Ideas And Angles » Examples

Companies That Get It – Whole Foods

Zach — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:49:51 +0000

This is the second post in our “Companies that get it” series that works to highlight businesses that are on forefront of social media using creative and effective uses of emerging technologies to run and improve their business.

Company – Whole Foods

Description – Whole Foods Market is a natural and organic grocer. “We search for the highest quality, least processed, most flavorful and natural foods possible because we believe that food in its purest state — unadulterated by artificial additives, sweeteners, colorings and preservatives — is the best tasting and most nutritious food there is.”

Social Media Usage - Blogging, YouTube, Flickr, Podcasts, Forums, Facebook, Wikipedia and Twitter.

How They Stand Out – Whole Foods uses social media to portray their unique company culture and values to the general public, all while providing quality content that creates value adds for their customers. They hold themselves to a different standard than most publicly owned companies and are almost always rated amongst the top socially responsible companies.

Their unique company culture really makes for an interesting use of social media. It really allows them to engage their customers to a much higher degree. A majority of Whole Foods customers are definitely a select demographic which allows them to really start conversations that allow lots of feedback and customers helping customers. One of my favorite things they do is The Whole Deal in which they allow customers to share how they shop at Whole Foods and do not pay more than other grocery stores. They do not come up with all the answers or throw stuff at you that may raise skepticism. They allow real people to help real people with a “perceived” problem. Addressing many peoples main objection in a public format is a great way to get potential customers to at the very least, come see for themselves.

Whole Foods uses social media in many ways and they all revolve around the company culture which allows the customer to feel like they are part of the company family. Be sure to check out their videos and podcasts to learn new recipes using, what else, products you can find at Whole Foods.

Do you follow Whole Foods through any of their social media efforts? Which ones? What do you think? What could they do better? Do you know any companies that ‘Get It’? Share them with us in the comments.

Companies That Get It – Pandora

Zach — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:04:24 +0000

This is the first post of our “Companies that get it” series that works to highlight businesses that are on forefront of social media using creative and effective uses of emerging technologies to run and improve their business.

Company - Pandora

Description – Pandora is an automated music recommendation and Internet radio service created by the Music Genome Project. Users enter a song or artist that they enjoy, and the service responds by playing selections that are musically similar. Users provide feedback on the individual song choices — approval or disapproval — which Pandora takes into account for future selections.

Social Media Usage – Blogging, Event Planning, Conversation Monitoring, Video, Flickr, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

How They Stand Out – Pandora understands the opportunities that a passionate user base can create. If you have a comment about the service (good or bad) and Twitter about it odds are you will get a response quickly with a note of appreciation for feedback or an attempt to correct a problem. All of their mediums for communication remind the user of the value they put in the feedback that is provided.

I+A stresses the importance of being genuine in your social media efforts and this is reflected in the honest and transparent ways in which Pandora communicates with its users. You get the feeling that the employees love what they do and believe in the company which really draws people in. Everyone is very accessible.

Pandora has also leveraged the interest of its users to host events hosted all over the country from listening parties to meetups. To add another element of connectivity there is a good deal of video giving you inside glimpses into some of the processes and happenings of the company.

Pandora’s communications team has built up the trust of its user base with honest and effective connections. Practices like this have undoubtedly gone a long way to make Pandora the popular service it is today.

Know of a company that you think “gets” it? Drop us a line at ideasandangles [at] gmail [dot] com.

Mad Men on Twitter? The Men (and women) of Madison Avenue go Web 2.0

Aaron — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:24:59 +0000

For fans of the show Mad Men on AMC you can now follow your favorite characters on Twitter. I’ve seen no conformation that the people at the AMC are behind it, but the characters follow who they are on the show to a “T” whether interacting with each other or followers. The character’s profiles also have a link to AMC’s official site either through SterlingCooperAdvertising.com or through AMCtv.com.

madmen

A very interesting use of social media, congratulations to the people behind it! We will certainly be watching….

Don Draper
Peggy Olson
Pete Campbell
Joan Holloway
Paul Kinsey
Bobbie Barrett
Bertram Cooper
Sal Romano

Ideas And Angles » Examples

Companies That Get It – Whole Foods

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Companies That Get It – Pandora

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Mad Men on Twitter? The Men (and women) of Madison Avenue go Web 2.0

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