SOCIAL MEDIA IMPLEMENTATION

Whole Foods Market – Social Media Implementation

Whole Foods Market is a foods supermarket chain based in Austin, Texas which emphasizes "natural and organic products." Whole Foods Market is the world's largest retailer of natural and organic foods, with stores throughout North America and the United Kingdom. The company has been ranked among the most socially responsible businesses.

•  SOCIAL MEDIA IMPLEMENTATION

Whole Foods is an excellent example of an organization that uses a brilliant social tech strategy.

Customer interaction forms the core of the company’s social media efforts

Education is the best advertisement Speak to the entire customer base

Whole Foods makes itself more approachable by encouraging fans to talk back.

Whole Foods’ social media strategy keeps company’s broader culture of local empowerment.

Contests and questions about food and healthy living form a pillar of the brand’s social media communications.

Decide What Channel to Use for What Purpose

Loosen Control from the Top & learn to let go of control

Make Content Increasingly Relevant Go Where Your Customers Are

SOCIAL MEDIA IMPLEMENTATION

Forums, Podcasts and Newsletters

Whole Foods Markets’ Social Media Strategy

Relevant Content

Local Empowerment

Emphasis on Customer interaction

Best Use of Each

Platform

Customer Engagement

Inside Stories

Whole Foods Market Blog http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/

Ø Customer Interaction

Ø Inside Stories

Ø Recipes

Ø Meals of the Week

Ø Company Updates & News

Ø Tips for staying Green & Healthy

Ø Offers, Contests & Promotions

Ø Food Issues & Warnings

Ø Video Presentations

Ø Podcasts

SOCIAL MEDIA IMPLEMENTATION

Whole Foods’ Twitter Strategy With over 300 company Twitter accounts and new ones added regularly, Whole Foods likely has one of the largest corporate presences on Twitter. Followers: 2,032,239

Ø Gain Customer Insight

Ø Respond to Criticism

Ø Reply Customer Questions

Ø News, Updates

Ø Special Events

Ø Promotions & Deals    

SOCIAL MEDIA IMPLEMENTATION

Whole foods’ Facebook Presence Facebook allows for more discussions among fans and friends. Whole Foods has over 250 FB fanpages for individual stores that lets them share natural and organic foods news, recipes, photos, videos, fun information, business happenings. Fans: 717,704

Ø Special recipes Ø  Tips on healthy food choices Ø  Events & promotions Ø  Career opportunities Ø  Customer feedback Ø  Photos & Videos

Whole Foods’ YouTube channel has 3,154 subscribers, hundreds of videos viewed around 1,973,446 times focusing on recipes, supplier profiles, and other enviro-conscious programming.

Ø Recipes

Ø Promote Awareness

Ø Supplier Stories

Ø Interviews

Whole Foods Market You Tube Channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/WholeFoodsMarket

Whole Foods Market has 9,702 items on Flickr; hundreds of photos are added per month. Flickr channel focuses on photos of store events and community events.

Ø Events

Ø Products

Ø Services

Whole Foods Market’s Flickr Photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/whole_foods

Mobile Strategy

As part of creating brand awareness and providing customers additional value, Whole Foods Market launched a Mobile Site for web-enabled mobile devices at http://m.wholefoodsmarket.com

Ø Store Information

Ø Recipes

Ø Store special diets

Ø Calendar of Events

Whole Foods Market Recipes iPhone App

Whole Foods Market’s iPhone App serves as an additional way to satisfy customers by providing anentire selection of over 2,000 online recipes to iPhone and iPod touch users. It's one-stop organic shopping right at your fingertips.

Whole Foods Market Forums

Ø Exchange recipes

Ø Share special diet concerns

Ø Interact about food and

environmental issues

Ø Product Talk

Ø Healthy Living/ Healthy

Planet

Ø Feedback

Podcasts and Newsletters

Audio podcast all about natural body care and supplements.

Newsletters feature latest updates, specials, sales, recipes, coupons, among other promotional stuff.

Whole Foods Market on GetSatisfaction Customers and companies connect around the products and services they use.

Ø Rate Whole Foods Market

Ø Get updates about Whole

Foods Market

Ø Have your questions &

answers featured

Reasons Behind Success

Ø  Whole Foods’ social media goals are consistent with the overall organizational

strategy.

Ø  The Whole Foods website and individual store pages are tightly integrated with a

Blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr accounts giving them a dynamic,

social, personal and local feel.

Ø  The active official blog provides an efficient way to interact with users and for story

telling - videos on cooking healthy meals, health tips, recipes, supplier stories and

videos etc.

Ø  Most store locations have their own local Blog, store specific Facebook and Twitter

accounts. The local Blog + Twitter + Facebook creates a powerful communication

and marketing tool.