Confectionary Objective to Find and Share the Love

LinkedIn is the social network platform dedicated to connecting professionals through networks in order to find and share information. The LinkedIn algorithm is designed to connect subgroups and networks to larger and larger groups as the content is shared with other professionals. Scott Cornell writes in his Article the Purpose of LinkedIn as: “If you're ranking social media networks by how formal they are, LinkedIn surely takes the prize. That's because LinkedIn is a professional social media network, where users create profiles highlighting current and prior work experience. You can upload resumes, connect with colleagues and classmates and build a network that can help you advance in your career.” So, how can a business tackle a formal professional network for the purpose of advancing the company mission?

As per my norm, I reach toward The Hershey Company for LinkedIn and proactive use for a major company (https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-hershey-company/). The Hershey Company posts to LinkedIn the least of all the social media platforms. Unlike, the other platforms, The Hershey Company LinkedIn posts are inspirational, report on a philanthropic campaign, or connect employee with proactive company drives. There is very little mention of the candy products in the LinkedIn posts. The logo and the confectionary delights are always in every image, but the content primarily avoids promoting candy.

LinkedIn is where The Hershey Company confectionary objective is to find and share the love of community and the Hershey Story. Yes, we come back to sharing the Hershey Story. For example, the most recent Hershey Company LinkedIn post is about Hershey’s dedication to Human Rights of the Cocoa Farmers from which Hershey purchases the beans to make their Chocolate. The post starts with “December marks not only a time to look back at the past year, but also a time to look ahead. In just the last year, we announced a new Human Rights policy that outlined our commitment to respect human rights throughout our value chain. Now, as we approach Human Rights Day (and a new year) we’d like to take some time to look back at our progress to date and ahead at what’s to come.

To Learn more click: “(https://www.linkedin.com/posts/the-hershey-company_human-rights-the-hershey-company-activity-6607669411992211456-LAtV).

The LinkedIn post is concise and speaks to the dynamic goodwill of the company. The post is also linked to the website which takes you to more articles and links to their products while advancing prospective customers down the sales funnel.

Hershey does not disappoint with their efforts to promote good will and increase their ethos among their cliental, while striving to reach the community at large. In other words, you do not have to like chocolate or any Hershey Products to feel good about the work the Company is doing throughout the world. LinkedIn is a perfect platform for expanding awareness and increasing their philanthropic work and Hershey is taking advantage of the opportunity.

Amazingly, the Hershey Company is diligent and deliberate about their LinkedIn posts. It is paying off with 188,504 followers and 6,422 employees networked to the Hershey Company LinkedIn profile page. A proactive company can use LinkedIn with an objective to find and share the love of community while building awareness.

Thanks for reading. Be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/donald-don-crane-7ab0a216). Many Thanks to the Hershey Company and the great work they are doing.

Until Next Time, You know I love ya, Don

www.thehersheycompany.com

Cornell, Scott. "Purpose Of LinkedIn." Small Business - Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/purpose-linkedin-62179.html. Accessed 10 December 2019.

Hershey: An Epic Story to Tell Beyond Irresistible Chocolate

The Hershey company Instagram page has over 407,000 followers and is following 45 people. There are 405 posts from the company on Instagram. The company’s first Instagram post was on July 7, 2015. That is roughly 288 weeks and on average the Hershey Company posts twice a week. There are certain weeks a new product is introduced or special philanthropic event drives an extra Instagram post. On the other hand, the tagged posts are too many to count and Instagram does not provide the information to the observer. It becomes very obvious the Hershey Company is using Instagram to drive their story and to connect to consumer stories through tagging.

At first glance it appears The Hershey Company (www.hearsheycompany.com) is favoring Facebook, but upon deeper investigation the marketers are using both Facebook and Instagram for different purposes. Facebook for awareness and Instagram for storytelling. Hershey is keenly using social media networks to connect with the prospective buyers and move the consumer down the sales funnel. Specifically, in Instagram by appealing to the consumer’s visual sweet tooth.

The pictures are beautiful high definition while very attractive and engaging. Pretty matters in the Instagram world and the Hershey company has provided beauty and appetizing visual appeal. It is also worth noting how many people have tagged Hershey in their personal posts. It is a conservative estimate for every “one” HersheyCompany post there are “fifteen” tagged @HersheyCompany posts by happy consumers or customers using a Hershey product in a dessert recipe. Hershey has a very impressive Instagram community.

Milton Hershey is attributed with creating Milk Chocolate. Mr. Hershey is also attributed with building within the DNA of his company a goodwill towards the community and beyond. The Instagram platform fosters a community story which fits well within the company DNA. For example: the first Hershey Company Instagram post from July 7, 2015 is a picture of a journal cover highlighting the last three letters of “Hershey” along with the Hershey kiss logo. The first post started with “HEY.”

Another series of posts from 2016 highlighted the employees, their backgrounds, and what the employee would offer as a tip for getting a new job. The caption included background information on the employee’s family and working personal information to increase the ethos of the workforce. One post discussed the employee’s first job helping check in patients at his mother’s doctor’s office in India.

A more recent post from September 11, 2019, posted a colorful and bright picture of a staff retreat. The furniture is decorated in the bright, vibrant candy wrapper colors. The audience is actively engaged in what is being presented. The faces that can be seen in the picture are smiling and happy. The caption reads; “Throughout the week employees are sharing stories about what it means to them to be a “Moment Maker,” and how they personally contribute to making more moments of goodness for customers and consumers.” This particular post has over 1,214 likes and four additional comments.

The Hershey company has a current campaign titled “Heart Warming Project” (heartwarmingproject.com). The campaign is part of their sustainability philanthropy department. The campaign offers $250 grants to students to increase connection for inclusion and empathy within the student communities. The Core vision is: “Meaningful connections and friendships are essential in today's complex world. We believe that the smallest heartwarming gesture can make a big difference. That's why we're partnering with leading organizations to promote social and emotional connections at home, school and in the community.”  Hershey used videos of students to report on successful use of the grants. The student was interviewed and asked brief questions concerning their respective projects. It is very powerful to watch the student talk about how and what the money was used for. It should be noted the videos do not promote Hershey or the products, but impresses on the audience a tremendous amount of heart-warming goodwill.

Hershey did not take down a video of a person who is a food critic reviewing the Hershey Candy Corn Bar. It is a funny video that does not look very favorable toward the confection, but is not harsh or overly critical. The reviewer has a niche in reviewing odd foods. “New_Food_Friday_ig” is the user id and in his blog post he reviewed a Hershey candy corn bar which he stated, “tastes more like sweet white chocolate and isn’t very good.” Their willingness to leave up the post speaks to the over-all story. Hershey realizes that not all candy is going to appeal to all people. The community and audience is within their micro-marketing plan which is implementing several smaller brands and their respective sales funnels. The strategy is not in vanity likes, but in building a community of consumers.

Hershey receives an A+ from me on their use of Instagram as a story building platform. There are posts of yoga, bike rides, making s’mores, moment maker employees, Hershey-world international visitors, and introducing a new CEO. Each post includes pictures and videos to accompany each. The story of The Hershey Company’s mission is inclusive, civil, and inviting. Instagram’s purpose is to be a platform to share photos and videos to which the Hershey team transformed the platform to match their mission and create a story telling community. I think Milton Hershey would be pleased. 

May our stories be filled with vivid memories and shared within our communities with good will. You know I love ya, Don