Integrating Into the Community and Keeping Social Media Fun
Integrating Into the Community and Keeping Social Media Fun
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In this week's discussion, Emily chats with Hannah Kirkpatrick, Social Media Manager at Fareway Stores Inc., a Midwest grocer with 139 stores across seven states. Hannah dives into local marketing strategies and the power of influencer marketing. Discover how Fareway utilizes store-specific content and collaborates with micro-influencers to create engaging campaigns. Plus Fareway isn’t afraid to have a little fun on social media! Tune in to hear how Fareway is generating excitement for new store openings and fostering community engagement through social media.
TUNE IN FOR TOPICS LIKE:
1:15 Hannah’s career journey & landing the role at Fareway
2:11 A day in the life of a social media manager
3:33 Store specific marketing vs. overall brand marketing
6:23 Integrating influencers into your marketing strategy
9:09 The different types of influencers Fareway works with
12:15 Misconceptions in the influencer marketing space
15:35 Strategies for marketing store expansions
19:20 Marketing trends Hannah’s excited about for 2024
21:47 What’s up next for Fareway
Listen to this week’s Local Marketing School conversation!
Other episodes you'll enjoy if you enjoyed Hannah’s episode:
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This podcast is produced by Hummingbirds. Learn more about Hummingbirds at hummingbirds.com
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Emily Steele (00:14)
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of local marketing school. I'm Emily Steele your host of the show and I'm so excited today to bring you Hannah Kirkpatrick She's a social media manager at Fareway I'm super excited to because she's a hummingbird and you know, this is a podcast produced by Hummingbirds So she has like really cool experience as being part of our community and also doing really really cool stuff at Fareway so we wanted to bring her onto the show and talk about the local marketing strategy. She's doing some cool stuff within Fareway to move the needle for the grocery store. So Hannah, welcome to the show.
Hannah Kirkpatrick (00:46)
Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
Emily Steele (00:49)
Yes, it's always fun to do the pre -interview chat and we're just so excited. You can see it's a video. Look how cool her sweatshirt is. I'm like, how do I get one of these? Fun, fun, fun. Okay, let's talk about you. Tell me about your background and how you eventually landed at Fareway.
Hannah Kirkpatrick (01:07)
So it's kind of very stroke of luck how I landed at Fareway, honestly. So I graduated from the University of Iowa in 2020, so peak COVID in May. I double majored in journalism and mass communication as well as sport recreation and management. So I was kind of in the sport media field for a while and I worked in the athletic communications department at Iowa and I loved that. But then, you know, COVID hit. I didn't even walk at graduation. We did a fun little virtual thing. So yeah, kind of landed a job somewhere else and was really kind of wanting to get back in media and social media. And you know, it's it's all about connections. And kind of who you know, so a job opened up at Fareway and I applied for it and they seem to have liked me enough. So I got a job at Fareway started there in May of 2021. And I've been there about three years now. So yeah, little different than sports, but it's it's fun. I never thought I would be in the position I am for a grocery store, but I love it.
Emily Steele (02:07)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, okay social media manager. What is this? What does this entail day today?
Hannah Kirkpatrick (02:14)
Yeah, so I wear a lot of hats. Being a social media manager doesn't quite just get pinpointed down to social media. But ultimately, I have a hand in our corporate social media pages, you know, everything from Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok, X now, all of those good things, as well as the stores' social pages. So all 139 of our stores have a Facebook. So...
Emily Steele (02:37)
Whoa. Okay.
Hannah Kirkpatrick (02:40)
And then a good handful of them have their own Instagram accounts, but we mostly make sure that their Facebook is running okay and smooth. So I get to oversee that. And then as far as the other hats I get to wear, we do a lot on our website, as well as our in-store signage. So we do have monitors in store that we put some graphics and fun stuff on. Our Cart to Kitchen series, work with our dietitians a lot for things like that, the recipe development, promotions of new products and vendors and then as well as like, you know, our influencer marketing. so just a lot of, a lot of fun hats all around. I kind of have a toe in everything, but it's a lot of fun.
Emily Steele (03:12)
Hmm?
