Since October, the Alamo Economic Development Corporation (EDC) has been working with the students of Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Memorial High School’s Marketing Class to promote city awareness to bring new businesses to Alamo. This unique project not only brought awareness to the city, it also gave students a hands-on approach to modern-day marketing through social media.
Looking for incentives that can help your business become successful? The Alamo EDC can help! Get in touch with us today and see what we can do for you.
Vital Skills for the Real World
Social media has taken the world by storm. Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are social media giants that have enticed millions of people all over the world. Businesses have also gained a strong foothold thanks to social media usage. It allows them to reach a larger audience through online marketing.
These social media skills are necessary for businesses to achieve an online presence that drives consumers to their website and business. With constant consumer interaction, creative posts and intriguing information, businesses look for social media marketers to represent them. These skills are essential in the ever-growing era of technology.
Students in Mrs. Valerie Garza’s Marketing Class at P.S.J.A. Memorial were able to take hold of these skills head-on through the Alamo EDC’s Twitter Campaign.
Creativity Infused Online
Students used creativity, humor, pictures and gifs, or moving pictures, to generate tweets. A tweet is any message posted to Twitter that contains photos, videos, links and up to 140 characters of text.
The first targeted business was Buffalo Wings and Rings. With over 1,900 followers, @WingsAndRings had an intimate following that provided a higher probability for a response. But by mid-November, no movement from Buffalo Wings and Rings’ Twitter account had occurred despite a generous amount of 
tweets.
The focus turned to a popular favorite: Starbucks. With over 11.8 million followers, gaining the attention of a multimillion-dollar company would not be easy.
Although there has yet to be a response,
students tweeted nearly 200 times and garnered over 2,000 audience engagements from retweets and likes in a period of less than three months.
T
his generated an online buzz from the community that broadened not only the campaign, but also assisted in generating a stronger following for the Alamo EDC’s Twitter account and garnered over 7,000 tweet impressions, or the number of user visibility.
A Stand Out Account
Edgar Charles has a fun, creative and enticing sense of humor that 
allowed him to incorporate his own pictures, making them genuine and relatable. He had the wit to use products at home and used them in the quest to bringing those businesses to Alamo.
With a total of 116 retweets and likes, his tweets garnered more than 750 impressions. Because of his efforts, he was awarded the top prize: an iPad Mini!
Creative Minds for the Future
Wrapping up the Twitter Campaign, the Alamo EDC wants to give a big thank you to Imagine It Studios, PSJA School Board member Jesse Vela, Jr., Mrs. Valerie Garza and Mrs. Quintanilla and Ms. Melissa Morales from the Career and Technical Education Office.
Together, we have helped students get a hands-on approach to social media and business, a vital insight that is needed in today’s job market. Congratulations, Edgar, and thanks to everyone involved!