Archive of tag "General Mills"

Betty Crocker uses Flickr for more than photo sharing

December 15, 2009

Corporate Social Media Case Study: Betty Crocker

Combining high-quality food images and cooking instructions, Betty Crocker is using Flickr to share recipes. With examples like “Southern Apple Crumble” and “Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff,” Betty Crocker’s photostream now has hundreds of entries.

Each photo includes a detailed ingredient list and cooking instructions in the space typically used for simple photo captions, and their stream is categorized into sets such as “Slow Cooker,” “Gluten-Free Recipes” and “Muffins.” It’s a simple concept that offers a clever way to use Flickr for more than just posting photos.

Learn More: Flickr

Disclosure: Betty Crocker’s parent, General Mills, is a Social Media Business Council Member (and an awesome one at that!), but even if they weren’t, we’d write about them anyway.

Share This Post

Comments

5 comments. Read them below or add one. (Trackback)

Social media case study from Mark Addicks of General Mills

September 28, 2009

BlogWell - How Big Brands Use Social MediaCome to BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media on November 10 in Atlanta to hear Coca-Cola, UPS, SunGard, Orange Business Services, ConAgra Foods, Turner Broadcast System, Newell Rubbermaid, and The Home Depot share case studies in corporate social media. You’ll learn how to get started, get past roadblocks, and make your social media program phenomenal — in one afternoon, for just $250.

You’ll get practical, how-to advice on creating great content, getting management buy-in, educating employees, keeping lawyers and regulators happy, simple and ethical disclosure, and engaging fans. You’ll ask questions, discover new ideas, and get answers from people who have been there, done that — all in four hours.

Register and learn more about BlogWell here.

From where they’ve started to where they’re going, Mark Addicks, General Mills’ Chief Marketing Officer, shares how social media is changing they way they communicate in his presentation from BlogWell Minneapolis, “General Mills Goes Social.”

Mark’s presentation covers how when first getting started, General Mills built internal portals to demonstrate the power of social to senior management and peers, how many of their brands had an inherent offline “social network” behind them and these new tools are making it easier for them to connect, and several specific social media case studies on brands like Betty Crocker, Fiber One, and Progresso.

(Special thanks to our lead sponsor, Globalpark, for help making BlogWell Minneapolis possible.)

BlogWell Minneapolis Social Media Case Study: General Mills, presented by Mark Addicks
View more documents from GasPedal.

Share This Post

Comments

9 comments. Read them below or add one. (Trackback)

Tweets from BlogWell (and a big thanks to everyone who helped make the event a huge success)

August 17, 2009

BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media in Minneapolis on August 13, hosted by General Mills, was a fantastic sell-out event that featured some great social media case studies from McDonald’s, Mayo Clinic, Progressive, General Mills, Ford, Walmart, CME Group, and AccuQuote.

We’d like to extend a big thanks to lead sponsor Globalpark, as well as sponsors Jive, Visible Technologies, Biz360, Compendium Blogware, and Zocalo Group for help making BlogWell possible, as well as a thanks to local partners the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association, the Minnesota Chapter of the American Marketing Association, i612, and the Social Media Breakfast – Twin Cities who also provided significant support in bringing BlogWell to Minneapolis.

And a big thanks to all the folks that helped share the event via Twitter. If you missed it, here’s a few of the great tweets we saw:

Tweets from Mark Addicks of General Mills’ presentation: “Using Social Media to Reach Online Influencers”

hughweber: It is fascinating to just listen to execs from General Mills ask for insights from execs from McDonald’s…this is great #blogwell

fleurword: RT @halvorson: General Mills CMO: “Nothing is more fundamentally social than recipes.” Simple insight; somehow blowing my mind. #blogwell

gz_: General Mills CMO Mark Addicks: Brands move from creators to curators. #blogwell

chelseafanjj: RT @robbinphillips: #blogwell being social is not a department its a point of view: general mills #blogwell

cmortensen: RT @scottyhendo: General Mills used Pssst (150k influential consumers) to launch Progresso Chicken Broth – no trade, print, etc #blogwell

Tweets from Lee Aase of Mayo Clinic’s presentation: “Mixing Traditional Communications with New Tools”

gialyons: Flip recorder has changed how Mayo Clinic presents itself online – interviews of medical folks working on diseases, etc. #BlogWell

swaynewilson: Mayo clinic now “syndicating” their weekly radio broadcast via mp3 podcast. Will save $250K per year in syndication costs #blogwell

johnfschneider: Don’t just pitch the media, be the media. @gaspedal #blogwell Rock on Mayo Clinic!

tcar: Mayo Clinic’s Employee Social Media Guidelines. http://bit.ly/LL4t #blogwell

MegCanada: Interesting to hear Mayo talk about privacy concerns (sounds like what we do @hclib) #blogwell

