How Whole Foods Market Aligns Core Values with Social Media [Podcast]

Whole Foods Market is a natural and organic grocery retailer founded in 1980. The company's focus on hyper-local social has yielded over 850 social media accounts across 400 retail locations in 12 regions across North America and the UK. We spoke with Natanya Anderson, Whole Foods' Director of Social Media and Community, for this episode of the Social Business Engine podcast to get some insight into how the company goes about managing such a huge social media presence. Anderson discusses the priority Whole Foods places on alignment of the company's core values with quality standards in the way that they engage in social media and how Whole Foods works hard to empower each store to represent itself uniquely in their local market through their own social media channels. Anderson's insights will inspire social media professionals to question how well they're portraying their values through their social media activities. 

How the core values of Whole Foods Market align with all aspects of their businessHow 'quality of standards' differentiates Whole Foods Market from other grocersHow Whole Foods Market's quality standards are constantly evolving as new science on food emergesHow Whole Foods Market sees themselves as a member of the local community and feels tied to themHow stores in different areas are set up to match the communityThe recognition Whole Foods Market has received on their social strategyHow Anderson's team is responsible for social at the brand level, CRM and customer careWhole Foods' 'hyper-local' approach; many stores have their own social media accountsThe Whole Foods Market organization is divided into 12 regions; each with their own marketing functionsHow training is provided on a regional level by Anderson's team, and then dispersed to local storesHow the Social Specialists and the store-marketing managers work togetherHow Andrerson interacts with the local stores' social media managers through enablement, not through governanceThe social media guidance Anderson provides to the local stores to be complementary to the brandHow Whole Foods Market empowers local stores by providing information and inspirationThe timeframe of when Anderson's team gets assets out to the local marketersWhy Anderson says it's not realistic to be active on every social channel wellHow Whole Foods Market is piloting a program with PeriscopeHow Whole Foods Market decided to only do a brand Pinterest account, but not local onesWhy the content shared on the brand's social accounts isn't simply replicated on local accountsThe different types of posts that are shared on the local pagesThe types of posts that the brand level account sharesHow their customers enjoy sharing while shoppingWhy Anderson says there is no better marketing for business than someone sharing with their friends and family.Why Whole Foods Market has a very aggressive social listening programThe opportunities a brand has available with the help of social listeningWhole Foods Market's use of tools and technologyWhy Anderson says a layered approach is the only way to create scaleWhy Whole Foods Market's addition of paid media required local and brand to work closer together

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