Yeah, yeah, I was like, this sounds like more than social media. But like that is the nature of a lot of marketing positions, right? Like, you just get your hands on a lot of things because everything is calm. Like, how do you talk about things? Where do you talk about them? So it's a natural, natural thing to happen, right? So I'd love to, I love to understand a little bit more about like store specific marketing versus like brand marketing, like about the grocery store in general, like how do you think about how do you think about that?
Hannah Kirkpatrick (03:31)
So what we always tell the stores is they're the local store, right? So just kind of, you know, if I kind of want to bring it back to the hummingbirds, like they're local, like you want to see what your businesses are up to. So they're following our people from their communities. We tell them, make it fun, showcase your employees, let people of the community see your people and what you're doing in your store specific.
Hannah Kirkpatrick (04:09)
We do, from the corporate side, auto post a couple things there. If we have some new product pushes or sale items that we want to get out to the stores, like we will put those out. But ultimately we just kind of, you know, leave it to them and try to give them all the tools that they can to be as creative and fun for their pages. And it's really fun. Like I said, we have 139 stores and it's great to see how they're all kind of different from each other with what they decide to post and their messaging and everything. So we have some stores that have a lot of high school workers and they're very, their page is almost very Gen Z. Like they're on the TikTok trend, they're doing the lip syncing stuff. So that's really fun to see. And then sometimes it's a little traditional. You have someone just holding up a new product and they'll make fun names of it. Like what's new Wednesday or like our meat counters are selling point for our stores. We have the famous meat counters. So if they do like Meat Mondays or something and they just showcase an item from the meat counter. So yeah, we leave it to them and it's very personalized down, like niche down to their store and their community. So, yeah.
Emily Steele (05:11)
Okay, so if I'm running like a specific location, I'm looking at like a store manager, like looking at opportunities to get people into the store from a social presence. And then are they thinking about other strategies as well? Are they more looking to you for that kind of awareness piece?
Hannah Kirkpatrick (05:29)
So a little bit of both. If they want some help on things or if they don't quite know how to word something or they have an idea for say like a giveaway or a big store drawing that they kind of want to bring more people in and get some more traction on their pages, they'll reach out to us for some help. But a lot of them mostly, they've been doing this for a while now. So they kind of got that stuff down pat. Yeah. And they have a lot of fun with it too.
Emily Steele (05:31)
That's awesome. I was like that. Yeah. And just like the creativity that can happen when you're just surrounded by like a lot of fellow employees and like a fun environment with like a ton of food and like new things. Like I feel like it's endless opportunity, right? Yeah.
Hannah Kirkpatrick (06:04)
Yes, absolutely. There's so many, it's not niche down to a certain product. You know, it's a lot of different products. It's produce, it's boxed stuff, it's our meat counter. So, a lot you can choose from to make some fun content with.
Emily Steele (06:17)
Yeah, I love it. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about integrating influencers. I feel like this has been something I've been doing for a while and I would love to hear how you thought about it because a strategy to drive kind of that geo behavior and also like awareness maybe regionally.
Hannah Kirkpatrick (06:36)
Yeah. And influencer marketing is one of the things that our social team has just loved since we've implemented it. I think this is about our third year now doing influencer marketing. And it's just, it's truly been great for us as far as a UGC standpoint too, because we are a very small social team too. I don't know if I mentioned that earlier, but for 139 stores and being Fareway, we're in seven states. Like we have three people truly on our social team. So We do a lot. So this is just kind of an extension of us, our team as well, is how we view influencer marketing. They can help us get the message across. They have the tools to create beautiful content, great content that we might not always be able to get to a store and make ourselves. So that's really been a game changer for us. And then just kind of growing the name of Fareway you know, using them to just kind of, kind of like name dropping. That's kind of what influencing is, right? It's just you're dropping your favorite places to go. So that's been really fun for us just seeing how these influencers have truly made Fareway more prominent on the map.
Emily Steele (07:44)
that's super cool. And you're looking at it as like from the sports kind of way of working with people to like local people to micro influencers. How are you thinking about like the categories of people? I know it's also new to some curious how you're navigating that.
