Felicitous Coffee & Tea House

Social Media Strategy Guide

Rationale
Felicitous Coffee and Tea House is located both on 42 nd street and 51st street in Tampa, Florida.
The café on 42nd is located directly across from the University of South Florida. Being that the
University has a population of over 49,000, many college students will be seeking places to
study, have fun, and simply get away from academics.
The core of the story behind Felicitous is the art that comes with it. Felicitous serves the purpose
of being a beacon for musicians, artists, and members of the Tampa community to come together
and share moments. The café shares art made by the community, both in the café itself and on
the website.

Analysis
Rhetoric is a process of determining methods of communication so as to elicit some response
from the receiving party. It serves the purpose of meeting certain needs of the “speaker” and
“receiver” of messages. In determining the target audience of Felicitous, we can figure out their
needs. As a result of figuring out their needs, we can determine the best formulation of
messaging.
Susan Jarratt states that “despite the advent of writing, print, and electronic communications, the
scene of face-to-face public encounter maintains its hold on the imagination and scholarly energy
of rhetoricians”1. Rhetoric is an integral part of human interaction. As it pertains to social media,
rhetoric is integral to effective communication and messaging since it is the choice, regardless of
intent, in picking one media over the other due to the differentiation in meaning that each one
provides. Understanding the needs of Felicitous’ audience will allow the brand to determine
effective means of reaching them via social media.

1
Jarratt, “Rhetoric.”
 Goals
Felicitous hosts several events, from jazz performances to more involved craft-making. The
primary goal of social media use will be to increase customer turnout to these events, as well as
turnout to the store in general. This means that we are looking for increased engagement with
potential and current customers via social media. Our social media presence has to be warm and
inviting, reflecting the comforting atmosphere that is offered in-store, so as to entice consumers
into engaging with our brand.

Analysis
With rhetoric comes responsibility. Brands owe it not only to themselves but to their customers
to accurately portray what they have to offer. As such, Felicitous needs to maintain our brand
identity through our use of social media. Social media sites are "computational infrastructures
that unavoidably open us to precarity but that also might be redesigned to reconfigure our
relations to one another and to the systems themselves”2. In other words, these sites can be home
to disunity just as much as unity. Our brand’s goal is to engage and facilitate the Tampa Bay
community, so it is our responsibility to portray ourselves and our customers in a positive light,
as well as discourage negative behavior.

2
Tarsa, “Complicit Interfaces.”
 Platforms
Different platforms satisfy different needs of our consumers. The following details how to
effectively use each platform so as to reach our brand goals:
Pinterest: This platform attracts our primary audiences given its creative and DIY-like nature.
34% of Pinterest users are aged 18-29 and 70% of users have a college degree 3. Advertising on
Pinterest would allow the brand to sell the visual of the Felicitous café. The images used should
reflect the creative and accepting atmosphere.
Instagram: Similar to Pinterest, Instagram allows brands to visually showcase what they have to
offer. This platform, however, has a wider reach than Pinterest. 75% of 18-24 year olds use
Instagram as well as 57% of 25-29 year olds4.
LinkedIn: Part of Felicitous’ target audience are artists. These can be amateur artists or
professionals. Reaching these individuals may be difficult, but LinkedIn is a platform for
recruitment. This site allows for targeted ads or targeted interaction with our audience. While this
platform does not have the same usage frequency as other platforms, it remains a viable choice
for contacting people individually as it has a 40% conversion rate for Message Ads5.
Facebook: The primary benefit of using Facebook is its measurability of success and ability for
our brand to plan events. Facebook allows users to engage with brands in numerous ways, from
clicks to likes to shares to comments. Above that, the platform is a great calendar. By scheduling
our music or DIY events, we can have potential customers “check in” ahead of time, then
compare that number to the number of people that attend our events. Additionally, 82% of
college graduates use the platform6, making it easier to reach our audience.
YouTube: Coffee shops are intriguing because they ground people with the five senses. The
smell and taste of coffee, tea, and pastries, the sound of music and laughter, the visuals of the
community coming together, the warmth of the staff- it’s like nothing else. YouTube videos
allow the brand to showcase what people are missing by not coming to our shop. Snippet videos
of our music and craft events will entice those who missed out to show up for upcoming events.
Over 90% of people aged 18-29 use YouTube 7, and over half of the platform’s users use
YouTube to figure out how to do things they have never done before 8, making it a great choice
for our DIY audience.
Using a variety of platforms will maximize the gross impressions made. However, some
platforms do not suit the brand nor the brand’s goals. The following details which platforms to
avoid and why:

3
“Pinterest by the Numbers (2020).”
4
“Social Media Demographics to Inform Your Brand’s Strategy in 2020.”
5
“Linkedin by the Numbers (2020).”
6
“Facebook by the Numbers (2020).”
7
“Social Media Demographics to Inform Your Brand’s Strategy in 2020.”
8
“57 Fascinating and Incredible YouTube Statistics.”
Snapchat: Unlike most social media platforms, Snapchat is used more as a messaging app
between friends than a platform for sharing content. Most of the advertising done on this
platform should be earned media, or organic media produced by the audience rather than the
brand itself. As such, money and time should not be spent on this platform.
Tumblr: While Tumblr is home to many artistic individuals, the platform is dying off. There is
not much reach to be obtained with this platform, and regional advertising targeting is extremely
difficult.
Reddit: Similar to Snapchat, Reddit advertising should be organic rather than paid. Since this is a
forum-based platform, most of the content comes from users rather than brands. Rather than
trying to gain engagement, we should encourage customers to spread the word of our brand
themselves, potentially posting on the r/USF subreddit or other similar subreddits.
Twitter: The voice of Felicitous is the voice of the community. Twitter is good for brands who
have a specific identity that they want to enforce, but our brand is open to various voices and
perspectives. As such, we let our videos and pictures speak for themselves.

