09Aug2009
1 Million Twitterers Follow Whole Foods
IN THE EVERCHALLENGING battle for youthful dollars, the likes of Facebook and Twitter are the new battleground, with seemingly every company wanting to cash in on the push to further personalize their relationship with consumers. While in the past, such territory has seemed more the domain of entertainment promotions, grocers and suppliers are beginning to put their faith in tweets and posts.
Whole Foods is at the forefront of this movement, with over a million followers on Twitter and nearly 100,000 fans on Facebook. Its emphasis on social media is immediately evident from its home page, which implores customers to “talk to us” with links to its Twitter, Facebook and Flickr accounts along with its blog.
Since joining Twitter in June 2008, Whole Foods has since captured the position of most popular store of any kind on the site. Eighty-three individual stores have unique Twitter accounts, built both to alert customers of various in-store promotions and simply to communicate.
The Whole Foods in Cary, N.C., was posed a question via Twitter, in which a customer asked, “I’m trying to make a healthy frozen dinner tonight. Any suggestions on what I should make?”
“Sorry about late response. If you still need a suggestion: local Keral Curry dinners are delish. Amy’s products also rock,” the store replied.
A customer in Manhattan posed a question to Whole Foods’ New York City Twitter account. “Why is it 3 times in the past month when I purchased your bing cherries they were tasteless yet Gristedes’ taste great?” he asked.
“Sorry to hear you thought our cherries were less than stellar. One more shot? It’ll be on us. I’ll DM (direct message) you with info,” Whole Foods responded.
The replies aren’t immediate; the Cary location took four days to respond and the cherry complaint sat waiting for six days. But they are nonetheless worthy of mention, as they invoke the primary elements of social media success.
Note the use of personal pronouns, the immediate offerings of assistance. Whole Foods portrays itself not as a corporation doling out mandates, but as a friend offering a bit of advice. Such efforts help convert shoppers into advocates, who will in turn publicize particular brands and products.
“Customer service has become a marketing vehicle in and of itself,” says Maya Swedowsky, a research manager at Nielsen Online. “From a customer service standpoint, Twitter is pretty essential.”
Nielsen’s research suggests that the demographics of arguably the largest social media network, Facebook, are changing. Just 2% of visitors to the site in January were over 55 years old, versus 17% in June. Over half of all traffic to Facebook comes courtesy of 35 to 64 year-olds.
As the users of such services increases, it’s important to keep in mind that it’s not an effortless endeavor to market a firm via social networks. It requires a sizeable investment in time and a great deal of micromanagement. Swedowsky has seen countless firms make an effort only to leave a barren Twitter account with just a few posts and a handful of disinterested followers.
Whole Foods has a staff dedicated to maintaining its social networking endeavors, and has become so engrained in the world of social marketing that it’s hard to see the company as anything but a torchbearer in the cluttered and confusing world of social marketing.