Hannah Kirkpatrick (08:00)
Yeah, so we first started with a third party agency to kind of get some influencers kind of manage that through them. Because when we started this, we were actually just a two person team. So that was a lot. So we did that third party agency. And, and that was, that was really fun. You know, we got some influencers that had quite a few or a big following. And they just, they did really great. But then it was how can we expand this and kind of build from here, do we take a step back? So it was fun. I believe we're about a little shy of a year and with working with the hummingbirds and it was just eyeopening for us to see how different tiers of influencer marketing there are and how we can utilize that to, for our message too.
Emily Steele (08:34)
Yeah, yeah, it's interesting just to think about like how can someone make an impact like broadly across like a certain category versus you know, like someone who's really good at making meals and maybe is more known as like a blogger like has a ton of value for a Fareway. It extends maybe beyond like just Midwest or the areas like the stores are in but it's still like really really impactful, right?
Hannah Kirkpatrick (09:11)
Yeah, absolutely. And we always choose our, like when we pick influencers to work with, we always make sure they have a Fareway store nearby that they can shop at. But as far as like the categories and everything, we work with, we call them mommy bloggers, you know, just moms that you and I are moms. So like, how are we making the best out of our grocery trips for our family? Like, what all are we getting? What are our favorite products that we feed our family? as well as recipe developers. so people who love cooking, people who love grilling, like I said, our meat counter, it's what we're famous for. So kind of showcasing how people can throw a new cut of meat on their grill and feed a whole family with that. and different things too, like we have online shopping. So if we want, you know, to run a campaign over our online shopping and how quick and convenient that is, we can do that too. So it's just really fun. And then we kind of put the creativity in the influencer's hands, obviously, and just love what they come up with.
Emily Steele (10:05)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, I was like, are there any examples that have like come to mind over the past couple, three years or so that you're like, my gosh, this was so cool. I didn't expect this, but like delighted by the experience.
Hannah Kirkpatrick (10:18)
Yeah, I mean, being in this for three years, you have some of your favorite influencers that you're just like, love working with them. They always just knock it out of the park. We work with a couple bigger influencers that are in Des Moines and then Minnesota that are personally some of my favorites. And they just, it's beautiful. This one girl works with produce mostly exclusively, and it's just all bright and colorful and it's just gorgeous.
Emily Steele (10:23)
Just happy.
Hannah Kirkpatrick (10:48)
And then the other one, homeschools are kids, like does a lot of fun niche, like outdoorsy crafts and baking and things like that all the time. And her stuff is just beautiful too. So yeah, it's hard, it's hard to like not, but you just, you have to have a favorite every now and then. It's just, you know, you know who does great work for you. And it's just, those are the ones you can go back to. And then that's how you also build your loyal influencers and like your loyal customers out of them too.
Emily Steele (11:18)
Yeah, there's just such a reciprocity, right? When you're working with creators, influencers, and you're choosing them, like they're going to choose you as like, it's just that world. It's been so fascinating to witness that just from the kind of hummingbird side of like, if a brand chooses them, they want to come back and like be a loyal customer because like being selected by a brand is such an honor. So it's fascinating to witness that like psychology of like working with people, you know?
Hannah Kirkpatrick (11:22)
Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, there are some of the hummingbirds from that campaigns. You know, I think we have our regulars too. And when I see their name, like, they tagged you in this post or they invited you to collaborate on this post with them. It's like, of course they did because why wouldn't they get chosen again? Because they do such a great job just promoting Fareway to their audiences.
Emily Steele (11:52)
just so loyal. Love that. And do you like misconceptions that, you know, the influencer marketing space has, like you've seen or experienced?
Hannah Kirkpatrick (12:09)
I would say it's just that with influencer marketing, I think people always think of influencers as the ones that have 600,000 plus followers. Like you can't be an influencer if you don't have a large following, which is not true. As you know, you don't need to have a large audience to promote your favorite products or your favorite services, stores, things you do with your family or just yourself and your friends. So I think that's just been kind of, not mind blowing, but just kind of a revelation in the industry that you don't have to spend X amount of money on an influencer to get your messaging across when there are other people out there that can do it for, and just make us great quality content.
