it?
Persona design:
The data source is real, and the character image can be fictional to simulate the target user
Hootsuite's prediction of social media trends in 2025:
Focus on customer preferences and keep up with audience needs
Brands will try to break away from the inherent style and create more diverse content
Users prefer "real" comments, and the trend of UGC (user-generated content) is rising
EGC (employee-generated content) is gradually becoming a credible promotion method
"Social listening" will be more important: brands need to understand trends and respond in time
AI content trends:
- Writing high-quality prompts is the key to generating AI content
- Clear background, context and goals can help AI provide more relevant content
Week 3: Existing content review
Current operating status
Release frequency
Who is responsible?
Who is the target and current audience?
Content type
- Pictures, short videos (Reels), limited-time dynamics (Stories)
- Is it diverse? Is the style consistent?
- Call to Action (CTA)
- Is there a clear CTA such as "Buy Now" or "Click to Learn"?
- Is the communication clear and attractive?
Task 1: Brand Information
During the course, our task is to work with a real brand to plan a complete social media campaign. We initially reached out to several nearby brand stores on Instagram and sent the following private messages:
Hey [Business Name]!
We’re a group of creative media (graphic design) students and we’d love to help boost your brand’s social media presence.
We’ll start by learning more about your brand — your story, audience, and current marketing — then create a full 6-week content plan (18 posts total, including Reels, Stories, and Feed posts).
Our goal is to help you:
• Grow your audience & showcase your products/service
• Build a strong, consistent online presence
• Would you be interested in a quick chat? We'd love to show you what we can do for you!
Looking forward to hearing from you!
[Your Name or Group Name]
Unfortunately, we didn’t receive any responses. Finally, our group decided to try contacting the Norwegian Sandwich Co. on campus. We communicated with the coffee shop and luckily got the consent of the store manager's grandmother.
For this project, we developed a 6-week content promotion plan (18 social media content) for this local coffee shop around brand story, audience positioning, market challenges and visual content creation.
Requirements
- Brand Story: Outline the brand’s history, values, and unique identity.
- Product/Service List: Detail the core products or services the brand offers.
- Target Market: Identify the audience the brand serves, including demographics and psychographics.
- SWOT Analysis: Examine the brand’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
- Vision and Mission: Outline the brand’s guiding principles and long-term goals.
This research provides valuable insights into the brand’s market position, strengths, and areas for improvement. It helps brands identify opportunities to strengthen their brand image, engage more effectively with their target audience, and improve their marketing strategies to achieve better results.
Submit
Phase 1: Brand research and interviews
At the beginning of the cooperation, we visited the coffee shop and interviewed the store manager of "waffle aunty" to collect first-hand information about the brand, including:
- The origin and development of the brand
- Their core values and business philosophy (such as "home-like warmth")
- Hot and slow-selling products
- Customer group composition (mainly students)
- Current promotion methods (very limited)
- Challenges faced in operation (lack of manpower, weak publicity, etc.)
We also observed the peak visitor period, store layout, user behavior, and took a lot of photos and materials for post-production.
- We also prepared a series of interview questions (after editing and shortening), such as:
- Can you tell me a bit about how Norwegian Cafe got started?
- What makes your cafe unique or different from others?
- What values or ideas are most important to your business?
- Do you have any long-term objectives for the cafe?
- Who would you say is your target market?
- What would you say are the cafe's strengths and weaknesses?
- Are there any challenges (like competition or rising costs)?
- How do you promote the cafe currently?
We sent the interview questions to the store manager, Waffle Aunty, and hoped that she would preview them in advance before the face-to-face meeting.
