Blog Post Week 2 Part B : Business Research

Business research & their Social media 

Living up to your social media or website can be quite difficult in a short period of time. Trust me, I know! Having my own business and it's social media accounts have been quite tough to grown my following. Between, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, TikTok, I have my work cut out for me, not to mention my website as well. I often look to other businesses for inspiration, comparing larger and smaller businesses to see what is working for them or what I think could be working. Doing research on different floral businesses and their websites has been very insightful to say the least.

First up : Native Poppy

You can find them at  https://www.nativepoppy.com/

This is a trendy, aesthetically pleasing, local floral studio with two great locations, one being in North Park, San Diego and the other in Solana Beach. It's owner by two women, business partners and friends, both with a love and passion for flowers. They are considered a retail florist, operating online, brick and mortar and leveraging their social media accounts. They also have TikTok and a Facebook page.

I actually follow their Instagram account and love their work. The have a whopping 83.9k followers and growing. They are pretty consistent via Instagram, they posted today. The highest viewed content has 1.9 million views. 

Between all their social media accounts and across platforms, Instagram has to be the most consistent with interaction and posts, which makes sense for their following. They have a huge Instagram presence and have a lot more engagement in comparison to TikTok.

Does the website match the Insta? Their website is fun, vibrant pink and very girly. It's easy to navigate and has a ton of offerings, from unique gifts, flowers of course, to full wedding service packages.

Second : Luna Design Studios

You can find them at https://www.lunadesignstudios.com/

Luna Design studios is based out of Palm desert, California. They are a very chic, luxe event design company that has nude aesthetic. They had full service event design. You may ask why they are relevant? Well Luna Moreno, the owner and CEO of the company evolved her business from a family floral business. She scaled a floral business to offer more than just floral design services or floral gifts but rather design and create an immersive experience for her clients. They offer services nationwide but have worked on events within California.

I also follow Luna Design Studios on Instagram and they are at an impressive 169k followers and growing. Luna and her team stay consistent and active on social media platforms, two of which are Instagram and TikTok. The last post on Instagram was made on August 30th and the on TikTok the last post was on August 8th. 

Based off the post consistency and following, Instagram is the most used and leveraged social media platform, showing a great amount of content focused on event design and productions. They also have a beautiful website with a clean, neutral aesthetic, with a nude, black and white color palette, that gives off the luxurious feel.

The last three businesses I researched are companies that are well known for their flowers. 2 out of the 3 or maybe all all international.

Business Number three : 1-800 Flowers

You can find them at https://www.1800flowers.com/, according to google they are a floral and food retailer, with a huge online presence because of the amount of money they pour into marketing. They are easily accessible and easy for ordering flowers for same day delivery. 

What I learned as a florist, is they are actually a wire service, that florists or flower shops subscribe to at a hefty fee of about 70-80% of your entire profit. There may still be a few brick and mortar left. I must say I have my biases when it comes to wire services, I am not a fan! However for the sake of research....

1800flowers has a social media presence, Instagram mainly and they have a total of 69.9k followers & they also use TikTok with 4k followers. They have very "commercial" style posts and not a lot of engagement. The last post they made was today, they are offering a giveaway for Grandparents day. Their website however has massive amount of offerings, and very easy and convenient for a customer to place an order for flowers that actually gets sent to a local flower shop for them to make and deliver.

Business number four : Teleflora

Another online floral giant, that I am not a fan of but here we go. You can find them at https://www.teleflora.com/. They also have a huge online presence and spend thousands on paid ads and marketing material . According to google they are wire service order, that "brokers" orders to local florists for delivery.

They mostly use Instagram and have 63.8k followers, they also have a TikTok account with 1295 followers. Unlike 1800 followers, they post " real life" flower pictures or at least that is what they are trying to show, their photos look a bit less staged and more relatable. They last post they made was the day before labor day.

Teleflora's website is slightly less overwhelming than 1800- flowers but still the same concept.

Business number five : FTD

According to google FTD, also know as Florists Transworld Delivery is a floral wire service, retailer and wholesaler. You can find them at https://www.ftd.com/

I have had less interaction with FTD in comparison to the previous two, the biggest difference is this one seems less commercial florist but ultimately it's the same thing. FTD's Instagram account has 25.4k followers and 1.1k followers on TikTok. Their last post of Instagram was a day ago welcoming fall and on their Tiktok account, last post was 8/29.

FTD's website is clean and easy to navigate, out of the 3 online floral retailers, I would say it's the least overwhelming and user friendly in my opinion. Their Instagram account could use some more relatable posts but their TikTok account has relatable floral content that is more trendy.

All in all, I am a huge advocate for local businesses,  being a local business owner myself, I see how wonderful local support can be. I aspire to scale and grow my business to be a native poppy or the next Luna design studio and I know how important social media is and what a huge factor it will play in my overall growth.