Emily Steele (12:52)
Yeah, yeah, it's just changed so rapidly too. Because we went from like celebrity endorsements to influencers and then we had to define what influencers were very quickly and it's like, well, is it Kim Kardashian or is it other people? It's like, well, it's Kim Kardashian and it's other people. But like, how do you go about compensating people and like do you compensate them as it perks, you know, it's like just rapidly changing all the time.
Hannah Kirkpatrick (13:22)
Right, and exactly to your point, it's always changing. So like the celebrity endorsements, you know, sometimes I almost look at those as more entertainment than it's, I see Shaq is in another commercial, so I'm gonna go buy Icy Hot. It's just more so like, hey, Shaq is promoting Icy Hot, you know? So I think they kind of almost get that rep as well as influencers, you know, people you see a lot of already, then you're just kind of like, it's more so entertaining and seeing them again. You might like them, sure and you might be influenced by them every now and then, but I think you see him, it's just like, yes, she does, this is what she does, or this is what he does. But then, yeah, it's kind of just tiers down. Like you kind of want to see from people you maybe don't see enough of at some point. I guess that's just personally how I think sometimes. I think it just kind of, it's ever shifting. So at what point, yeah.
Emily Steele (14:05)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, it is wild to just have those perceptions. I'm like Jennifer Aniston promoting anything I'm like that one like she's just made big bucks and that's like what she does and that's her life like but it doesn't feel like just because You know, this is promoted. That's like the thing I need to buy. It's just interesting how over time that just like Doesn't sway consumers as much as it did in the beginning, you know
Hannah Kirkpatrick (14:31)
Yeah, and there's no saying that it doesn't like there might be people like die -hard Jen Aniston fans who are like I have to have this so You know it does work and it does if anything it promotes your brand as well like that uber eats commercial They did for the Super Bowl. I personally love that commercial so much and yeah, it might influence me to use uber eats more, but Yeah, just kind of Yeah
Emily Steele (14:49)
What are you gonna be like? Yeah, what are you gonna ubereats? It's like inspire me. What do I need to get?
Hannah Kirkpatrick (15:10)
Yeah, it's finally apparently I can get anything now.
Emily Steele (15:12)
I love that. Okay, what I really excited to dig into so like anyone listening kind of maybe a fellow like grocery store folks or like people with retail and they're trying to get people foot traffic you obviously have opened stores like this is what we do right as you expand are there any social strategies or like Grand opening or opening the doors for the first time getting people in anything that's like working that could inspire listeners to give it give a try.
Hannah Kirkpatrick (15:15)
Yeah, I think the big thing is just, you know, we try to build excitement. You know, we try to, if we can, if it's applicable, we kind of tease it, you know, try to get people listening and wanting to, you know, well, what's Fareway up to where is the next store going to be? So kind of creating a little bit of buzz about that. And then just when we announced the new store. So I think this summer we're opening a store in Hull, Iowa, a very small town, just kind of generating excitement for that. So along the store level as well as corporate too. So just what we tell them is just create some content, like give them updates. You know, you're again, it's localized to your community. So, you know, show them some updates of their store being built, give them some little tidbits about what is going to be in your store and some things they can find. We always love to do some giveaways or just some perks, promotional perks to the community too. So if they come in, whether it's like mailers that they can get $5 off their grocery order or an online shopping coupon code that kind of gets them into the door. Just those things to kind of get them excited. I think generally Fareway has stuck to the small town values too. So like I said, Hull is a very small town. So they're pumped to have a Fareway store, a full service grocery store in their town. So it's just, how can we really feed into that and just make this experience the best for the community of Hull? total and this is how we're going to do it. And then we always open, I think we usually open on a Wednesday, but that Tuesday we host like a VIP night. People can still come in and shop, but we do a big ribbon cutting ceremony. And that's fun. We always go live on Facebook and people of the community talk, mayors and people from the Iowa Grocers Association, as well as our CEO, Reynolds Kramer will come in and talk. And I think that kind of just really fuels the fire and gets people in the door the next day on the true opening date.
