In the past, if you tweeted out to Kroger, mentioned that you shopped there, or tagged them in a photo, you wouldn’t get a response. It’s not that they weren’t listening — it’s that an agency was listening on their behalf and missing critical engagement opportunities.
In her presentation at SocialMedia.org Brands-Only Summit, The Kroger Co.’s Social Media Manager, Jorie Mark, explains how the emergency birth of a baby in one of their stores changed the way they managed their social media engagement and curation strategy.
Here are some key points from Jorie’s presentation:
- Strategic listening: Because they weren’t monitoring their own social media, they were missing out on opportunities to engage with consumers online. Now they make sure to monitor heavily and reach out to consumers online.
- Content selection: Before, the only content that was pushed out was the same content found on every grocery chain’s site: recipes, online coupons, etc. Now Jorie and her team are selective and focus solely on promoting user-generated content and human interest stories.
- Regional ambassadors: After realizing that these great pieces of content were created in or around Kroger stores, Jorie recruited regional store managers to help capture everyday moments and submit them to Kroger’s Twitter and Instagram feed.
Check out Jorie’s full video presentation.
Download her slide presentation here.
Andy Sernovitz builds organizations that help people help each other. His company, GasPedal, builds peer-to-peer communities for people leading meaningful change at the world’s biggest companies, including SocialMedia.org and SocialMedia.org Health. He wrote the best-selling book Word of Mouth Marketing that teaches you how to earn the respect and recommendation of your customers.