The following excerpt was taken from
“The 7 Attributes of CEOs Who Get Social Media” via the Harvard Business Review
“Peter Aceto, the CEO of Tangerine, recently said in The Globe and Mail, “I would rather engage in a Twitter conversation with a single customer than see our company attempt to attract the attention of millions in a coveted Superbowl commercial.”
While it sounds all good & well, unfortunately, Peter’s philosophy doesn’t resonate with many businesses today.
Instead of focusing on the “More Social, Less Media” mantra that is preached in “A World Gone Social,” many big businesses still opt to throw money into social media ads or merely use social media as a platform to broadcast messages.
The vast majority of businesses are using social media as a broadcast channel — a digital billboard to hawk their company’s products and services — not as a way to connect.
They truly miss the point of being social.
They don’t understand that consumers didn’t come to social media to be sold to or be yelled at – they came to talk, chat and interact.
One company that truly exemplifies this philosophy is
WinCo Foods.
Never mind the fact that WinCo is one of the few brands that I follow (yes, that’s a feat in itself lol), but just take a look at some of their recent Tweets:
The impressive part about the first tweet is that WinCo was not directly mentioned or hashtagged. This tells me that the Winco social media team is actively seeking when the word “WinCo” is mentioned online – an absolutely awesome strategy.
The second tweet is just fun and happy, but there are tweets like this littered all over WinCo’s page.
But anyone can be happy and cheerful on social media.
What really impresses me about WinCo is that they do what few companies do online – respond to complaints.
Check this out:
One tweet from a dissatisfied consumer resulted in a series of 4 tweets from WinCo, asking them for more details on what happened, telling them they would look into the issue, and hoping they would welcome them back soon.
How many companies would’ve ignored this angry tweet? It would’ve been easy to ‘overlook’ this complaint with all of the cheerful tweets rolling in.
But WinCo’s social philosophy shines through in occasions like this.
They’re there through the good AND bad.
They’re a tremendous example of a company who does social media extremely well and exemplify all of the qualities businesses need to succeed in a social media community.
More businesses need to follow this model.
How many businesses do you know that just throw money at advertising or are on their social media megaphone all the time?
Too many – and if this trend continues, users will start to use social media less and less.
As I’ve seen social media vastly grow in recent years and the opportunities to advertise expand tremendously, it’s incredibly refreshing and reaffirming to see businesses like WinCo who do it right and serve as a “Blue Unicorn” for the rest of their peers to model.
Kudos, WinCo.
What other companies do you see who do social media right? Let me know in the comments below!
