If the iPhone apps, Facebook fan pages, Blog Squads and Twitter hashtags are any indication, the food and beverage industry (or at least its marketing and PR people) have finally hopped on the social media bandwagon.
While some mobile and social media applications may have left a bad taste in some people's mouths (say what you will, I thought Pepsi's “Pick Up” app was quite funny) many of the major players are out in full social force to get their brands known by the digital masses.
Need further proof?
- Consider Coca-Cola's Happiness Ambassadors, a team of three young people who will travel the globe and blog about what makes people happy.
- PepsiCo used Twitter and a mindful product hashtag this summer to promote its Mountain Dew Ultraviolet to Dew drinkers.
- ConAgra Foods Foundation uses its Facebook fan page to raise awareness of childhood hunger in America
- Kraft Foods has teamed up with five mom bloggers (The Velveeta it! Kitchenistas) who will blog about their clever uses of Velveeta for family meal time. Not only has Kraft enlisted the bloggers, the company also posts the recipes, among other things, on its Facebook fan page.
Because many of today's consumers are tethered to online devices, it makes sense to use whatever online means necessary to communicate with them. Whether that communication is through Tweets, Facebook posts or blogs, food & beverage manufacturers can almost always count on reaching out and touching someone through social media.
Speaking of blogs….
Did you know you can communicate with two of FoodProcessing's favorite femme fatales through blogs? Both Diane Toops, News & Trends Editor, and I, your favorite Senior Digital Editor, write blogs that you can find on FoodProcessing.com.
Diane's Toops' Scoops and my own Erin's Edibles are filled with interesting food news, fun food reports and even a dash of wit and cynicism sure to stir you up. The best part: Readers can log in and comment on our blog posts. Why is this fascinating, you ask? Because our blogs offer the only space on FoodProcessing.com where you can actually respond to what we have to say.
And who can resist getting to talk back to us?