Phase 2: Strategic planning and content development
- Based on the research results, we completed:
- A SWOT analysis of the brand
- The brand's mission and vision statement
- Identified their lack of online exposure and poor visual consistency
Developed content direction (focusing on the three major themes of "Quick Snacks", "Healing Daily Life", and "Sharing Beauty")
Proposed a number of creative suggestions, such as:
"Exam Week Special Offer"
"Weekend Recharge Package"
Referral code or forwarding discount
Paired sales (hot-selling products + slow-selling meals)
SWOT Analysis Summary
Strengths
Good location, popular waffles, stable customer base
Weaknesses
Reduces traffic during holidays, weak social media, lack of promotional strategies
Opportunities
Attract more faculty and staff, expand menu, build loyal customer base
Threats
Many similar competing stores, over-reliance on popular products
Our progress:
Phase 3: Content Creation and Shooting
We developed a detailed content schedule and assigned the following tasks:
Task Responsible
- Interview & Communication （Cheryl）
- Poster Design and Layout （Chenyi & Leia）
- Instagram Picture and Text Posting （Cheryl & Caitlin）
- Reels Editing （Kiya & Chenyi）
Persona Creation One Person One Role
Phase 4: User Portraits and Empathy Maps (Persona & Empathy Map)
We created 4 key user roles (one for each team member):
1. International Student (Kiya)
2. Local Student (Chenyi)
3. School Staff (Cheryl)
4. Visitor (Cait)
Local Student Persona I am responsible for Includes
Empathy Map & Slide Collaboration by All Staff
In terms of shooting, we used mobile devices and natural light to shoot sandwiches, coffee, customer scenes and other content for banner posters, story videos and short film promotions. Each piece of content is designed around a specific goal (such as increasing forwarding rate, attracting new users, and increasing order rate).
An empathy map is also required to be presented.
Task 2 Content Ideation
Social Media
At first, we found some historical traces - an IG account named @waffle.aunty, which was once the external window of the Norwegian coffee shop.
There are not many posts, but it can be seen that someone once tried to record every detail of the store, such as the signature waffles, the interview video of the owner...
Unfortunately, this account has stopped updating, and we can't contact the original operator.
This made us realize: we need to rebuild a "living" social platform to let more people know this warm place.
New account launched:
So, we decided to create a new Instagram account!
During the content conception stage, we didn’t just think about “posting a few food photos”, but carefully planned a six-week content plan, hoping to grow the account step by step, attract attention, and convey the brand atmosphere.
Our goals:
- Enhance brand online visibility
- Better convey the atmosphere of the cafe
- Attract attention and interaction from students and visitors
Task 3: Content planning and creation
In order to ensure the systematization and rhythm of the content, we developed a 6-week content strategy plan and specified the theme of each week to ensure that the content of the posts was both unified and diverse.
Week 1 - Introduction to Norwegian Café
Content focus: store introduction, location, featured products, welcome messagePurpose: to build brand awareness and attract first-time followers
Week 2
Content focus: Behind the scenes, store staff introduction, brand story
Purpose: Establish emotional connection and make the brand more humane
Week 3
Content Focus: Product Close-ups, Food Photography, Prices, Discount Information
Purpose: Stimulate appetite and promote actual purchases
Week 4
Content focus: Posts related to campus life/festivals/exam season
Purpose: Enhance the relevance and topicality of the content
Week 5
Content focus: UGC (user-generated content), interactive Q&A, voting
Purpose: Increase participation and make fans part of the content
Week 6
Content focus: Review summary, top ranking posts, funny moments behind the scenes
Purpose: Diversify presentation and enhance the personality charm of the account
Feed overview and analysis
We have successfully maintained the overall visual style and content consistency of the account:
Maintain a weekly post rhythm
Use pictures and short videos (Reels) together
Case highlight: Snack Time Reel
The short video "Snack Time" we produced performed particularly well:
Reached: 52,000+
Views: 7,000+
Likes and saves: significantly higher than the average
This shows that short videos (Reels) are currently the most popular content type. It has:
Higher exposure opportunities (Instagram algorithm prefers Reels)
Stronger visual appeal and rhythm
Easier to inspire users to like, share and comment
Final submission:
Our group's final presentation video:
Weekly Progress
Week 1
We learned about the MIB (Module Information Booklet) through the course, and also further understood what digital social media and communication strategies are. We began to form teams freely and brainstorm for our project targets!
Week 2
This week, our team was officially determined, and the members included:
- Caitlyn Alina Anthony
- Chan Soo Annee
- Cheryl Ann Maranan
- Jing Keyao
- Leia Sibun Rizal
- Lin Chenyi (me!)
We have different styles, but we all have full creativity and execution, and we are ready to devote ourselves to the project!
Week 3
We began to contact potential partners and sent out emails one by one, hoping to find companies willing to participate in our project. Brands we approached include:
- Beyond Coffee
- Rofu Café
- Binq Dessert
- Curry Dessert
- K-Space Malaysia
- Kheals Hair Salon
- Norwegian Sandwich Co.
