Shake It Records Campaign Proposal

INTRODUCTION
Social media has become the primary online medium through which people share news,
information, and personal events. As businesses adopt social media platforms, traditional
marketing and advertising channels have been eclipsed by successful social media campaigns.1
Over the past ten weeks, I have tracked and analyzed the social media activity of Shake It
Records. The goal of doing so is to highlight what Shake It is handling successfully on social
media, as well as to suggest potential areas of improvement. The information I have gathered
over the past ten weeks is compiled into this campaign proposal, which will be given to the
company with the hope that it can assist them further developing their social media campaign.

SHAKE IT RECORDS HISTORY

Shake It Records is an independent record store founded in 1978. Beginning as a small label
dedicated to releasing music from local musicians, Shake It went on to open up a storefront in
1999 in the Northside district of Cincinnati, OH. They stock over 25,000 titles on vinyl, 15,000
titles on CD, as well as DVDs, literature, and other forms of merchandise. Shake It Records has
gained recognition by publications such as Rolling Stone, CityBeat, and Buzzfeed, finding itself on
many ‘Best of’ lists for record stores in America.2 They have developed a substantial presence as
a Cincinnati establishment and have become one of the staple record stores in the Midwest.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Shake It Records is active on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram; the three platforms I have
analyzed over the past ten weeks. The study began on January 14th and concluded on March
!""# %&'!""# %
24th. The equation !""# %
∗ 100 will highlight the percentage change, which gives a
representation of how much followers Shake It has gained over the past ten weeks when
considering the social media following that existed prior to the study.

§ Facebook percent change: .85%

§ Twitter percent change: .11%
§ Instagram percent change: 1.71%

Below, I have created three bar graphs that detail the net gain of followers on these three
platforms.

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 Facebook Page "Likes" Change
16700
16647
16650
Figure 1: Change in number
Page Likes

16600
16562 of page “likes” of Shake It’s
16550 Facebook page
16500

16450
Week 1 Week 10

Twitter Follower Change

5800
5670 5681
5700
5600
5500 Figure 2: Change in number
Followers

5400 of followers to Shake It’s

5300 Twitter page
5200
5100
5000
Week 1 Week 10

Instagram Follower Change

9550 9516
9500

9450 Figure 3: Change in number

Followers

9400 of followers to Shake It’s

9346
9350 Instagram page
9300

9250
Week 1 Week 10

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PLATFORM ANALYSIS & STRATEGIES

Facebook
Analysis
Shake It Records’ largest social media following is on Facebook. They use this platform as
a catch-all for their posts, which generally consist of advertisements of new stock in the
store. They usually only post a few times a week to this platform, but their posts
generally draw a fair amount of attention from their following. People leave likes, share,
and often drop comments, asking questions about whatever the post pertains to.

Shake It is very well reviewed on Facebook, with a 4.8 star average. They are not prone to
commenting on posts and interacting with the community, but there are a few instances
of Shake It commenting as a means of
crisis management. Figure 4 is an
example of this. A customer left a 1-
star review after leaving an in-store
performance feeling disappointed by
her experience at Shake It. The
customer’s grievances were
misdirected at Shake It employees,
when in reality her issue was with the
band’s management and radio
broadcasters that were rude to her. Figure 4: Crisis management on bad review of store3

Shake It’s team explains this in an effort

to rectify the problem she had, with owner Jim Blase even jumping in on his personal
account to make sure the customer’s image of the store has not been ruined by the
experience. These efforts show a commitment to crisis management and keeping a
positive reputation surrounding the store.

Shake It occasionally utilizes the Facebook

Events feature for in-store performances and
for listening parties when a new album is
released. Figure 5 shows Shake It’s Record
Store Day 2018 event on Facebook. This event
got a lot of attention from their followers, as
seen by the 87 people committed to
attending and 668 people who expressed
interest. Partnering with Rhinegeist to put on
this event also shows a commitment to
creating and representing a “Cincinnati
Figure 5: Shake It’s RSD 2018 facebook event4
brand”, which is something that Shake It does
well.

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 Improvement Strategy
The main area of improvement for Shake It’s Facebook page is to be more involved with
their community. Mary Grace writes about the importance of community engagement
when building a brand in her article for Socialnomics. She writes that it is “important now
more than ever that your brand is strong enough to withstand an inevitable PR disaster.
Building camaraderie within your community
can be one of the best ways to do this. Having
locals willing to vouch for you and your
goodwill because of how you’ve impacted their
lives can be the tipping point”5. Many of Shake
It’s posts have questions from potential
customers that generally go unanswered.
Figures 6 and 7 are two examples of this, as the
commenters have simple questions that would Figure 6: Post about new releases6
be easy and quick to address. Responding to
these comments would be an easy way to
establish a more involved presence on their
platforms. Not doing so is a problem because
potential customers could see comments such
as the one in Figure 6, think Shake It only
stocks select genres of music, and be turned Figure 7: Post about a poster giveaway7
away from visiting the store.

Another easy way for Shake It to show a commitment to

creating a more involved online community would be to
have a display of the primary owners/employees
somewhere on their page. Plaid Room Records, of
Loveland, OH has an incredibly involved community on
their Facebook. As seen in Figure 7, they display the
owners on the front page, giving customers a sense of
who the people are that work there. In addition, they
have a short, concise biography of the store and what
their mission statement is. This is also absent from
Shake It’s Facebook page, which is a shame because of
how rich the history of the store is. Taking a few
minutes to add these two things would give Shake It’s
Facebook page a more personal touch that could draw
people to the store and give them a better sense of its
history and what the store is about.

