Assignment #2 – Yours to discover

Secondary Research

This is an interesting group of people who are influencing the way we communicate.  The young to mid 30’s group is quite large in Hamilton, with  504,559 people in this age category.

According to a recent survey by uSamp 81.2 % of people use Facebook, 46.2 % use YouTube and 33.2 % use Twitter.

Environics Canada has done a study on social media research.  Hamilton ranks very high (on of the top ten) in the contribution of social media postings.  The study relates this to the demographics of our community as being diverse.

Environics is able to draw the conclusion through research that 1/3 of Canadians stay in touch with family and friends through Facebook and YouTube.

When doing a Google Search for : solar panels, Ontario; Solart Groups shows up on the first page, but in the 11th spot.  This can easily be missed by most consumers researching the topic.

Primary Research

Unfortunately, Solart Group does not have enough data to warrant data on a Google Ads seach, so I have to dig deeper into what they are presently doing on-line.

Here’s the stats on their social media presence:

Twitter: 

Image via CrunchBase

21 Followers           21  Following

15 updates

No one is retweeting or developing any conversation with the company, with 18 days between Tweets.  I would give them a “C” for their engagement on Twitter.

Facebook:

Solart has 606 people on their Facebook account; however, most of their posts are just information on where they plan to be giving information sessions.  There was some older posts answering some simple questions, but for the most part it seems very controlled and one way.  I will give them a “B” because they at least have people going to their page.

YouTube:

Although it is on the website, there is nothing on their YouTube site, which begs the question… why bother!

What did I discover?

Solart cannot increase it’s opportunities to provide estimates, if people are not talking to them.  Solart’s gap is clearly engaging their audience.  Solart needs to find a way to get their listening caps on and participate in the broader conversation about solar energy.  They need to find ways to participate with their Facebook Friendss and utilize Twitter to search trends and topics.  By doing this, they will be able to demonstrate they are leaders in the field and can be trusted.