Where chicken and the beauty industry align

February 17, 2026February 17, 20262 Comments

If KFC were to build an ambassador program, it should focus less on pushing one spicy chicken and lemonade combo and more on embedding the brand into Gen Z’s everyday lifestyle. Ambassador programs are meant to build long-term relationships and loyalty, not just drive short-term product sales. That means starting with research by looking at current followers and identifying the most engaged, positive, and consistent voices already talking about the brand. The goal would be to recruit people who genuinely love KFC and naturally reflect its fun, bold personality.

Like Freberg emphasizes, the program should also feel exclusive. Instead of opening it to anyone, KFC could create an application process with creative submissions or small challenges to ensure ambassadors are truly committed. This makes membership feel earned and builds stronger emotional investment. Once selected, ambassadors shouldn’t just receive free food though they should gain real insider access. Perks could include early product drops, branded merch, invitations to pop-up tasting events, and even opportunities to give feedback directly to the marketing team. These types of benefits create connection and belonging, which are especially important to Gen Z.

A strong comparison is Tarte Cosmetics, which has built community-driven ambassador relationships by investing in long-term influencer partnerships and immersive brand experiences. Rather than focusing strictly on direct selling, Tarte emphasizes storytelling, lifestyle integration, and exclusivity, making ambassadors feel like insiders and valued partners. I’ve actually seen this firsthand with Samantha Jo, a smaller influencer who consistently shared her genuine love for Tarte in her videos. Over time, her loyalty and authentic promotion helped her get noticed, and she was eventually invited on a Tarte brand trip and became one of their biggest ambassadors. Now she frequently promotes Tarte’s maracuja juicy lip products, which she has influenced me to buy, and it feels believable because she’s already so deeply connected to the brand. That’s the key with ambassadors, they’re established as trusted, authentic voices, they can naturally introduce and promote specific products without it feeling forced.

In the same way, once KFC builds a solid base of genuine brand ambassadors, those individuals could effectively market and promote the spicy chicken lemonade combo because their audiences already trust their connection to the brand. That kind of organic advocacy is far more powerful than a one-time promotional post. So, instead of scripting posts about a spicy combo meal, the brand should give ambassadors creative freedom to integrate KFC into their real lives late-night food runs, hangouts with friends, or “day in my life” content. For activation, KFC could launch a TikTok challenge that encourages ambassadors to start the trend and invite their followers to join in. Incentives like repost opportunities, giveaways, and referral-based rewards would help drive engagement while reinforcing community participation.

Overall, an ambassador program works best when it builds a lifestyle around the brand. The spicy chicken and lemonade can be part of the conversation, but the bigger objective should be making KFC feel like a natural and consistent part of Gen Z’s culture similarly to Tarte in the beauty space.

SWOTs Matter!

February 12, 2026February 12, 2026Leave a comment

If you are trying to build an effective social media presence, one of the most helpful things you can do ahead of planning your content and creating a strategic plan is conduct a SWOT analysis. A SWOT is a type of analysis consisting of identifying four main elements: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. There’s also a fifth element to the SWOT that is not part of the acronym, but can set you apart as a social media professional, the strategic implications section of a SWOT. This section is short and basically summarizes the finds from the SWOT and shares what you plan to do about them. (Freberg, 2019). “A SWOT analysis can be used to explore and identify solutions to problems, take advantage of new opportunities and ventures, decide which steps to take to help rejuvenate a community or brand online, or brainstorm new ways of engaging online through social media” (Freberg, 2019, p.237). This tells you where you stand both internally and externally and gives your organization the opportunity to plan ahead.

For example, at my place of work, we recently updated our mission statement to: “Helping the community thrive by providing accessible primary care to the underinsured in Rock County.” A SWOT analysis can guide how we share this on social media:

Strengths: Trusted reputation in the community, real patient stories, knowledgeable staff.
Weaknesses: Smaller following, inconsistent posting, limited staff time.
Opportunities: Highlighting our mission, volunteer support, educating the community about accessible care.
Threats: Old mission statement is well-known, limited time and funding sources, online misunderstanding, limited promotion budget.

It’s great to identify these elements but it’s even more important to put them to work and use them to create a real plan of action. For example, we have the opportunity to use social media to highlight our new mission and one of our strengths is having real patient stories that we can share. So, planning to post a patient story each week not only showcases our impact but also helps boost engagement and spread awareness of our work and help familiarize the community with our new mission statement.

SWOTs are an essential piece of social media research because they help organizations plan better and grow social media with a purpose.

Freberg, K. (2019). Social media for strategic communication: Creative strategies and research‑based applications. SAGE Publications, Inc.

If my boss said, “Monitoring is too expensive; we need to get rid of this,” I would honestly have to agree. . . let me explain!

February 5, 2026February 5, 20262 Comments

In my role at a small nonprofit, if my boss said, “Monitoring is too expensive; we need to get rid of this,” I’d have to agree. . .up to a point. Our budget is tight, and every dollar needs to go directly toward programs and community impact. Trust me, donors don’t want to hear that their dollars are going to social media monitoring, they want to hear that their dollars are going directly to programming that serves the community. Since our social media presence is modest, we don’t pay for any social media platforms, and we aren’t running large-scale campaigns, paying for an advanced monitoring platform wouldn’t be the best use of resources. Instead, we have to focus on basic, built-in monitoring: checking comments and messages, reviewing website interactions, and tracking email link clicks. These simple methods give us enough insight to make informed decisions without diverting funds from our mission.

That said, monitoring even in a small organization is still important. As Freberg explains, it’s the research foundation for effective social media communication: it helps us understand audience behavior, track trends, and respond strategically. Regularly checking our channels and website allows us to see patterns, catch potential issues as they come up, and adjust our messaging. For instance, if we run a fundraising campaign without monitoring, we’d have no way of knowing whether our message is resonating, whether there’s confusion about services, or if misinformation is spreading in the comments. Missing these signals can affect donor trust, engagement, and ultimately funding.

For for-profit brands, or even large non-profits, that rely heavily on social media, monitoring is even more critical. Paid tools and structured monitoring programs are justified and should be defended in thos einstances because these organizations’ reputations, engagement, and revenue depend on real-time insights. Cutting monitoring in that context could mean overlooking negative sentiment, misinformation, or opportunities to engage with the audience—risks that have real financial and reputational consequences.

Ultimately, the approach depends on scale, audience, and risk. Small nonprofits like mine can get by with manual monitoring while prioritizing other KPIs, capturing enough insight to guide decisions. But for organizations where social media drives the brand, monitoring is not optional instead it’s a strategic investment that informs every communication decision.

About Me.

February 3, 2026February 3, 2026Leave a comment

Kate Kuhl is a nonprofit development professional with a strong record of building sustainable fundraising programs, cultivating meaningful donor relationships, and strengthening community-based organizations. She currently serves as Development Director at HealthNet of Rock County, where she leads strategic funding efforts that support access to healthcare for uninsured and underinsured individuals in the community.

Before HealthNet, Kate held leadership roles with Safe Families for Children at both the county and statewide level. Her work included fundraising, grant writing, donor stewardship, marketing, and community outreach. She planned and led fundraising events, secured major grant funding, and spent a lot of time building strong relationships with donors, volunteers, and community partners.

Kate earned her bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a Legal Studies emphasis from the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, graduating magna cum laude, and is currently a Master’s candidate at UW–Whitewater. Outside of her professional work, she stays actively involved in the community through board service with the Janesville Performing Arts Center. At the core of her work is a belief that strong relationships and clear communication are what make meaningful community impact possible.