The Teams Exploration Results that Could Gather the Attention of Young Adult Viewers Desired by The Old Spaghetti Factory
With social media being such a great tool, it has greatly impacted the knowledge and credibility of how it can help businesses be impacted. Below is stated how using social media can be a great tool to reach a greater audience. There are many different tools to use such as content calendars and creating humor and real life to the company, will greatly impact how social media can be a huge benefit to OSF.
Integrating The Old Spaghetti Rewards With TikTok to Enhance Customer Engagement and Loyalty
The team sought to understand how to integrate the OSF rewards program with TikTok to engage a younger audience effectively. Research indicates that social media-based reward programs drive higher engagement and customer loyalty. This analysis explores the feasibility, potential benefits, and implementation strategies for such integration.
The Viability of TikTok for Rewards Integration
Research shows that TikTok is a powerful platform for brand engagement, particularly among Gen Z. According to Reward the World, social media rewards programs see a 30% higher redemption rate compared to traditional web-based rewards. By leveraging TikTok’s viral nature, OSF can enhance its customer reach and program participation.
Key Benefits of TikTok Rewards Integration
Increased User Engagement: A study by LinkedIn found that interactive reward campaigns on social media yield 45% higher engagement than static promotions.
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Targeted Audience Reach: TikTok’s algorithm optimally matches content to users, increasing exposure to OSF’s desired demographic.
Higher Conversion Rates: Studies indicate that users who engage with interactive brand campaigns on TikTok are 25% more likely to make a purchase.
​Implementation Strategy
1. Utilizing TikTok’s Native Features
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OSF can use TikTok’s in-app advertising tools, including Spark Ads and In-Feed Ads, to promote the rewards program.
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Branded hashtag challenges can encourage user-generated content, driving organic participation.
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Collaboration with TikTok influencers to showcase rewards and generate buzz.
2. Partnering with Social Media Management Tools To streamline operations, OSF can integrate with tools like:
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Sprinklr: Provides AI-driven audience insights and campaign optimization.
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Emplifi: Enables real-time analytics to measure campaign success.
3. Developing a Custom App Integration Alternatively, OSF can develop a seamless integration within the TikTok app
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Potential Challenges and Mitigation Strategies
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Challenge: Not all users may be familiar with rewards-based engagement on social media
Solution: Provide tutorial videos and step-by-step guides to educate participants.
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Challenge: Competition with other loyalty programs.
Solution: Offer unique, limited-time incentives that differentiate OSF’s program.
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Challenge: Measuring effectiveness.
Solution: Use data analytics tools to track engagement, redemption rates, and customer retention metrics.
The Benefits of Using a Content Calendar
We sought to find ways to utilize a content calendar to improve productivity and stay organized. We found that by using a content calendar, it "improves posting consistency, keeps your business timely, reduces everyday stress, and increases your following" (Nevins, 2024). This means that using a content calendar will not only lighten the workload in stressful times but also create a consistent posting schedule that customers can trust.
Enhancing Posting Consistency and Audience Engagement
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A well-structured content calendar ensures a steady and strategic posting schedule, helping businesses maintain consistency, which is essential for audience engagement. According to Suresh and Borkakoty (2025), a content calendar "ensures a consistent posting schedule, aligns your content with your marketing goals, and avoids the stress of last-minute posting" (para. 3). This highlights that a content calendar provides businesses with a roadmap for content distribution, reducing the risk of erratic posting and missed opportunities.
Additionally, Walker-Ford (2018) supports this by emphasizing that a content calendar "helps you keep track of what's performing, so you can upkeep your content quality and consistency" (photo 4). This shows that businesses can evaluate the effectiveness of their content strategy and adjust accordingly, ensuring they remain relevant and appealing to their audience. As a result, implementing a content calendar fosters stronger audience relationships and brand loyalty.
Benefits of Enhanced Posting Consistency:
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Increased audience engagement
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Improved brand loyalty
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More reliable content delivery
Sub-Recommendation: Performance Tracking and Adjustment
To maximize the benefits of a content calendar, businesses should regularly analyze content performance using built-in analytics tools. Platforms such as Meta Business Suite, Sprinklr, and Hootsuite offer insights into engagement metrics, helping businesses refine their strategies for better results.
