Andy’s Answers: How Whole Foods balances local and national social strategies

Whole Foods Market gives a lot of power to its local stores, from choosing which products to offer to deciding on the kinds of sales to have. So it makes sense that they also give their local stores some decision-making power in social media. In fact, the reason Whole Foods Market has local social media is because its stores asked for it.

It’s that kind of initiative that makes Whole Foods’ social strategy possible, according to Natanya Anderson, director of social media and digital marketing. In her presentation at SocialMedia.org’s BlogWell conference, Natanya explains how they make their local and brand social media strategies work together.

Here are some key points from her presentation:

• It’s all about trust: Natanya says a culture of trust is the foundation for their social media program. Companies have to empower their local employees to make decisions — not just push marketing messages down from the executive level.
• Local social media isn’t a mini-me of brand social media: While brandwide social strategies focus on lifestyle and aspirational goals, local social media is all about creating communities and getting people in the store. With this in mind, even the social media platforms are different for each program.
• “It’s not all unicorns and rainbows”: Natanya explains that although they put a lot of trust in their local social media teams, time constraints, store manager buy-in and employee turnover sometimes make local social difficult.

Watch the video below to see the full presentation.