In the end, only Norwegian Café was willing to participate. Fortunately, it is located on Taylor's campus, with convenient transportation and easier for us to observe and interview on the spot.
Week 4
This week is a public holiday.
Week 5
We conducted an online presentation to introduce the brand background, vision (such as "fast food + home away from home") and current situation of Norwegian Café.
Observe the peaks and troughs of sales and analyze which products are the best-selling and which are the worst-selling
Enhance the narrative and emotional connection with customers (tell the brand like telling a story)
Try upsell strategies: such as main course + side dish combination, special offer of the day, free waffles to attract customers
Week 6
We started to make a social media content planning table and successfully visited and interviewed the owner auntie, although she is usually very busy. This face-to-face conversation gave us a deeper understanding of the story behind the brand and its daily operations.
Week 7-8
We further constructed the target user persona and empathy map. I was responsible for the research of the "visitor" role. Through this process, we have a clearer understanding of the feelings, needs and behavioral habits of different types of customers.
Week 9-13
During this stage, we focused on:
Regular consultation and modification in the classroom
Planning and producing Instagram content (pictures, Reels, interactive polls, etc.)
Release content in stages and observe data feedback
We saw that some content (especially Reels of snack time) performed amazingly, and we also optimized the scheduling and format of subsequent content based on the data.
FEEDBACK
Week 5
our content base will be to showcase the vision and the strengths of the cefe (quick bites/ home away from home)
- Ideas Mr asrizal suggested were promos and referral codes to drive customers during low seasons (we need to ask the aunty for this)
I think we should have a group meeting where we discuss what kind of content we will make and why.
- observe what their best sellers are, when are their low hours
- how are the sales like (revenue, about figure)
- most performing menus and least performing menus
- create emotional connection with the audience (create a narrative?)
- Key is upselling (take a best sller and combo w least performing item/ main with sides/ promo of the day/ free waffle, etc)
- be a strategic designer (have reasoning for all decisions, take into consideration finance and business, Cost of goods sold)
Week 7
Looks good.
What you guys need to do is start production scheduling; meaning finalize ideas (story flow; not necessarily storyboards, but you can if you want). Need to start segmenting content (3 pieces of content per week; lasts over 6 weeks). And start shooting, editing, and publishing it each week.
Week 7 of the semester - Shoot Week 1 content (week 8 is week 1 content)
Week 8 of the semester - Shoot Week 2 content; publish Week 1 content
This continues until 6 weeks of content production and publishing (week 7 - week 12 of the semester).
Week 11
You need more narrative content. You can’t just write information or offers in a straightforward manner. There must be a “story” to let users “put in” the situation. Unless it is a similar activity or publishing team, it will be considered as one. However, if it is different, it means different contacts or different content. Different copywriting, different CPA, then it is considered as one.
REFLECTION
Experience
In this course, I went through the whole process from theoretical learning to practical operation. We not only learned the basics such as brand identification, user role setting, and advertising copywriting, but also were required to apply them to a real or simulated brand project. Our group chose Norwegian Sandwich Co. as a case and conducted brand research, user interviews, social content design, and visual promotional materials production. This process greatly trained my observation, design thinking, and ability to communicate and express with people.
Observations
During the research process, I found that the success of a brand depends not only on the product itself, but also on how it "tells a story". Especially when facing campus consumers, narrative content is more likely to resonate. By interviewing classmates, observing social media behavior, and analyzing store operation models, I realized that customers prefer brands with emotional connections, and the visual style must be consistent with the brand tone. Excellent advertising is not about pushing, but empathy and arousing needs
In addition, I also observed that teamwork played a key role in the entire creative process, and starting from different people's perspectives can bring more comprehensive creative ideas.
Findings
User research is the foundation of brand promotion: only by truly understanding the life scenes and needs of target users can an effective communication strategy be designed.
Brand communication needs structure and story: narrative advertising is more contagious than simple introduction. Social platforms, physical posters, and situational copywriting should be used in conjunction to form a complete user experience.
In general, this course not only taught me "how to design", but more importantly, it made me understand "why it is designed this way". I realized that an influential brand is shaped by strategy, story, design, and insight. This interdisciplinary comprehensive training gave me a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of brand communication.
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