Reducing Stress and Improving Team Coordination
One of the significant advantages of a content calendar is its ability to alleviate the stress associated with last-minute content creation. Nevins (2024) states that a content calendar "reduces everyday stress" by allowing businesses to plan ahead and avoid scrambling for content ideas. This is particularly beneficial during high-demand seasons when marketing efforts are crucial to driving sales and engagement.
In addition to this, content calendar creates better team coordination. According to Sprinklr (2025), content calendars "allows your team to collaborate effectively and adapt to changing trends and opportunities" (para. 15). This reduces miscommunication and overlapping efforts, leading to a more streamlined workflow.
Sub-Recommendation: Cross-Team Collaboration Tools
One way to improve collaboration is by using Slack as a central hub for all content-related communication. Teams can create dedicated channels for different projects, such as #content-planning, #post-approvals, or #campaign-ideas, to keep discussions organized. Within these channels, team members can share content drafts, give feedback using thread replies, and tag specific teammates to assign tasks or ask for quick approvals. Slack also integrates with Google Drive, Canva, and scheduling tools, allowing users to link directly to assets and calendars without leaving the platform. Teams can pin important messages, use scheduled reminders to track deadlines, and even host quick polls to decide on content direction. By maintaining this level of organization and constant communication, businesses ensure nothing slips through the cracks—keeping the content creation process efficient, timely, and aligned with brand goals.
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Building Credibility and Increasing Following
Consistency in content posting plays a crucial role in brand credibility and audience growth. Mickey (2022) emphasizes that "consistency—posting and engaging frequently or on a regular schedule—is critical to building trust and credibility with prospects who may have never heard of your firm before" (para. 20). When audiences see a brand regularly posting valuable content, they are more likely to trust and follow it.
Nevins (2024) further supports this by stating that a content calendar "increases your following" by ensuring timely and relevant content distribution. A well-maintained calendar prevents periods of inactivity, keeping the audience engaged and attracting new followers.
Final Recommendation and Coordination Role
We strongly recommend that businesses implement a content calendar to enhance posting consistency, reduce stress, improve team coordination, and build audience credibility. Additionally, integrating performance tracking, collaboration tools, and strategic content planning will maximize the effectiveness of this approach.
To conclude the analysis, social media has greatly become an essential tool for companies to expand their audience. By targeting a certain generation, companies can build stronger relationships to broaden the knowledge of the OSF. As digital trends continue to evolve, the employees who pick this up will gain knowledge to better understand the current trends. The power of social media lies in the ability to connect businesses with the right audience in a more impactful way to the generation of desire.
Reaching Greater Generation Through Using Social Media Platforms
We sought to better understand how Gen Z can use trends on social media to find their choice of dinner locations. We found that using TikTok can help the business incorporate humor and attract the audience that they are missing. Along with this we found “including paid social media advertising, where you can pay to have your business appear in front of large volumes of highly targeted users,” (Word Stream 2024). This means that we can help OSF to reach that audience that they are looking to bring in and give them better social media standing.
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Incorporating Humor into Trending Topics to better understand Gen Z
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Staying up to date on the trends on social media is the ultimate success of being able to bring business to the company, which is essential for creating a positive social standing. According to Casa Media (2024), “The impact of social media on restaurant businesses manifests itself through both advantages and disadvantages. Above all, it is an understatement to say that it has transformed the dining experience and the perception of restaurants in recent times,” This highlights that using social media can greatly impact the company and truly provide a benefit to the success of the restaurant.
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Additionally, Joanna Kelleigh recommends in 10 Best Viral Content Ideas for Social Media Platforms (2024), that even though through so many social media platforms, you can still find the right content to post to boost your social status. “With so many social media platforms available, it can be hard to decide which content is the best to share with a large audience. But with the right digital marketing training you can identify the most relevant platform and segment your audience,” Planning the right content to post can greatly help the company become more successful in creating valuable content. This means that the planning of social posts are key for companies to make the most out of their social media efforts and boost the brand visibility.
