Ann Arbor businesses are increasingly turning to social media to help compete in a crowded market. Local businesses have cultivated followings on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and even Snapchat to reach the feeds of students and community members and build their consumer base. This direct channel for businesses to interact with consumers through instant messages, comments and reactions has fostered a direct connection and sense of community between them.
Jeremy Colorundo, co-founder of “Dude, Where’s The Party?”, works as a marketing specialist for BTB Burrito, Cantina and Good Time Charley’s. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Colorundo explained that creating a digital community, rather than just a social media page, cultivates personal interactions that encourage customers to visit the business.
“There’s something there, as far as treating (social media) like a community,” Colorundo said. “Cultivating it like you would cultivate a community, and then treating all the people as individuals, instead of just numbers on the screen.”
Among businesses in Ann Arbor, there is an overall consensus that Instagram is the most effective platform for driving consumer engagement in young adults and creating a sense of community surrounding a business. Colorundo said this is primarily because the demographic he often targets is on Instagram rather than alternative platforms such as Facebook.
“We believe that Instagram is the hub of the modern person,” Colorundo said. “When we talk about most of these businesses that we need to bring patrons into, they’re all in that 21 to 30 age demographic. All of those people are on Instagram. So we do run Facebook ads that will present on Facebook, but primarily it’s Instagram, because that’s where all our customers are.”
In an interview with The Daily, Jennifer Santi, marketing and communications manager at Zingerman’s Delicatessen, agreed that Instagram is where Zingerman’s has focused its marketing efforts. Santi said she has found the engagement on Instagram to be more positive and more in line with current trends than Facebook.
“(Instagram) would be where our main focus is right now and kind of our main area where we’re engaging,” Santi said. “We don’t have the most followers there, but we do have the most engagement on Instagram currently; so we’ve developed more types of collaborative partnerships on Instagram. We’re trying to do more reels and like trending trends and trending audio on Instagram, as well as highlighting some of our great in-house photography.”
Chase Latka, social media manager at Argus Farm Stop, told The Daily that Ann Arbor is distinctively positioned to do well on social media due to the bustling college town environment with plenty of consumers to appeal to. Latka said the crowded market allows for collaborations among businesses.
“Ann Arbor is a very unique place for local businesses, just because of the mix of the community that we have,” Latka said. “We have a lot of students, but then we also have a lot of families that live here all year round. On Instagram, we get a lot of interactions and like comments from both of those types of people. I feel like in Ann Arbor specifically, we’re in this little pocket of diversity that allows for content creation and communicating back and forth with local businesses as well.”
In an interview with The Daily, Business senior Caroline O’Brien, who has a strong interest in marketing, urged local businesses to keep engagement up through snappy and relevant content.
“I would say what (Ann Arbor businesses) should learn from our engagement, at least, is … short attention span, and they need to know it applies to them,” O’Brien said. “Making sure it says ‘Michigan’ and ‘Ann Arbor’ and is relevant day to day.”
Daily Staff Reporter Sophie Cloutier can be reached at sophiecl@umich.edu.
