Wk2 B: Business Research

 Intermountain Food Equipment:

1. https://intermountainfoodequipment.com/

2. Intermountain Food Equipment is a commercial food service equipment manufacturer rep agency. They service the Intermountain and Southwest regions of the United States. They have between 12-15 employees. The company has physical locations in Salt Lake City Utah, Denver Colorado, and Gilbert Arizona. These locations contain employee office space and commercial demonstration kitchens. IFE reps both US based and international brands but their consumer base is primarily located in UT, AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, and WY.

3. The company uses LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. The links are on their website homepage and can be found at the bottom of each page throughout the site. They are very active on LinkedIn, posting 3-5 times a week on average (last post February 3, 2025). Posts are professional and aesthetic. They frequently collaborate or tag other businesses and individuals. Engagement is high. Instagram and Facebook are utilized less. The last post on both platforms were over a year ago (June 7, 2024 and May 27, 2024 respectively). Follower count: LinkedIn- 704, Instagram- 397, Facebook- 131.

4. IFE definitely prioritizes posting on LinkedIn above all other platforms. This makes sense to me as most of their consumer base would be knowledgeable about their specific offerings and would best be served/engaged with if they were already connected to the business. IFE would be less likely to draw in customers via Facebook and Instagram and when running a small business I tend to think that it is a better idea to spend time on what is the most effective. They are responsive and collaborative on LinkedIn, leveraging the strengths of the platform to meet objectives.

Children's Primary Care Medical Group

1. https://www.cpcmg.net/

2. CPCMG is a pediatric medical group based in San Diego and Riverside County. They are local/regional. CPCMG has 28 locations and my best guess is that they have about 200 employees. 

3. The company uses Vimeo, Facebook, and Instagram. The links are on their website homepage and can be found at the top of each page throughout the site. They are fairly active on both Facebook and Instagram. It appears that most posts are shared simultaneously on these sites every two weeks or so (latest posts on Instagram and Facebook shared February 3, 2025). Posts range from site specific, such as highlighting practitioners for National Women Physician Day to general information about heart health etc. Nothing has been uploaded to Vimeo since 2021. Follower count: Vimeo- 2, Facebook- 4,000, Instagram- 735.

4. CPCMG seems to use social media well for their purposes. As with IFE, it makes sense that they would be focused on sharing information with existing consumers rather than attempting to attract a new audience. One thing I think they could do to enhance their social presence is highlight personnel from each specific site. They could list new accomplishments/certifications or discuss specialities of their providers. They could be more consistent with their posting, choosing certain days of the week to put a spotlight on specific areas of education for the consumer.

Casey and Danielle's Garbage World

1. https://caseyanddaniellesgarbageworld.com/garbage/

2. Garbage World is a community based around the podcast Bitch Sesh hosted by Danielle Schneider and Casey Wilson. Garbage World is unique in that it is a podcast hosted entirely behind a paywall. You must be a subscriber to access any published content or to access their social media. It is a digital service and has both international and US based consumers. I believe that there are 4-6 employees including the two hosts.

3. The women utilize a variety of podcast apps in order to deliver their material, and they have a private members-only Discord that users gain access to once they are paying members. The Discord is extremely active and they have approximately 7,629 users. The hosts have personal Instagram accounts that they use to promote the podcast but the business itself only links to Discord.

4. Garbage World is using social media in a very authentic and protected manner. I think they maintain such high engagement and retain so many paying customers because their socials are only accessible behind a paywall so their audience is made up of people who truly want to engage with the content. I believe they had a Facebook page in the past but that it proved too troublesome to audit. I think the current iteration of their socials best serve their audience's needs.

MiraCosta College

1. https://www.miracosta.edu/index.html

2. MCC is a community college based in San Diego county. They are local/regional but offer online distance courses to interested students. They have four physical locations in Carlsbad, Oceanside, and Cardiff. It's difficult for me to determine how many employees they have but I would guess 1000 or more based on their footprint in the community. 

3. They are using Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube and LinkedIn. They appear to be most active on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. I can't determine how active they are on X because I refuse to sign up and support X in order to view the page. On average MCC posts 1-2 times a week on Facebook and Instagram (latest posts January 31, 2025 and January 25, 2025) and once a week or less on YouTube (January 13, 2025). Their Instagram and Facebook content is nearly identical, highlighting potential career pathways and important dates. The YouTube contains longer format posts and videos of specific events, performances, etc. Their LinkedIn posts are often collaborative and they tag faculty members or specific programs (latest post two weeks ago). Engagement is highest on LinkedIn. Follower count: Facebook 14,000, YouTube 1,004, Instagram- 7,517, X- unknown to me, LinkedIn- 34,000.

4. I think MiraCosta is using social media well. They seem to be focused on LinkedIn which makes sense as it seems to be the most widely used and impactful platform for connecting with professionals and academics. If they wanted to enhance their other social channels I think they could post less curated content to stories such as man on the street style interviews with students and snapshots of the newly renovated areas of the Oceanside campus.

Pavlos Tavos

1. https://www.pavlostacos.com/

2. Pavlos Tacos is a local Encinitas based taco shop that serves up a wide variety of Mexican and Greek inspired dishes. They used to be known as Rico's Tacos but they are under new ownership. I believe them to have between 5-15 employees. 

3. The webpage home page has links to Instagram, Facebook, and Yelp pages but it appears most are seldom used or inactive. The last post on Instagram is from June 27, 2024, Facebook May 10, 2023, and Yelp unknown. Past posts include featured dishes or information on closures. Follower count: Instagram- 472, Facebook- 1,900, Yelp n/a (109 reviews). 

4. The company could potentially benefit from more involvement on Yelp. I think customers often appreciate the back and forth with restaurant owners, but I don't think it is an expectation or a social norm for small one location businesses like Pavlos Tacos to maintain a very robust online presence. Oversharing or offering overly curated posts could be off-putting to customers that are interested in a cozy authentic take out experience. 

Overall my take away from this research is that social media presence is incredibly industry specific. I don't see a ton of value from smaller or more niche businesses pouring a ton of time and effort into curating a robust social media presence, but I do think it would behoove most of the businesses I discussed to at least maintain a website and links to socials so customers have the sense they can access information about the business from a variety of sources. I think digitally-based businesses such as Garbage World and even MiraCosta are an exception to this rule and that a consistent and easily accessible social media world really makes a difference in reaching their target customer.