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Sub-Recommendation: Use many types of platforms to grow social standing
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To enhance the company productivity on social media, utilizing many types of platforms will greatly help the company flourish. It is a cost-effective tool that can gain new knowledge about the business and attract new customers. Engaging with customers through social media using new trends, engaging posts, and promoting specials and events can gain credibility around the restaurant. Posting every other day can help the company become more known on social media. Gaining credibility will enhance the standing of OSF within online platforms.
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Creating Social Content to Resonate with Generation Z (the generation the OSF lacks in business from)
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Creating social content that resonates with generation z truly requires a visually engaging and humorous interactive thought. To get them to feel pushed to try a new restaurant, focus on creating content that is short but to the point. According to X. Harding (2023) “actively seek out content related to different topics. If you look for a keyword or hashtag and engage with videos on that topic, that's a great way to introduce something new to your algorithmic diet.” Reaching the right audience with the things you post are crucial to ultimate success. The biggest struggle regarding the OSF was not being able to create the right content to reach Gen Z. By changing the ways of posting, using humor and trendy topics, that is an easy fix.
Expressing Truth and Authenticity Through Popular Social Media Platforms
We sought to find tactics that attract and keep the attention of young adults through popular social media platforms. We have found that through the lens of Generation Z (Gen-Z), "Family firms need to be perceived as authentic… an authentic online image of themselves they will be able to leverage additional advantages, allowing followers to connect with more than just a material brand” (Forbes, 2018). In other words, the Gen Z population values the truth when choosing to engage in brands. Through their perspective, understanding a business’s character, that allows their franchise to be their most authentic self, is what determines young adult viewers to decide what business to support.
Societal Impact on Young-Adults that Influence Their Decisions to Being Loyal Consumers
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It is important to recognize who the young-adult demographic is within society. Unlike generations before, they are described as “the first global generation”, meaning through an app, a button, or a tweet, they can have access to almost any and everything with one tap of a screen (John Hopkins University, 2022). This unlimited access results in the ability to express emotion and experiences freely amongst thousands of others relating to similar dilemmas. A global generation is what identifies Gen-Z to be outspoken on concepts related to values and beliefs. They, psychology, find it socially acceptable to express their most emotionally vulnerable selves and with that comes with expecting responsibility of businesses to do the same.
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Whether young adults in this generation are within a business as an employee or a consumer, according to John Hopkins University: Integrative Learning and Life Design, “Gen Z has no problem leaving a company or business that contrasts with their beliefs” (2022, p.13). Gen Z takes value in those who display truth, identity and personality. In a political sense, this construct of Gen-Z being unapologetically outspoken on their values is currently taking an effect as of February 1,2025. Target an upscale discounter who has calculated Gen Z’s spending power bringing $33 trillion globally by 2025 (Marketing Scoop, 2024), have been facing a 40-day consumer boycott due to Target revealing they are shifting away from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies. These are policies that protect from discrimination in the workplace. Once the news of Target’s change to canceling hiring goals for minority employees (CNN, 2025), there was an immediate call to action. A boycott to “Devest from Target because they have turned their back on our [African American] community”, said megachurch pastor Rev. Jame Bryant the starter of the boycott. Though Target is only trying to avoid possible conservative legal crackdowns with Trump’s administration trying to investigate illegal DEI hiring. Target is fighting to prove their loyalty to DEI supporters, but damage has already been done through the lens of those demographically are most likely be discriminated against (e.g. minorities, LGBTQ+ community, Women, Etc.). Target is just one example of how young adults aren’t standing down when their identity, beliefs and personality are devalued.
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The Old Spaghetti Factory should take honor and pride in who they identify as. The in-person experience of their small original family-owned business in the heart of Portland, Oregon in 1969, is exactly how they should continue to display themselves on new social media platforms like Tik-Tok. OSF’s values and beliefs of what a family-owned business represents, is what young-adult viewers want to be a part of because they, like everyone else, loves a homey atmosphere. Though the difference lies in Gen-Zs upbringing of living through technology. Meaning, they want familial emotions but in trends and platform that relate to them. This environment reveals to them the truth and authenticity of OSF because they have already witnessed local corporations become chain corporations that advertise for family but are not true to through their actions.