Emily Steele (17:35)
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure too, like it's easier to get some of that like PR buzz media when you're doing like such a big and these small towns that maybe like haven't experienced having like a grocery store like a Fareway before. So is that true too? Do you get some good media buzz that way?
Hannah Kirkpatrick (17:51)
Yeah, absolutely. And I think, yeah, the more, especially with groundbreakings, like when we do that, when we first start construction, like groundbreakings are huge. I think, yeah, just, yeah, small towns, they get so excited about it. So they want to bring the media in as well, because it's like, this is news. Like this is newsworthy, like get this on the news. So that's, that's always fun to just see the community show out, media show out, and just everyone at Fareway come together to open a new store and really get it off the ground. Plus the new stores are so pretty, in my opinion. They've got, everything's new, all the shelves are faced perfectly and it's fun. It's fun to be in there. So.
Emily Steele (18:30)
Yes. huh. Yeah, who doesn't like a new store and like just the buzz? I'm sure there's a lot of camaraderie internally too, because like watching something, bringing something to life is so, it brings us together, right? Yeah.
Hannah Kirkpatrick (18:39)
Yes. Yeah. Especially as I've been working, like I work out of the corporate office in Boone. So we'll work with the supervisors as well as some of the store managers and employees and the meat coordinators to try to get everything off the ground on social too and create the buzz. So it's yeah, fun to come together in the store and just like, wow, look at this. Like we're here. We've made it from announcing it on social media, it's opening the store. It's, it's, it's really fun. Yeah.
Emily Steele (18:55)
That's awesome. Any other like marketing strategies or anything that you feel like maybe is like even more relevant in 2024 that your team is excited about, like that you can share without, you know, telling us like your secret sauce or anything.
Hannah Kirkpatrick (19:23)
I just think just trying to make it fun. I don't know how to say that in a way that like is super corporate marketing lingo, but we just try to make it fun. You know, social media is a place to have fun. You do want to get your message across, but how can we do that in a way that engages everyone of all target audiences? You know, because we are a grocery store. Like we don't just, we're not a Gen Z product. We're not catering to, you know, the older generation. It's... how can we market groceries and meat and produce to everyone? And it's really fun because like I said, we wear a lot of hats, but like those hats allow us to do different things and to try new things. So it's just not really a strategy, I guess, but it's just, we get to do a lot of fun things, whether it's videos, lip syncing videos, we have a mascot that we can use. It's like, how do we implement this mascot to really drive what we're trying to accomplish here? So yeah.
Emily Steele (20:04)
I have, yeah.
Hannah Kirkpatrick (20:21)
I don't know if that really answered your question, but I'm just like, it's just, it's fun. It's just kind of breaking free from kind of that tradition, social media, and even like being Fareway, it was, you know, the sale item. What's the price of this this week? What's the price of that next week? Is there a monthly price? We still tailor to that, but it's how do we do that? That's fun. And it's not just black and white. This is the item. This is the price. So.
Emily Steele (20:36)
Yeah, yeah, like you're definitely going to have consumers that are like, I want to know like when something is reduced in price and like if I can get a deal. But you're also like catering some of the people who like want to build a relationship with the places they shop and like when they feel that sense of connection based on fun or like, you know, you say lip syncing and I'm like, when I was in elementary school, I won two competitions in my hometown. Like I am a lip syncing superstar. And so now I'm like, you know, this is cool. I'm like, how do I how do I get into a video?
Hannah Kirkpatrick (20:52)
Yes, not that that lip syncing is our number one marketing strategy, but it's just, it's something fun to, you know, you're on Tik Tok just like the rest of us, you know, so what, what's the fun lip syncing thing or a cap cut edit? Like, is there a way we can use this to, for a Fareway to kind of get ourselves some recognition on this platform? And then it's also per platform, you know, what you're posting to Facebook isn't what you're posting to Instagram and everything else either. So it's just keeping the message the same, but also tailoring it to those different audiences and platforms.