Figure 8: Plaid Room Records’ facebook bio8

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Twitter
Analysis
Shake It tailors their Twitter page to the meme-culture that generally makes up the
platform. They do not advertise stock often on their Twitter, opting instead to create
memes that promote the store in funny and unique ways. While this makes up the bulk of
their posting, they also occasionally will push events that they are hosting in the store,
celebrate holidays, as well as reference
other Cincinnati institutions – such as the
Reds – and the events they have going on.
One such post is shown in Figure 9, with
Shake It advertising Opening Day and
showing support for the Reds in a comical
way. Shake It’s personality really comes out
in their Twitter posts.
Figure 9: Opening Day tweet9

Improvement Strategy
Shake It’s content on Twitter goes with the spirit of the platform; their posts are great. I
would urge Shake It to be more active on Twitter. Some weeks they post a lot and are
incredibly active, whereas other weeks they barely post, if at all. Utilizing the social media
management app Hootsuite would be beneficial to Shake It, as they could create a more
concrete schedule for when their content would be released.

When looking at Figure 2, it is clear that despite how well they use the platform, they are
not getting much response in the way of new followers. To fix this, I would recommend
that Shake It make better use of hashtags. Hashtags are the way Twitter posts are spread
wide-scale, so the fact that Shake It rarely uses them may explain why they are not reaching
a new audience. In an article for
Hootsuite, Curtis Foreman describes the
importance of proper hashtag use on
Twitter. He says that “Hashtags enable
you to classify content so that your
tweets are grouped with other relevant
Twitter content. This helps other
Twitter users find your content easily,
just as it can help you find influencers
and others in your industry”10. Figure 10
shows a tweet that Shake It put out to
advertise that they do house-calls when
Figure 10: House calls tweet11
looking to stock more used records in
their store. Hashtags are noticeably absent from this tweet, as they
are from most tweets they make. I believe making an effort to utilize hashtags more would
fix many of Shake It’s problems on this platform, as their content is uniquely “Shake It”.

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Instagram
Analysis
Shake It primarily uses their Instagram to advertise specific, new arrivals to their store.
They are the most active on their Instagram, posting many times a week and getting lots
of attention from their followers. They will also post the occasional meme to break up the
record posts. Posting about their stock helps to promote the idea that they carry a large
variety of genres, as well other merchandise such as literature, shirts, and more. Shake It
is the most successful on their Instagram; they market themselves the best on that
platform.

As seen in Figure 11,

Shake It uses a plethora
of hashtags to get their
posts viewed. I believe
this, along with the
frequency of their
posting, is why they
receive so much
attention and are so
successful. They should
adapt this model to
their Twitter posting, as
it would greatly benefit Figure 11: Fiona birthday post12
their presence on that
platform.

Improvement Strategy
I have no recommendations for Shake It regarding their Instagram at this time. I believe
they use the platform incredibly well and have a large, involved audience because of it.

FINAL RECOMMENDATION
Shake It Records tailors their social media presence for each social media platform they use,
creating distinct communities between them. Altering the way they interact with these
communities would greatly benefit them in pushing the Shake It brand and getting people into
their stores. Simple, small things like replying to comments on certain posts would help to show
a greater commitment to community engagement, which goes a long way when it comes to
small businesses. In addition to this, I also recommend that they post more frequently,
specifically to their Twitter and Facebook. Using a social media management tool like Hootsuite
would help them to get on a more regulated posting schedule, giving their audience more
content to entice them into the store. Shake It Records has long made a reputation for
themselves through word-of-mouth. Using the suggestions I have given will help them to get
their online communities even more involved and invested in the Shake It Records brand.

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REFERENCES
1. Falls, J., & Deckers, E. (2012). No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to
Social Media Marketing. Indianapolis, IN: Que.
2. Shake It Records website. <http://www.shakeitrecords.com/Shakeit-store.html>
3. Shake It Records. (2016, July 16). Retrieved April 15, 2018, from
https://www.facebook.com/pg/shakeitrecords/reviews/?ref=page_internal
4. Shake It Records. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2018, from
https://www.facebook.com/events/2104174479820200/?active_tab=about
5. Grace, Mary. (2017, November 6). “Becoming the Community Engagement Standard
Using Social Media”. Retrieved April 17, 2018, from
https://socialnomics.net/2017/11/06/becoming-the-community-engagement-standard-
using-social-media/
6. Shake It Records. (2018, February 22). Retrieved April 15, 2018, from
https://www.facebook.com/shakeitrecords/photos/rpp.36579704373/10156250828309
374/?type=3&theater
7. Shake It Records. (2018, January 12). Retrieved April 15, 2018, from
https://www.facebook.com/shakeitrecords/photos/a.10152468758684374.1073741827.
36579704373/10156134165929374/?type=3&theater
8. Plaid Room Records. (n.d.) Retrieved April 15, 2018, from
https://www.facebook.com/pages/story/reader/?page_story_id=1920804021525303
9. Shake It Records. (2018, March 27). Retrieved April 15, 2018, from
https://twitter.com/shakeitrecords/status/978709854436167687
10. Foreman, Curtis. (2017, June 6). “Twitter Marketing: The Essential Guide.” Retrieved April
15, 2018, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/twitter-marketing/
11. Shake It Records. (2018, March 13). Retrieved April 15, 2018, from
https://twitter.com/shakeitrecords/status/973645275100303362
12. Shake It Records. (2018, January 24) Retrieved April 15, 2018, from
https://www.instagram.com/p/BeWdk3xnw3t/?taken-by=shakeitrecords

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