Tweets from Matthew Lehman of Progressive’s presentation: “Social Media in ‘Unsocial’ Industries”

chavoen: RT @spikejones: Progressive used Twitter to monitor water levels in SD floods to know where to send their people. #blogwell

CraigPladson: Progressive understands how to articulate the business value of social media. Props to Matthew Lehman (@mattcleveland). #blogwell

almostthor: Progressive on social media “We need to be there because out customers are there.” #blogwell @gaspedal

ColleMcVoy: Progressive working with The Customer Respect Group to measure how well their brand is being “received” on Twitter & Facebook. #blogwell

deluxecorp: @progressive uses Twitter trends to determine what kind of content is on website and facebook page #blogwell

Tweets from Heather Oldani and Steve Wilson of McDonald’s presentation: “Social Media at Local, Regional, and Global Scales”

DigiLunch: McDonalds working on how 2 get employees 2 leverage their own Social Networks and become Brand Ambassadors RT @ryanestis #Blogwell

chelseafanjj: RT @wtongen: McDonalds put all social media efforts under national control not the 21 regions. #blogwell

copenhaver: listen, participate, lead …sound strategy by McDonalds #blogwell (via @chrscarpenter)

LadyRiposter: Estimated McDonalds is talked about every five seconds. Huge opportunity for them. 27 mil visit/day in the US alone. #blogwell

rickmahn: Looking at social media as another way to cultivate relationships with customers long term – McDonalds #blogwell

Tweets from Allan Schoenberg of CME Group’s presentation: “Finding Your Audience Online”

danmandle: After May Clinic and CME Group presos I’m convinced old media is not dead. It’s too great a partner for new/social media. #blogwell

deluxecorp: CME social media started on facebook and evolved from a page started by a fan in Norway. #blogwell

eBob: The CME wants to turn customers into fans. Brand enthusism. #blogwell

deluxecorp: CME using Twitter for customer service as well as news sharing for their customers. #blogwell

craigsanatomy: 3 things the CME uses SM: 1) Brand Enthusiasm: Turn customers into “fans” #blogwell

Tweets from Suraya Bliss and Dave Tovar of Walmart’s presentation: “Engaging with Massive Audiences”

bethkathan: @Walmart, 90 percent of employees log on to mywalmart.com every 10 days from HOME! #yam #blogwell

homedepot: Good ideas from Walmart about connecting customers, employees #blogwell

nathanschock: Corp Comms of Walmart: using Twitter as an early-warning system for conversations about their brand #blogwell

bethkathan: Walmart twitters from major meetings such as the shareholders’ meeting #yam #blogwell

chavoen: Walmart says “more loyal community when you move from transactional interactions to collaborative or engaged #BlogWell (via @infogroup)

Tweets from Scott Monty of Ford’s presentation: “Supporting Positive Online Word of Mouth”

GraemeThickins: MP3 of my interview with Scott Monty, head of social media at Ford, yesterday at #Blogwell Minneapolis: http://bit.ly/1f7CRA

mikemost: RT @spikejones: “We’re not measuring social media on sales. It’s not a 1-to-1 kind of thing.” @scottmonty of Ford #blogwell

LadyRiposter: What’s next for @Ford? Humanizing the company. Cross-training comm. staff, connection w/ enthusiasts, online training, etc. #blogwell

moria: Scott Monty at Ford “Its not what where saying about ourselves, it’s what other people are saying about us.” #blogwell

jesseengle: RT @LadyRiposter: Must-see video of Ford CEO Alan Mulally on Twitter. http://bit.ly/lyWfj #blogwell

Tweets from Sean Cheyney of AccuQuote’s presentation: “Social Media for the Analytic Marketer”

johnwernz: “(Social Media) We are able to track how many leads are generated, how much revenue we generate. ” @scheyney – Accuquote #Blogwell

deluxecorp: Love that AccuQuote is using Omniture to track leads and measure roi of blog, Twitter, facebook, YouTube. Great resource for me #blogwell

ColleenMick: Both @progressive and Accuquote claim they have the most boring product around. Still have successful social media. #blogwell

deluxecorp: AccuQuote is a life insurance company. Social media makes sense. They already communicate with every single client/prospect #blogwell

gaspedal: The diff uses of social media for AccuQuote: Lead generation, life insurance education, recruiting, PR, strategic partner promos. #blogwell

Share This Post

Comments

12 comments. Read them below or add one. (Trackback)

General Mills: "Using Social Media to Reach Online Influencers" -- Live from BlogWell

August 13, 2009

1:30 — Andy Sernovitz introduces Mark Addicks, General Mills’ Chief Marketing Officer.

1:31 — Mark: I think General Mills “going social” is really the theme here. We’re really learning in the space.

