Notes and Thoughts on Grocery 2.0

Speaking of Olympics, Michael Phelps will be on the box of …Frosted Flakes. And Michael Phelps has a million fans on Facebook. How can you leverage your brand and the power of social networking?

Social networking is all about finding niche areas where people find others who share the same interest. People are already talking about your brand online; engage with them, find out how to improve your brand directly from your customers, find out what’s working and why.

Here are 5 tips to get started:

1. Set up Facebook, MySpace and YouTube accounts for your brand

2. Find fans who love your brand and friend them

3. Send out bulletins & blogs to your online friends about promotions or events they will be interested in

4. To have friends you have to be a friend. Be active, but don’t try to sell – instead inform and let your friends make up their own mind

5. Offer online specials to your social networking friends only – reward them for being your friend

Social networking is wonderful way to communicate with your customers. It is a two way street on communication, once you make the commitment to join a social network site, make the commitment to be active and engage with your customers on their terms.

Here’s to being popular!

~Rebecca

What is it? Social Networking is a structure of links between nodes(ie often people) that can be browsed or searched like a map to help you understand the respective relationships connecting these nodes/people together. LinkedIn, FaceBook, and MySpace are some popular examples.

Here is a good overview video from CommonCraft on Social Networking.

Why is Social Networking important in the Grocery industry?

We all want to understand, engage, and retain our customers better. Consumers increasingly are spending more time on social networking sites and less time using traditional media. A recent UK study found, “This gain in popularity(of Social Networking sites) comes from the expense of other activities and media. The main activities showing a decline in time spent…, watching broadcast television (-12%), reading print (books are -10%, magazines are -8%, newspapers are -7%), visiting other web sites, and playing games. Among teens, the decline is even more pronounced with -32% less time spent on homework/work, -21% less time spent on TV, and -14% less time spent reading books.”

Ok, so I understand that some of my grocery customers and many of my younger customers use social networking sites but how do I engage them?
Here are three things that you can do tomorrow to engage your grocery consumer in the social networking space.