Analysis
Social media is increasing in importance when it comes to our everyday lives. Social media not
only serves as a memory book of sorts, but as a means of influencing the thoughts and
associations of people. Specifically, "two particular types of networks—the material and
electronic networks of information technology and the affective and biological economy of the
nervous system—are perhaps the most vital sites for the conception of rhetorical memory that
plays large in contemporary culture and politics” 9. The way that our brand interacts with the
community is integral to how our brand is perceived. We want to leave a lasting, positive
impression among our audience via these social media platforms. Thus, we must use each one in
ways that will promote the longevity of our brand and entice future consumers to participate in
our environment.

9
Pruchnic and Lacey, The Future of Forgetting: Rhetoric, Memory, and Affect.
 Assessment
Throughout our use of social media to make contact points with our consumers, we need viable
ways to measure our success. The main measures we will evaluate are volume, reach,
engagement, and influence. These are described in greater detail below:
Volume: This measure refers to the amount of people talking about our brand. It can also be
compared to the industry volume to gain a sense of how our brand is performing compared to
other brands. Specific measures of volume include hashtags and brand mentions 10. By evaluating
each platform to see how much people are talking about our brand, we can evaluate how
successful our messaging is.
Reach: This measure refers to how much of our target audience we are hitting with our
messaging efforts. This can be measured by organic reach, meaning the number of people who
see our advertisements, viral reach, meaning the number of people who engage with our brand
due to sharing of content, or paid reach, meaning the number of people who saw a promoted
social post11. Each of these measures will allow us to reflect on how well the brand is spreading
its message, as well as how the audience is receiving our messaging.
Engagement: This measure reflects the relationship between our brand and potential consumers.
Specific measurements include likes and shares, following numbers, view counts, and mentions.
Brand engagement is mandatory to build relationships with consumers, and the market is
beginning to require relationships in order to be successful12.
Influence: Influence occurs as a result of engagement, and engagement is a two-way street.
Consumers can interact with brands, but it’s the brands that interact with their consumers that
have greater influence. Influence can be measured in the amount of people that show up to
events, as well as the number of people that show up to Felicitous on a daily- or weekly-basis.

Analysis
Evaluating how our consumers interact with and perceive our brand is vital to accurately
determining and measuring our success. While we want to ensure our customers experience the
“jumps” as described by John M. Ackerman, we have to ensure that our social media presence
reflects those possible experiences. Jumps are "those moments of exposure, through sensorial
travel, that puncture the ordinary to connect bodies to matter in space and time and that might,
upon reflection, lead to ecological thinking and equitable, inclusive action” 13. The measures
described above will allow us to determine if our customers are having these strong experiences,
or if we are just another coffee shop to them.

10
“4 Metrics That Matter for Your Brand’s Social Media Success.”
11
“4 Metrics That Matter for Your Brand’s Social Media Success.”
12
“What Is Relationship Marketing?”
13
Ackerman, “Walking in the City: The Arrival of the Rhetorical Subject.”
 Appendix
“Facebook by the Numbers (2020): Stats, Demographics & Fun Facts.” 2020. October 27, 2020.
http://www.omnicoreagency.com/facebook-statistics/.
“Linkedin by the Numbers (2020): Stats, Demographics & Fun Facts.” 2020. October 26, 2020.
http://www.omnicoreagency.com/linkedin-statistics/.
“Pinterest by the Numbers (2020): Stats, Demographics & Facts.” 2020. October 27, 2020.
http://www.omnicoreagency.com/pinterest-statistics/.
“4 Metrics That Matter for Your Brand’s Social Media Success.” 2017. Mention. October 18, 2017.
https://mention.com/en/blog/social-media-success/.
“57 Fascinating and Incredible YouTube Statistics.” n.d. Brandwatch. Accessed December 8, 2020.
https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/youtube-stats/.
Ackerman, J.M. 2018. “Walking in the City: The Arrival of the Rhetorical Subject.” In Tracing
Rhetoric and Material Life. Palgrave Studies in Media and Environmental Communication.
“Coffee Bar | Felicitous Coffee and Tea House | United States.” n.d. Felicitous. Accessed December
8, 2020. https://www.felicitouscoffee.com.
Jarratt, Susan. n.d. “Rhetoric.” In , 72–103.
Pruchnic, Jeff, and Kim Lacey. n.d. The Future of Forgetting: Rhetoric, Memory, and Affect. Rhetoric
Society Quarterly.
“Social Media Demographics to Inform Your Brand’s Strategy in 2020.” 2020. Sprout Social. August
4, 2020. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/.
Tarsa, Becca. n.d. “Complicit Interfaces.” In Precarious Rhetorics, 255–75.
“What Is Brand Engagement and Why Does It Matter?” n.d. NBRI. Accessed December 8, 2020.
https://www.nbrii.com/faqs/market-research/brand-engagement-matter/.
“What Is Relationship Marketing? - Definition from WhatIs.Com.” n.d. SearchCustomerExperience.
Accessed December 8, 2020.
https://searchcustomerexperience.techtarget.com/definition/relationship-marketing.