social media marketing
Live healthier with the new Mission App from Whole Foods
For all you foodie app junkies out there, and you know who you are! … check out the new “Mission App” from Whole Foods.
Hats Off to Whole Foods … this app is a really strong example of both mobile application and peer-to-peer communication … and another reason that my iPhone looks so used and beaten up. From a marketing point of view, apps like this one further elevate and extend the Whole Foods brand … certainly this app is a perfect manifestation of the Whole Foods mission.
The Mission App allows users to earn badges for taking steps toward various goals. There are more than 70 “missions” for you to choose from. Within each is a checklist of foods to eat, things to do, even movies to watch. All designed to educate and push you out of whatever rut you’re stuck in. When you successfully complete all of the requirements within a category you earn a badge. You can share your badges with friends via twitter, facebook or email.
Personally, I’m not going for any badges. For me, the usefulness is the Tips section … it offers more than 300 tips across nine subject matters: Cooking, Fresh & Frugal, Green Living, In the Store, Nutrition, Storage, Time Savers, Your Wellness and a kind of strange group called Worth a Try. I’ve found many of the tips to be helpful, especially those in Cooking and Storage.
Fun, succinct and social. Oh, and free! Available for iPad, iPhone and iPod.
How to succeed with social media marketing
Mark Zuckerburg, then a student at Harvard, created an online social network where college students could congregate and share their life experiences from the past and as its happening. Opening enrollment beyond the campus and into the neighborhoods, Facebook is rapidly nearing 500 million members worldwide. Does social media, with its origins in the collegiate environment, make it a viable medium for higher education institutions to engage with prospective students for enrollment purposes?
Social media enables the food truck revolution
Street-Za from Milwaukee
One of the hot, hot, hot topics at this year’s National Restaurant Association Show was mobile cuisine– a.k.a food trucks. We’re not talking about those silver cup-of-joe trucks parked by construction sites. We’re talking highly graphic trucks serving creative cuisine on wheels. A couple of the high-image trucks were parked on the show floor and drew thousands who waited in long lines to step through the trucks and hear about Mobi Munch’s unique package of mobile food services, including a web portal and interactive social media-based platforms used to connect this growing community. Could there be a better match? Social goes mobile for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Mobi Munch’s website will offer real-time tracking of trucks, nationwide food truck listings, ratings and full-on social networking. I can’t wait for this concept to grow. For such a foodie town, Chicago has yet to get this idea rolling but we’re counting on Matt Maroni htt://bit.ly/cmrdcJ, who runs a “naan-wich” place to persuade city council to get behind this trend by updating some rules and regs governing mobile food vendors. Hurry. Summer’s already here.
What’s Your Social Media Excuse?
Lots of companies are still nervous about entering the cool waters of social media. Here are the top excuses—or “rationales”—I hear:
- “We have no resources to devote.”
- “We can’t control it, so why bother at all.”
- “Consumers are confused. There are too many conflicting points of view.”
- “Social media is a trend and will burn out soon.”
These same companies may also still believe that they control the dialogue around their company’s brand, products and services. Truth is, social media is a great leveler. Marketers who refuse to acknowledge the shift that’s taking place are missing out on the opportunity to get in front of online social dialogue and learn from the insights and postings that are happening…with or without you. Continue reading
Are we behaving like guerrilla networkers, or just like gorillas?
As the marketing world continues to decide what role social media really should play in the grand scheme of our efforts, the topic is spawning all sorts of discussion and theories about its usage. Here’s a synopsis of an exceptional one, posted by “economist.com” earlier this week.
Are we behaving like primates on Facebook??
