Whole Foods Market, a Leading Social Media Brand

Why I want to research on Whole Foods is because once in a class, we group members were talking about brand reputation. Someone said, "Okey, let's compare Publics and Winn-Dixey..." I was suddenly feeling confused because I went to Winn-Dixey quite often, because of what? Because things a cheap and I didn't find anything that's really bad. The he said, "fine, let's compare Whole Foods and Publics..." At that time, I knew that Whole Foods enjoyed a really great reputation among customers. Actually I like Whole Foods, because it makes me feel I can be healthy and balanced by eating. But the price of foods inside is really expensive. I felt like I wanted to dig more about this brand. I did, and after the research, I decide to make this topic as my social media integration paper. 

Whole Foods Market is one of the biggest international foods supermarket chains. Since its first launch of e-commerce and development of social media in 1997, Whole Foods has implemented well-rounded and authentic social media strategy, which enables the company to play a leading role in social media branding. Whole Foods incorporates its communities and core brand values, and actively participates across multiple platforms, including Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, and Flickr. 

There are several features of Whole Foods' social media strategy:

(1) It creates local social media sites. Whole Foods realizes that it is an international brand that sets its goal as "going local." So every Whole Foods local stores have their own social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter. Having local accounts means customers in every specific areas can get faster and better response and services. This move also helps Whole Foods to create communities, changing the customers experience from simply purchasing foods into seeking for a platform to communicate and get educated. This tactic is the most effective, authentic and notable one among its social media tactics. 

(2) It focuses on customer interaction. This is the core of Whole Foods' social media value. According to Bill Tolany, Whole Foods’ integrated media officer, responses to customer comments on Twitter accounts make up 85% of all the tweets sent out by Whole Foods Market stores. Just 10% of the tweets are content-based and 5% are promotional. We can see the company's intention to communicate with customers. 

(3) Both on-brand and personal online presence. With so many social media sites and accounts, Whole Foods' employees handle the consistency appropriately. They want their social media channels to convey brand personality and not necessarily the personality of the individual managing the outgoing messages and conversation. However, they also sought individuals who understand their brand voice — friendly, positive and conversation-driven –- to be the social media specialists. They can add their own personality into the conversation while obey the general guidelines. To Whole Foods, what is really important to the customers, fans and critics is that they receive quick, helpful responses.

Below is the "Facebook/Twitter Central Hub" on Whole Foods' Website to provide directory to each local page/account or other specific topics.