1:32 — Mark: One of the best places to start might be within. Mark describes how a few years ago they built some internal portals to demonstrate the power of social to senior management and peers.

1:33 — Mark: We’re very externally focused. We didn’t used to be. We look at everything pretty engaged.

1:34 — Mark describes how General Mills still faces challenges on building communication internally to share ideas, best practices, etc.

1:34 — Mark: As you look today, lots of innovation isn’t coming necessarily from big companies, it’s coming from small companies. So, there’s really no reason to be a big company unless you’re leveraging your scale.

1:35 — Mark shares a bunch of the history behind some of their iconic brands, and how long before social media, their brands had an inherent following and “social network” behind them. People sent in letters, shared ideas, and talked amongst themselves about their favorite General Mills products and brands.

1:37 — Mark talks about how what’s getting really exciting, is that there’s a huge potential to get ideas on how to make products and brands better by opening up and asking consumers how they use the products and what they love about them.

1:38 — Mark describes “Save Lids to Save Lives” — this year, General Mills saw a 50% increase in the program’s participation (which raises money for cancer research) by asking people to create their own communities and invite friends.

1:39 — Mark: The job of marketers sometimes, is if you’ve done a great job and have made a great product, you have to step back and trust the wisdom of the crowds.

1:40 — Mark describes how they’re sending their brands out before they’re in the marketplace. They’re asking fans to share thoughts, post videos, and interact with General Mills and how the company is using their feedback to make the product better.

1:41 — Betty Crocker is now almost entirely digital, and is now a part of communities such as MySpace and Facebook.

1:42 — Mark shares statistics behind Fiber One Bars. The number one driver of its success has been distribution, but number two: It was driven by online conversations. Mark shows how unit sales almost perfectly related to the amount of online conversations about the brands.

1:43 — Mark explains MyBlogSpark and how his team is measuring the conversation about the brand from using the network.

1:45 — Mark explains their “Pssst…” campaign which sent talkers samples of their new product, stories behind why they made it, and how it helped their Progresso brand.

1:48 — Box Tops has gone social, using discussion groups, etc — allows for folks to share ideas on how to raise money for their schools. Mark describes how a lot of schools raise $150,000 annually through the program, and what it means to communities.

1:50 — Mark describes how Totinos Pizza Rolls has worked with the X Games, and has now evolved into something where they encourage participation by encouraging folks to submit short videos on why they love the X Games and sports they play for a chance to win a free trip to the real games.

1:51 — Larabar is one of General Mills’ brands that is built almost exclusively on highly enthusiastic brand evangelists. General Mills is using this as an example to drive this thinking across more of their brands.

1:53 — Mark quickly shares a bunch of examples of how they’re using tools like Facebook and Twitter to start engaging with consumers, such as sharing a “Recipe Of The Day” on Twitter.

Q&A

Q: Was this an organic effort? Or from the top down?

A: This was organic. Where we truly are, authentically, we’re at the stage where we’ve tried a lot of things and have proven that we’ll be rewarded for opening our brands. The next phase is, how do you get your company to embrace social as a way of living?

Q: Can you talk about your process for creating content?

A: We created everything. We created every recipe. Except for this great example of the Pillsbury Bake Off, where we got a bunch of recipes from fans around the world. We saw that there were many great ideas about how we could improve our brands, or where they could go. We know there are thousands of experts in the world, and what we want to do is create a larger community, and the best ideas come forward, are rated, and are used by people. You move less from technicians, to almost editorial functions. We have just started, but we’re looking at food editors and building almost editorial teams.

Q: How are you finding your influencers online?

A: There’s a couple ways: One is, as they are profiling themselves and opting in. It’s not a secret, you can ask them questions. Probably the best way, is to ask them to volunteer and raise their hands. You’ll usually find those people that want to participate. They’re usually the community leaders, and are the ones that want to be the first to know. I think the most powerful thing is let them self-identify, and let them go further and dictate the things they’d like to participate in based on what they’re interested in.

Share This Post

Comments

1 comment. Read them below or add one. (Trackback)

← Previous Entries

Email Newsletters

*We will never, ever release your email. (Privacy Policy)
**Third-party newsletter (Privacy Policy)

About SMBC

The Social Media Business Council, formerly the Blog Council, is a brands-only community focused on helping large organizations build successful social media programs.

SMBC members gain instant access and advice from the heads of social media at the world's biggest brands, including Dell, Walmart, Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, GE, and Procter & Gamble. Members collaborate and share best practices in a friendly, productive, and private environment.

The Social Media Business Council is a GasPedal project. We teach word of mouth marketing and social media to companies of all sizes.

Tell a Friend

We will not use email addresses for any purpose other than sending this recommendation. (Privacy Policy)

Thanks for the word of mouth! Your message has been sent!

Please enter a valid email.

Your email failed. Try again later.