Emily Steele (21:45)
Yeah, totally, totally. I love it. Anything like coming up with Fareway that you're excited about or could share with us or anything we don't know about Fareway yet in the conversation that listeners can learn.
Hannah Kirkpatrick (21:59)
I think it's safe to say, you know, Fareway, we're looking to expand. I mean, we're already in seven states across the Midwest, but I think it's just, we want to get out there. We want to be in your city. We want to bring you groceries. So I think that's exciting just because we keep opening stores here and there. Like we've got smaller store or cities getting stores. So I think we have Hull, like Story City, Granger, Iowa are getting stores and then we're...Yeah, I know that'll be exciting. That's close to my hometown. I live in Madrid, so.
Emily Steele (22:34)
Okay, yeah, you're like, thanks friends, come close.
Hannah Kirkpatrick (22:37)
So yeah, thanks friends. But yeah, so that's right there and that's fun as well as we announced the store in Kansas and one, I believe, over in Nebraska. So it's just for expanding. And what's exciting for us is the more we expand to the different, you know, target audiences and geographic locations that we can get in and tap into. So yeah, it's just fun. We can work with more people. We can work with more hummingbirds. We can work with more local vendors and everything like that. So that's a lot of fun for us.
Emily Steele (23:10)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, that's incredible. I'm a big fan of Fareway. My dad's a big fan of Fareway. I've been shopping Fareway since I was a kid. You know, it's like I grew up in Pella. We've had a Fareway there. Like, I just, like, my heart is so loyal to Fareway in so many ways, just from like that. Like, I'm sure you have a lot of those types of customers who have just been shopping with Fareway forever, you know? It's so special.
Hannah Kirkpatrick (23:19)
I love our brand loyalists. They never cease to amaze me. And so, you know, we manage our inbox and everything. You DM us on Instagram, like we're gonna see it. But I love, you know, a lot of people wanna talk if there's something wrong with what they got. Maybe we don't include this. But anyway, you'll have the people who want to say that they love Fareway or they had such a great experience again or so -and -so at this Fareway was so pleasant to talk to us. And when they walked our groceries out, they did this and they went the extra mile. So it's just, it's really fun to see those stories from people.
Emily Steele (24:03)
Yeah. that would be really special to get those. Yeah, I feel like every once in a while too. Like I get those in my inbox and like, thank you for saying that. Thank you for taking the time to share the good because I feel like it's natural for consumers and people to be like, here's what I want to be better or different or change. But to be like, I liked that. Thank you for that. Like yesterday I was like, I loved a business and I went and left a Google review because I was like, I don't always think to do that right away, but like that's going to impact that business over time. And like doing these small things like can, can really impact a company like even a big Fareway, right? A bigger.
Hannah Kirkpatrick (24:31)
absolutely. Yeah, good reviews are always, yeah, they're great for everyone, no matter if it's Fareway, if it's a bigger entity, if it's a small business, like those always like they're thankful for that, you know, so I think it's, yeah, it's really good to hear the good. So.
Emily Steele (24:51)
Yes, so we love Fareway the call to action apparently is to leave a great review or send a really nice message to Hannah over instagram I love it Well, this has been so fun to just learn more about you and Fareway and what you guys are working on If people haven't been to Fareway, obviously like call to action is to visit a Fareway and share You know what their experience was, but how can people plug in and and learn more online?
Hannah Kirkpatrick (25:40)
absolutely. So if they want to learn more about Fareway, they can absolutely visit our website, which is Fareway.com. Really simple. Our whole, the whole life story of Fareway is there. But if you want to follow us on social media, you know, you can find us under @farewaystores on pretty much any platform. Yeah, just connect with us that way. I think we have quite a diverse range of content, you know, that's just kind of something for everyone too. So if you're wanting recipes, if you want some background info on Fareway. You'd still want to see what's on sale this week. So, and then your local store will also have their own Facebook page. So reach out, reach out to them. So yes, they would appreciate that too.
Emily Steele (26:14)
So great. Cool. I love it. Well, thanks for being on Local Marketing School today. It was so fun to have you, Hannah.
Hannah Kirkpatrick (26:23)
Yes, thank you so much for having me. This has been a blast.