Psychological Components Generation Z and Young-Adults use In Order to Claim an Authentic Self-Presentation (Brand)
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In order for The Old Spaghetti Factory to appeal to the audience of Generation Z and Young Adults, their societal upbringing play a big factor on who they can trust. In other words, due to Generation Z being such a global generation it has made what they display on social media a mirror into what they actually value or a reflection of their personality.
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An article written by group of scholars in the Department of Psychology at University of California, compiled a study of 29 undergraduate college students to establish personal realization of how they “construct themselves as real and recognizable in the context of master narratives surrounding authenticity and branding on social media” (American Psychological Association, 2023). This is a study that dives into individual college student’s social media known as tours. Through these tours with the study’s interviewer, each participant explains their identities that they have created with use of polymedia contexts. In result the study gathered three narrative themes that depict how young-adults psychology arrangement themselves in the environment of social media. Three categories that guide self-identification of young-adult users are tragicomedy to display authenticity in dark humor or emotions, satire to critique yet embrace their own self-branding, and narrating realism to collide family, culture and politics into their brand. (APA, p. 97).
Unconsciously young adults display who they are in subtle ways. To which some use both humor and self-deprecation as coping mechanisms or in other words tragicomedy. One participant, Samantha a Black and Salvador 19-year-old, acknowledges “Whenever people like my tweets like this [plain sad bowl of Cheerios is a representation of herself], I feel less lonely… twitter is my thoughts…I like to be more upfront with my mental health because I feel like it helps other people” (APA, p. 88, para. 2)). This is just one example of how our young adults use social media to represent who they are. It is not used as a chaotic platform for brain rot but instead is an outlet to find relativeness. She used humor to project her expectations of being a perfect daughter from her mother, to which if Samantha mentions her ‘flaws’ of mental health issues to her mother it would not be taken seriously. Unconsciously placing most of her identity into not being a serious individual on social media; where she finds community that can relate to her ‘messy’ life.
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Other testimonials like Justin a gay, 19-year-old, cisgender male finds himself recognizing that he posts for the exception of others on social media to validate him. He finds this identification of himself ironic because morally he understands that it is “gross and sick” to cater to strangers for self-validation but the effects of social media presentation out ways the moral ideas of social media. Though Justin goes on to say, “Being authentic means taking ownership over, admitting to and being upfront about the desire to be socially validated so that you put your best foot forward to elevate yourself and your audience” (APA, p. 91, para. 2). To Justin, authenticity is found in your intelligence to be honestly with yourself of your intensions on social media.
Each testimonial speaks to how The Old Spaghetti Factory should take into consideration of the physical characteristics and trends that catch the eye of Gen Z and young adults, but also an individual's psychological state that pushes to the surface of social media. To then let the world depict the social media version of oneself to be truthful and authentic.
Illustrating The Old Spaghetti Factory’s Authenticity That Could Have Gen Z Relate, Remain Loyal, and Be Determined as Authentic.
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Show behind the scenes; Gen Z wants to see what a business is known for in action and in the case of The Old Spaghetti Factory it is their family interaction with customers and amongst staff.
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Show the raw (lightly edited) footage; signifies relatable imperfections.
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Engage directly to the audience with shoutouts, real customer stories, mainstream trends (TikTok sounds/dances, popular songs, or expressions).
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Recognize their role in society to grasp their values, then implement them into post, captions and video skits. Gen Z want to feel heard and recognized.
Closing to Recommendation
It is time for The Old Spaghetti Factory in Indianapolis to show who they truly are and not simply with the requirements of general marketing. It is time to bring their family business and its values to the mainstream for their target audience, Generation Z, to trust their authenticity. The Old Spaghetti Factory could smoothly transition into their desired rebrand of a new audience just from expressing the raw concepts that make them personable.
