Monitoring the Social Media of "Foiles Migrators"

Logo

Dead Meat Mallard Duck Call

My goal is to monitor a family-owned business that I have some sort of connection to, which is why I chose to monitor Foiles Migrators where my brother is a pro staff member/employee.  Foiles Migrators is located out of Pittsfield, Illinois and was officially incorporated in 2002.  They build and sell world-class goose calls and duck calls, as well as accessories and related waterfowl hunting products, including videos on how to properly use the goose and duck calls and videos of actual hunts that show the effectiveness of the calls while they are being used.

According to the Ducks Unlimited 2005 National Duck Hunter Survey, the most recent collection of data I could find, the average duck hunter is a 50 year-old male and 81% of duck hunters are between the ages of 25 and 64.  This is the target audience for Foiles Migrators.

Jeff Foiles

Jeff Foiles, the company's founder and owner, is an experienced waterfowl hunter, hunting guide, and eighteen-time world goose and duck calling champion.

Foiles Migrators has been good in keeping a consistent theme/logo in all their social media locations and in their packaging by using the logo or a version of the logo above.

I discovered that Foiles Migrators is active in social media.  You can find or follow them on  Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Vimeo.  They also have an  active community on their interactive website, www.foilesstraitmeat.com.  They are active not only on the Foiles Migrators main Facebook page, but also through their 60 pro staff members' pages.

You can see the activity on the Foiles Migrators Facebook page below, and also on a pro staff member's page.  Notice how the Foiles Migrators theme/logo appears on the pro staffer's page.  All of Foiles Migrators' pro staff members are constantly posting about Foiles Migrators on their own Facebook pages.  This is an excellent way to keep the groundswell talking.

     

Foiles Migrators Facebook page   

Foiles Migrators Pro Staff Member Facebook Page

They also have monthly giveaways that creates buzz and is a great way to pull people to their Social Media sites.

From what I can tell, Foiles Migrators has linked their Facebook and Twitter posts, so they get double exposure from their posts and tweets.

Twitter Page

Is is obvious on Addict-o-matic, that Foiles Migrators is out there in social media and people are talking about them.  You can see from both Addict-o-matic and Social Mention that Foiles Migrators is very active on YouTube.  This makes sense since they would want to market the sounds their goose and duck calls make.

You can see by the Social Mention search that passion receives the highest score of 50%, followed by 12% reach, 1:0 sentiment and 0% strength.  Further investigation of the company and its social media habits will hopefully lead to suggestions on how to  improve the percentages.

Foiles Migrators is using YouTube and Vimeo effecively, posting goose and duck call videos actively and also linking the posts to their social media accounts.

 Besides the Foiles Migrators communities on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Vimeo, Foiles Migrators has created a community on its own website.  Here on the home page they are advertising a new hunting video for purchase, a webisode, and a build-your-own call

An interested consumer could visit the Foiles Migrators web site and not need to go anywhere else.  For example, by clicking on the community tab, you are taken to the community of Foiles Migrators.  Here you can choose forums or blogs.  In the forums, you can choose to participate in any of the forums listed.

Here you can see active users and statistics of users/members of the communities.

 

Besides being able to purchase Foiles Migrators merchandise on their web site, I discovered that merchandise is also available at many other outlets, such as ebay, amazon, gundogsonine, muddydogoutdoors, stillwateroutfitters, and gandermaountain.  The more I looked, the more I found.


Looking at Google Trends, you can see that interest has spiked over time, falling in 2011.  This is due to the fact that Jeff Foiles was involved in illegal hunting activity and went to jail October 2011-November 2012. From this, Foiles Migrators received national attention and there has both positive and negative social media conversations on the topic (see below).

Foiles Migrators has done a great job putting themselves out there.  They are active in the most popular social media sites and they are engaging the groundswell.  I believe their biggest hurdle is getting past the negative feedback they are receiving.  Jeff Foiles is going to need some time to repair his reputation and regain trust from the public.  There must be a way to help Foiles Migrators move from the negative to the positive.  This will be my challenge over the next month.