Brands compete on social media to dominate the 4th of July

As we gear up for the 4th of July thought it was best to share some fun social media insights from Falcon Social, a leading social media management platform. Falcon Social compared the most popular Independence Day grocery items to see which brands campaign is winning the Red, White, and Blue Race.

Grocery must-have item #1: Hot dogs

Falcon Social searched for a handful of American staples - Ball Park, Hebrew National, Nathan’s, and Sabrett – alongside the July 4th. Listening in, Falcon Social can see that one hot dog brand has been running a July 4th promotion that’s been cooking the competition.

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Well done, Hebrew National. So what is the hot dog brand doing that’s working well here? Hebrew National has 194 July 4th-related mentions across the web, with half of those coming from blogs.

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A quick look at the mentions across the web shows an array of sponsored posts and native ads-Hebrew National has tapped into a wide network of recipe bloggers.

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Hebrew National is also involved in cross-promotions with Target.

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Nathan’s Famous, although a smaller brand, has been utilizing its social channels to count down to a local event – its renowned Coney Island hot dog eating contest.

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Grocery must-have item #2: Ice cream

After plugging in some of the bigger ice cream brands you’d find in a grocery store-Baskin Robbins, Ben and Jerry’s, Breyer’s, Dairy Queen, Edy’s, Graeter’s, Haagen Dazs, and Talenti, Falcon Social can see which company is utilizing social best in advance of July 4th.

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This data can be viewed by number of mentions alongside July 4th:

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Dairy Queen has slightly risen above this group of ice cream brands. Taking a look at the results, it is mostly due to news about local July 4th parade routes as they relate to Dairy Queen’s brick-and-mortar stores. Breyer’s has some coupon offerings at a few local grocery stores.

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The results make sense-a quick scan of these company Facebook pages shows that none of these brands have mentioned July 4th in their posts. Breyer’s has half a million fans, but only posts once a month. There is so much opportunity for these brands to jump into social marketing.

Grocery must-have item #3: American beer

The beer results were interesting. Falcon Social plugged in Budweiser, Blue Moon, Brooklyn Brewery, Coors, Miller, Lone Star, Sam Adams, and Yuengling - and all of their variant spellings - alongside July 4th. And mostly, bars and retailers across the US are listing July 4th beer deals in advance of the holiday.

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Lone Star had a spike in mentions on July 1st, while Miller carries the most amount with 1k in the past week.

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Filtering Budweiser’s results across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, the brand has a spectacular amount of unprompted, user-generated content created by fans about July 4th. The question is, could Budweiser better optimize its own channels by reposting their fans’ content, creating content based off these fan posts? Is the brand finding opportunities for new revenue based on these results? Budweiser should be the top mention of its own results - fully taking advantage of its wide network of fans and their excitement about the brand on this American holiday.

Taking a look at these brand mentions across the web, there is so much opportunity for food and beverage brands to better own their media. By implementing cross-channel campaigns, and leaning into audience insights to create social content, these brands could very easily own the holiday and better influence grocery store shopping carts.

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