Sonny Mayugba to Talk Social Media Strategy at United Fresh 2012

Posted on Tuesday, April 17th, 2012 by AugustineIdeas.

Sonny Mayugba was recently interviewed on Supermarket News about his upcoming seminar, “Driving Brand Loyalty with Social Media” to be presented at United Fresh 2012 early next month.  Here’s the article, below:

DALLAS — For supermarkets and the fresh foods they sell, the rise of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter has been a bit of a blessing and a curse. On one hand, these tools offer the opportunity to reach out to customers directly. On the other, disgruntled customers can now instantly broadcast their dissatisfaction to everyone they know.

On Wednesday, May 2 at 4 p.m., at the United Fresh 2012 show here, Sonny Mayugba, executive vice president of AugustineIdeas, will be joined by Lisa Mowry, a Dallas-based food blogger featured in Rachael Ray magazine, to present “Driving Brand Loyalty with Social Media,” a seminar designed to help retailers and produce companies understand some of the opportunities and challenges that these tools present.

Listen to Your Customers Through Social Media

“The tools we have today — at our fingertips — marketers in the past would have killed for,” Mayugba said. He added that even negative responses to a product, store or brand can be turned into something positive, if a company learns to listen to their customers.

“In the old days, if someone didn’t like [a product], they just told people within earshot, and you never even knew they didn’t like it. Now they can go online and talk about how they don’t like it, and you have a chance to strike up a relationship and find out why,” he said. “You can potentially fix something that many other people don’t like. Now you’re a better company for it.”

It’s free and it’s simple enough to set up a corporate account on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, but Mayugba noted that companies should recognize that they need to make a time commitment to these accounts if they expect to extract any value.

“The cost comes in having the time to nurture relationships [with customers] and grow an audience,” he said. “So, how much does that cost? What should people set aside?”

How Much Social Media Do You Need To Maintain a Brand / Customer Relationship?

The “stock answer” that many social media experts give is one to two Facebook posts and three to five Twitter posts per day, possibly a couple of videos on YouTube each week, along with regular online contests or giveaways, Mayugba said.

However, he encourages brands to empower one to three people at their company to communicate their message on social media platforms. Post what you want, but always make sure it’s quality content.

To that end, Mayugba cited research indicating that 40% of people who “like” a brand on Facebook are doing so because they want promotions and special offers. This makes a good case for offering occasional contests and giveaways. But, brands should also have a bigger vision, thinking of themselves almost as a specialized media company that creates content for their readers.

“If I’m an onion grower, do I walk into a cocktail party and say, ‘Guess what? I’ve got onions, and if you can jump through this hoop, I’ll give you a pound. It’s a contest.’ Of course I wouldn’t. I would walk into the room and say, ‘Hi. Here’s who I am, and this is what’s going on in my world.’ … Think less about the commodity that you represent, and more about the lifestyle that surrounds it,” he said.

 

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Social Media Horror Stories

Posted on Thursday, October 13th, 2011 by Andrew Bradley.

Social media has increased the velocity of how we communicate. Unfortunately, for some brands and businesses, bad news travels TOO fast. Lori Bertelli spoke on a panel about some recent mistakes made by companies as they learn what works and what doesn’t work on social media. She and other panelists shared stories and offered strategies for quickly recovering from these disasters or avoiding them all together. Hopefully, everyone can learn from the mistakes of the past, including a Google engineer bashing Google+; a company promising a gourmet meal, but offering frozen lasagna and a frustrated driver posting on the wrong Twitter account. Remember to get out in front of the issue quickly and take ownership of the issue.

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Lunchbox Winners Takes Top Honors

Posted on Thursday, October 13th, 2011 by Andrew Bradley.

Produce Business Honors Lunchbox Winners with Marketing Excellence Award

Since its launch in September 2010, Lunchbox Winners has been a huge success in more than 1,500 Safeway stores across the country. The program was awarded the Marketing Excellence Award by Produce Business. AugustineIdeas developed Lunchbox Winners for Safeway in response to Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative. The goal of Lunchbox Winners was to promote easy, better-for-you choices for parents when packing school lunches for children.

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News in Downtown Napa

Posted on Thursday, October 13th, 2011 by Jessica Love-Dumont.

AugustineIdeas recently launched an event that brings a new spin to wining and dining in Downtown Napa. The Culinary Crawl is a social dining experience that allows guests to taste the best of Downtown Napa’s restaurants. As part of the Culinary Crawl tour group, guests have the chance to make new friends while visiting premier dining establishments and wine tasting rooms. At each stop, guests sample complimentary small bites and enjoy tailored drink specials. The event has been a great success so far, and the fourth Culinary Crawl is coming up this month.

Check out the NBC Bay Area coverage of the Culinary Crawl

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