I discovered @sainsburys on Twitter yesterday morning when somone retweeted a competition they were running to win a £50 voucher.
Whether I like it or not, supermarkets are where a lot of my income ends up going. As much as I try to buy local and support smaller businesses, more often than not, it is just plain convenient to go to one place and be able to pick up lots of things I need all at once.
I decided to check out what the major names in the supermarket game were up to on Twitter. Here are their vital statistics and my thoughts…
Asda - @asda
Followers: 3,142
Following: 25
No. of tweets: 702
Joined Twitter: 5th February 2009 (1 year ago)
Followed me back? No
Asda have by far the most followers and appear to gear the account around broadcasting offers and deals, company appearances in the news and seasonal competitions. While they ReTweet good feedback from folks on twitter it doesn’t look like they reply or engage those people. Taking a look at their TweetStats tells me that Asda have been consistently increasing their tweeting level since June 2009, they tweet 7 days a week, mostly from Tweetdeck but also a variety of other tools. One concern I have is that they don’t seem to follow real people back. They follow a small selection of Grocery and retail related accounts, but none of their potential customers.
Co-operative - @CooperativeFood
Followers: 325
Following: 25
No. of tweets:46
Joined Twitter: 11th June 2009 (8 months ago)
Followed me back? No
The CoOp use their account to broadcast news and deals. TweetStats tells me that their rate of tweeting has steadily dropped off since they first tweeted back in September ‘09. Their tweets are broadcast Monday - Friday and all of them come via the web. They follow a small selection of news feeds and food related publications but none of their potential customers. It looks as though they sign in to the account to post news every so often but the rest of the time it is abandoned with no sign of joining the conversation.
Sainsburys - @sainsburys
Followers: 2131
Following: 1421
No. of tweets: 302
Joined Twitter: 7th October 2009 (4 months ago)
Followed me back? No
Sainsburys have been around on twitter for the shortest time but look to be engaging very well. Their stream is a good mix of conversation, news, deals and retweets. TweetStats tells me that they tweet consistently, primarily from HootSuite or TweetDeck and well outside traditional office hours. Their latest promotion using twitter - involving the hashtag #loveyourleftovers has seen them increase their follower numbers quite considerably in just a couple of days. Watch out Asda - they’re hot on your tale when it comes to the twitter statistics.
Tesco - @tescostores
Followers: 1,186
Following: 0
No. of tweets: 2
Joined Twitter: 3rd April 2009 (10 months ago)
Followed me back? No
This is clearly the poorest show of the bunch. Although it does illustrate that people will follow supermarkets no matter how inactive they are on twitter. In fact there is no way to tell if this is a genuine Tesco account or not. Tesco do seem to be broadcasting under a number of department twitter accounts though - such as @TescoWines and @TescoEntertain. The entertainment account follows people but the wine one does not, there seems to be no well thought out, clearly defined or integrated use of twitter by Tesco.
Waitrose - @WaitroseUK
Followers: 1193
Following: 783
No. of tweets: 70
Joined Twitter: 11th June 2009 (8 months ago)
Followed me back? Yes (within 24 hours)
Waitrose look to be engagine well. They don’t update much but their tweets are comprised of a mixture of news, job opportunities, conversation and offers. They tweet outside usual office hours, mainly from the web interface. They were the only supermarket to follow me back in the time it took to put this post together. I sent them a Direct Message asking if they would like to tell me what they get out of twitter for my post - they responded promptly:
Biggest benefit has been simply the ability to communicate 1:1 (or 1 : many) with our customers / followers in real time
It’s nice to see that it’s all about the communication for Waitrose - here’s to seeing a few more tweets from them! I suggest they set up a search for the company name and dive into the conversation - when it seems appropriate.
I could find no presence for Morrisons. Although the username @Morrisons has been registered it is impossible to tell if it is owned by the company or a squatter - it is so far unused. Marks & Spencer (@marksandspencer) have a very strong presence on Twitter but this covers their entire retail offering, not just food. For this reason I thought it would be unfair to draw a comparison.
I think Sainsbury’s and Waitrose have the right idea. Tesco on the other hand don’t seem to know if they are coming or going - are they using twitter or not?
