Tillamook Cheese presentation.

Earlier this quarter we were assigned to conduct a social media audit and conversation analysis for a brand of our choice. Naturally, my group and I decided to choose Tillamook Cheese, based on the fact that we are all generally interested in consumer goods PR and wanted to help out a local brand. It just so happens that my dad, John Russell, is the Senior Director of Marketing for Tillamook, and I have worked with the marketing team before on some freelance projects. These connections allowed us to work directly with Tillamook to determine what they would find the most helpful regarding their social media practices. Gillian Kennedy, Tillamook’s Internet Communications Manager, pointed us primarily in the direction of Pinterest and Instagram, since they are the newest social media channels that brands are utilizing. We analyzed those two channels plus Twitter and Facebook to give us an idea of Tillamook’s overall brand appearance across different social media platforms.

Tillamook’s marketing team.

As we predicted, we found that Tillamook was very strong on every social media channel we examined; even conversations about the brand that were happening elsewhere (e.g., blogs, mentions on Twitter) were overwhelmingly positive. However, we ended up providing a list of recommendations on how to improve Tillamook’s Pinterest and Instagram strategies. (You can find our finished report here!) Upon completion of our report, the Tillamook marketing team invited us to come present our findings to them. On a Friday we drove up to their Beaverton, Ore., office and were greeted by the marketing entire team – and a pizza lunch hot and ready from Pizzicato. They took notes as we presented our report to them in a casual two-hour meeting, followed by a question and answer session. They even presented us with Tillamook cookbooks and cheese cutters to thank us for our work!

From left to right: Megan Russell, Anna Reinhard, Tilly the Cow, Carly Fortunato, Jessica Hamel.

This entire experience was a wonderful peek inside what my future in the PR world could look like. I was so happy to be able to assist one of my favorite brands with something that I am passionate about: directly communicating with customers through social media channels. I look forward to seeing their already strong social media skills continue to grow and improve. Thanks so much, Tillamook!

Here is a link to Tillamook’s Twitter page, go follow them!