The Calgary Food Bank

The Calgary Food Bank

Organizational Description

The Calgary Food Bank is one of its kind organizations, which provide emergency foods to people and families during a time of crisis.  During times of crisis, such as famine or catastrophic events such as Katrina, the Calgary Food Bank will support families that have been affected by given food. Once the emergency has been addressed, the organization then refer the affected people to different partners to supportive programs for sustainability.  Therefore, the Calgary Food Bank has been a reliable agency in fighting hunger. The Calgary Food Bank was started in the year 1982 to provide food emergency to homeless people, individuals, and families as well as single parents (Calgary Food Bank, 2020). The Calgary Food Bank is based in a place named Calgary, Canada.

The Calgary Food Bank is a large organization, which runs multiple programs whose idea is to support people of different age groups with diverse needs. The organizations have (a) emergency food hamper programs, (b) regional food share program,(c) homeless hamper programs, and Milk program, which provides milk to children (Calgary Food Bank, 2020). The organization provides support to people in Canada and offer quality food supplies to more than 200 agencies that are located in Canada (Calgary Food Bank, 2020). Over the years, the organization has provided food to hungry children in schools. A majority of its clients are children in Calgary schools. The Calgary Food Bank has been operational since it was founded in 1982 to date. The organization works with other agencies such as Food Bank. Since the outbreak of Corona Covid 19, the agency has suspended its operations to come up with a plan that will ensure the safety of its staff and the public (Calgary Food Bank, 2020).

Identify and Analyze Current Digital Communications

The Calgary Food Bank has a wide variety of social media such as Facebook, Linkedln, Twitter, and YouTube, among other social media. The Calgary Food Bank website provides information about the services offered by the organization, events, and food programs (Calgary Food Bank, 2020). The site offers an opportunity for well-wishers to donate and support the agency. More so, the digital communication tools allow users to contact and connect with the organization. For instance, the email platforms used by the agency enable volunteers to make inquiries and provide useful information such as address and telephone numbers, which has adequate information that can be used by willing volunteers.  The blog section available on the agency website provides a platform for users to write reviews, and the organization can also write about their experiences with the food program. Other users can read how the agency works as well as understand how the organization has been working to support the community sustainably (Calgary Food Bank, 2020). The Instagram page, for example, has more than 3000 followers, where people can see how the organization is offering charitable services to clients (Calgary Food Bank, 2020). Volunteers also can be able to connect with Calgary Food Bank and provide supportive services to fight hunger.  The Facebook platform is also one of the digital tools used by the Calgary Food Bank, and students and other people can apply to join the welfare program. Through the Facebook platform, the Calgary Food Bank provides an update on recent activities and other news such as the recent case of COVID-19 (Calgary Food Bank, 2020). The digital tools are used by the agency to communicate to people about news and updates that are in line with supporting the fight against the hunger program.

The multiple digital tools used by Calgary Food Bank help in marketing the agency and the organization can be able to get timely feedback from the users as well as track the movements of users that are using its website. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages have been resources digital tools, which Calgary Food Bank uses to stream its operations and allow users to give reviews that are effective in providing an opportunity to improve its services most reliably. The Facebook page, for instance, enables the agency to stream its operations and get more significant engagement with its subscribers.

The use of digital media tools at the Calgary Food Bank is a multi-channel approach because this provides an opportunity for the organization to market its services and reach out to prospective volunteers (Calgary Food Bank, 2020). Through these platforms, the customers and users can easily interact with the organization and help to achieve its goals in the fight against hunger in Calgary regions.

Website Analysis

The Calgary Food Bank has a website that has been designed in the most user-friendly manner. The website has images that are easy to understand, and any user can be able to tell what the organization is all about by navigating through the site.

Reach

The Calgary Food Bank has created its brand awareness, which can allow users to understand what the agency offers.

1. Relevant and unique content

Once, a users visits the website, one can easily tell that the organization because the content is relevant. The interface has been designed with topics such as “Need food?, How you can help, and Latest News sections (Calgary Food Bank, 2020). The site is easily adaptive to various channels because the content and messages are user-friendly and can fit all types of customers include old and young people.

1. User-friendly interface design

By merely visiting the website, one can easily relate the agency services to its mission, which is all about fighting hunger. The site has used a simple and easy-to-understand language, and therefore, users can navigate the website swiftly and efficiently.

• Purposeful content

The website has a purposeful content, and the messages on the site help the organization to reach its goals.

