Social Media Case Study: Suja Organic Juice

​One of the largest trends our team noticed while hitting the show floor at Expo West 2019 was, unsurprisingly, a plant based diet. With such a heavy focus on plant power comes more trends such as meat alternatives, plant and nut milks, and other nutrient dense plant beverages. With this in mind, it only makes sense that Suja Organic Juice has become a well-known beverage brand relatively quickly. They’re right on trend! This made them a natural candidate for our latest social media case study. 

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While there is an extensive list of noteworthy plant based beverage brands, I chose to feature Suja for this case study as they have a wide range of products expanding from cold pressed-juices to kombucha. They also recently released a nut free plant protein milk, which I bought last week and have been enjoying in my coffee every morning!
 
For all of my loyal Case Study readers, you might notice I’ve switched things up a bit from my traditional format used while reviewing HUM Nutrition, Lululemon and Lush Cosmetics. In this social media case study, I’ve listed out Suja’s top three best practices for both Facebook and Instagram, and also 3 areas that could be improved upon. Reach out and let me know if you like this new format!
 
Facebook
Top 3 Best Practices:

1. Exciting Cover Video- The first thing I noticed while looking at Suja’s Facebook page was their enticing cover video. This 30 second video is absolutely charming, and features women sitting in plants, eating plants, and drinking Suja beverages. It opens with a narrator saying, “Did you realize that plants are basically solar batteries you can eat and drink? Yeah, think about it!” The video does a nice job at quickly telling its audience of the healing and energizing power found inside of plants, and every Suja beverage. 
2. Easy Access to Discussions- Immediately after watching the cover video, I was greeted by a Facebook Messenger box popping up and inviting me to chat with Suja. I love when brands do this and have actually asked numerous products specific questions to my favorite brands. Suja also has an “Ask” section on their page separate from Messenger that acts similar to a Q&A. The more opportunities to interact with a consumer, the better!
3. Suja has a Large Audience- With over 432,000 people liking Suja’s Facebook page, they have access to a large crowd of people who have already opted in and shown interest in their brand. Suja is sitting in a great spot to share valuable content to this wellness-focused audience!

 
Areas of Improvement:

1. Responsiveness to Comments- Suja sometimes replies to comments on their posts, but they often leave great consumer questions unanswered. For example, there were comments on recent posts asking about specific flavors being discontinued and another asking if their drinks with romaine lettuce were safe to drink during the E. coli outbreak. These questions were left unanswered but could have been great educational and relation building opportunities for Suja, had they replied. By improving upon their engagement, Suja would be able to deepen their relationships with individual consumers and simultaneously encourage other followers to engage with their brand in the comment section.
2. Share More Videos- Facebook is a great platform for sharing educational and candid live videos. Suja has a vault of information they need to share with their passionate audience, ranging from their organic ingredients to the health benefits of their beverages, and much more. This is exactly the type of valuable content that Suja’s audience is craving, and the brand would see more engagement and a deeper understanding from their consumers as a result.
3. Create Facebook Specific Content- We see this all of the time… brands sharing the exact same content word for word, picture by picture, on both Instagram and Facebook. We understand the temptation, it’s easier to only develop one form of content and share it on numerous different platforms. However, our Social Media Coordinator, Hannah, recently discussed Facebook trends in a blog this last month and why this tactic should be avoided at ALL costs. When brands utilize social media in this way, they are ignoring the huge opportunity to target audiences differently depending on the platform, and leaving behind meaningful interactions. 

 
Instagram
Top 3 Best Practices:

1. More than Just Food Photos- While not all of the imagery on Suja’s Instagram page is extremely high quality, I appreciate their variety of posts ranging between lifestyle photos, recipes, product shots, nature moments and fitness inspiration. Other natural food and beverages companies oftentimes get into a rut of only posting product shots or pictures of healthy food, and it is good to see Suja branch out and try to connect with their audience in a unique but relevant way.
2. Giveaways- We love seeing giveaways take place on Instagram! Recently, Suja partnered with two fellow California food companies, Barnana and Square Organics, for a fun giveaway of healthy products. In the past, they have also partnered with brands like Justin’s Nut Butters, NKD Skincare, Yoga Works, and smaller nutrition focused brands. By strategically partnering with brands that have a similar health conscious target audience, Suja is strengthening their brand identity in the marketplace and growing their Instagram following.
3. Solid Bio Description- I like that Suja immediately states in their Instagram Bio, “Organic, Non-GMO, Cold Pressed. We bottle up the best ingredients to create liquid sunshine.” So often brands lose their identity in their biography, but Suja does a nice job at clearly stating they are a beverage company focused on health and nutrition. One small area of improvement for their bio could be the link provided. It currently takes viewers to the listing of their limited edition “Survival Kit” for sale on their website. While it is a great idea to link products for sale, they should be doing this by setting up the Instagram shopping capability per post. This would free up space in their biography to share numerous links to blogs and other content via a tool like linkin.bio.

 
Areas of Improvement:

1. Improving the Highlight Tabs- While Suja has already created highlight tabs, they have not perfected them. The 4 highlight tabs currently on Suja’s profile are: Suja Fans, Free Suja, Events, and Juice Jams. Instagram users watch highlight tabs to get to know a brand better and educate themselves on specific topics of the product, yet none of Suja’s current tabs are very effective at providing this information. They should have tabs about their ingredients, the farms where their ingredients grow, and tabs for each of their different products lines highlighting the health benefits.
2. Utilize Best Practices- When I say best practices, I mean tagging locations, tagging the photographer or consumer in the photo, and maximizing their hashtag strategy. It seems like Suja approaches hashtags a bit randomly, when they could have a list of best performing hashtags and use them according to the content of the image. They could also be reaching higher visibility by always including the location of the images, and tagging people in the image itself. 
3. Educate their Audience Through Stronger Content- Suja has a wide range of products, all with different purposes. Their kombucha offers different benefits from their juice, and their new nut free plant milk is an entirely new type of product for them. With this variety, Suja needs to be educating their audience on the different uses, purposes and benefits of their products. They should even be taking this a step further by offering valuable content not only about their specific products, but about a plant-based diet as a whole. Offering this valuable content will set them apart in the industry and deepen the connection their consumers have with their brand.

 
Our purpose at Think is to always help brands develop a You-centric marketing approach. We want your consumers to feel important, valued and special. Suja creates delicious, high quality beverages, but their social media presence needs a You-centric refresh. It’s time for them to ask themselves, “How can we deliver more value through Facebook and Instagram?” By doing so, they have the potential to provide exactly the content their followers are craving.
 
But, Suja isn’t alone on this journey. The vast majority of brands in our health and wellness industry don’t tailor their content to the wants and needs of their audience. We see it all of the time, and love extending a helping hand to brands wanting to position themselves in a more valuable way to consumers.

If you have questions about approaching social media through a You-centric lens, read last week’s customer centric marketing blog written by our founder or feel free to start a discussion with me via email.
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Lydia Patton

Lydia is our Account Executive at Think Media Consulting. She has a deep understanding of the value of digital marketing which allows her to communicates complex strategies with ease. If you have any questions about the capabilities of our team, Lydia would love to hear from you at LPatton@ThinkMediaConsult.com