Personally, I end up shopping at Tesco the most. This is simply because, out of the supermarkets in Newbury, they have the largest selection of products. I do however get the impression that if I were to experience a problem in Waitrose or Sainsbury’s, that I would get a response via twitter. That is something I see as valuable. I like for companies to communicate with me on my terms and I like the short, no nonsense, opt-in nature of twitter. There is a lot of goodwill to be found on social media channels and I think brands that ignore it or fail to put the effort in will miss out. I’d love to know your thoughts on this too…
I gathered this information using TweetStats and When Did You Join Twitter?.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
What are great analysis Katharine - I have to say that I am sadly unsurprised how many of our supermarkets are failing to comprehend how they should be using Twitter.
It is little surprise that the supermarkets that seem effectively dealing with their customers when they visit their stores, are also using Twitter properly - any business using social media need to have the right ethos!
What is sad is that there is already a wealth of information and expertise on how businesses should be using Twitter to be found online, yet everyday companies happily destroy their reputations by being greedy and not engaging with their followers!
Well I shall be skipping Tesco tomorrow and instead opting for Waitrose in Newbury, not least so when I tweet in store I can expect them to respond!
Not really a supermarket along the same lines as the above but Ocado are on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ocadouk Which reminds me - must do another order!
This is really interesting, and thank you for such a detailed lowdown on how these supermarkets carry out customer relations. But, typical of the big ones unfortunately, to be so automated and ‘faceless’.
Heh Kathryne, great article.. well done.. It is such a shame that so many of the UK retailers have not embraced Twitter. They would benefit so much, if they just learnt to listen, and then engage with their customers.
For the few that have joined Twitter, sadly most are not really utilising it well. They are not searching for people talkng about them, and then responding, they are simply broadcasting, instead of communicating, and their accounts are very boring, and uninteresting..
Over time, I am sure that more will join, and really get to see the benefit of a succesful Twitter strategy to compliment the other sales and marketing activities that they are doing..
thanks
Mark
I’d be interested to know if your blog provokes a response from any of the Supermarkets you discuss here? Are they listening?
Clare
I have had a Direct Message from Sainsbury’s via Twitter. They had clearly read the article. I don’t know if any of the other Supermarkets have read it though.
You make an interesting point about the number of people we follow, but it’s not from a lack of wanting to engage.
It’s true that we don’t make a big use of ‘following’. Instead we constantly watch for references to Asda or issues that we and our customers are interested in and look for opportunities to join conversations or engage directly with people where it’s appropriate.
If someone has a very specific issue that we need to deal with our @asdaserviceteam (our Twitter team in customer relations) get into a direct conversation.
If we pick up on issues of broader interest we do like to deal with these using the @asda Twitter account and, where relevant, discuss them in more detail on one of our blogs (Your Asda http://your.asda.com and Aisle Spy http://aislespyblog.asda.com). For example when we spotted an urban myth about a child abduction spreading like wildfire on Twitter we jumped in to calm people down and pointed them to our blog http://bit.ly/92AnAP where we could show it was a hoax story. This quickly reversed the nature of the tweets and retweets to the point where the bulk of the discussion was about stopping people spreading hoax rumours. So we’re watching and engaging with discussions right across Twitter, not just amongst a smaller group of followers.
We’re also constantly debating our “following” policy within Asda. Our view is that “twit-tapping” people is a bit like tapping someone on the shoulder in the pub simply because you overheard them talking about your brand.
We reckon that most people appreciate when we pick up on something that’s relevant to both us and them, but are less happy about Asda watching their every move and gate-crashing their “private” conversations - albeit that they are having them in public.
Never say never though. The time may come where we want to follow more people. Let’s wait and see.
@dom_asdapr
Hi Katharine - great analysis and I thoroughly enjoyed our ‘tweet-fest’ the other day on this topic.
I can understand a national companies reluctance to engage customers on a one-to-one basis but I think this is where the smaller company will win.
We love to engage customers directly - it really does show a human side to a company - especially those that only have an online presence like us.
Regards - Jonathan
@fabphotogifts on twitter.