Act

1. Generates leads

The Calgary Food Bank website has different topics include a button that persuades users to donate foods and provide support for their services (Calgary Food Bank, 2020).

1. User experience

The website provides comfortable and friendly user experience. Visitors can find the site desirable because of the images that inform people about foods. Visitors can easily access what services are offered by the agency.

• Update content

On the website, the organization has been able to update news and inform users about recent activities or events. For instance, once you visit the site, users can see the current event about Corona Covid 19 crisis (Calgary Food Bank, 2020).

1. Design
2. Images of food and people getting served with food items can be found on the website.
3. The website has been a simple layout, which informs users about the organization, events, and how to connect with the organization (Lambiotte & Kosinski, 2014).
4. In addition, the website provides information such as people’s effects, volunteer hours, and food link partners. All these features increase the ease to understand of the site and familiarize themselves with what the organization is offering.

Convert

1. On the website, there is a section for people to offer their support.
2. The button “Donate” allow volunteers to offer their support either financially or monetary value (Calgary Food Bank, 2020). Under the donation details section, people can make their financial support through online payment transactions, which is done monthly. Besides, people can donate food and cars.
3. The agency has a trustworthy awareness message, which warns volunteers not to make their donations via phone to combat fraud (Calgary Food Bank, 2020).

Engage

1. The organization encourages loyalty through testimonials and referrals messages on social media.
2. The blogs have messages from volunteers, which encourage others
3. The organization has a rapid response to customer care support, which is available 24/7 basis to answer questions and serve new and repeat users.

SWOT Analysis

Recommendations and improvements Calgary Food Bank could make to improve their existing digital footprint

Many organizations have continued to rely on using different social media platforms to engage with clients and get reviews of services. The Calgary Food Bank has not been left behind in this area because the organization has utilized digital media tools to reach people and get as many volunteers as possible. The agency should continue to use all the digital tools that they are using currently, especially the Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram because these social media tools have many people and can help the organization to get more donors and engage with the clients (Lambiotte & Kosinski, 2014). In addition to this, the organization should include more meaningful content, which will bring value to readers and potential volunteers. The organization should encourage the use of blogs and create a platform where visitors will get to see referrals and testimonials. The blogs should have regular and high content that should be created on a regular basis (Media Leaders, 2020). More so, the Calgary Food Bank should also consider the idea of publishing its content on external platforms such as Medium, which will create an opportunity for the organization to establish meaningful conversations with potential donors and other people that will support the program sustainably.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The dawn of new technology and social media has brought many positive changes to business and marketing strategies (Lambiotte & Kosinski, 2014).  The Calgary Food Bank has a robust online presence, which has helped to advance its competitiveness in terms of brand, but there is room for more improvements. Firstly, to get better results, The Calgary Food Bank should put more videos on their website and share them on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, which will help to market the brand name (Media Leaders, 2020). This is possible because today, may people are looking for video content when they are seeking information about different brands. Secondly, the organization should use inbound marketing strategy, which helps to create content that people would love to read and can be readily available to potential volunteers.  Thirdly, the agency should also focus on SXO, which is considered a keystone to improving their digital footprint. SXO is the search Experience Optimization, which is all about providing users with a better experience when they are engaging with any brand (Media Leaders, 2020). By using this platform, the Calgary Food Bank will optimize all channels, and clients will be able to engage more with the agency. It will allow the agency to create better user experience and information that can reach a high number of potential volunteers (Lambiotte & Kosinski, 2014). Fourthly, the Calgary Food Bank should also use Instagram and YouTube stories. By using such platforms, the agency can add clickable URLs to their social media stories, segmented photos, and videos (Media Leaders, 2020). All these will help the organization to improve and expand its digital footprint. The fifth option that the Calgary Food Bank can use to enhance its digital print is to create and start social conversations. The organization should post more content and video on different platforms such as YouTube and Facebook and then, the customer care and support people should respond to customer’s comments, which will help to expand Calgary Food Bank’s digital footprint.

References

Calgary Food Bank. (2020). Calgary Food Bank. Retrieved from

https://www.calgaryfoodbank.com/

Lambiotte, R., & Kosinski, M. (2014). Tracking the digital footprints of personality. Proceedings

of the IEEE, 102(12), 1934-1939.

Media Leaders. (2020). How to Increase Your Digital Footprint & Attract Customers. Retrieved

https://medialeaders.com/blog/increase-digital-footprint