Food Retail Social Media Manager Interview: Amy Bailey with Festival Foods

By: Kelli Windsor, Manager for Member and Digital Communications, Food Marketing Institute

In Wisconsin, family-owned Festival Foods social media manager Amy Bailey prides herself on using  visual content for the company’s blog, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds, sharing the activities about their stores and communities. Amy provided information on the social media efforts at Festival Foods as well as some lessons the company is learning on that front.

What department do you sit in and who (title) do you report to?

Amy: As Festival Foods’ social media manager, I am part of the company’s Wellness and Communications Department. I report to Stephanie Schultz, Senior Director Wellness & Communications. My placement with this department may seem a bit unconventional, but working here puts me right alongside our team of registered dietitians. They are constantly handling questions about everything from nutrition data to diet restrictions to food trends. We know shoppers are increasingly looking for the kind of detail that this team provides and being on this team allows me to quickly and seamlessly collect information and provide it in an easy-to-understand way on our social media channels.

Share one lesson you’ve learned in managing social media.

Amy: Successful social media efforts come from telling good stories and providing compelling content. To give information and tell stories that resonate with social media audiences, I have worked with our teams in the stores, out on the farms and with our vendor partners. We know strong visuals, compelling videos and informative content perform well on social media platforms and the only way to provide those things is to get out there and get it. At Festival Foods, we’re really taking the “show, don’t tell” mantra to heart. We have ramped up our efforts to get beyond just saying we’ve got fresh produce. We show them rows of the corn, fields of peppers and lines of tomato plants. Those efforts have paid off in the past few months as we have seen an increase in our blog traffic by more than 200 percent from last year.

What’s your favorite social media platform?

Amy: I am really enjoying getting to know Periscope, the live broadcasting app owned by Twitter. I think this real-time video is a fun and different way to reach people who may shop our stores and have questions about particular foods, recipes or meal preparation. We have used it for everything from dispelling popular food myths to talking about new products to giving a tour of a newly opened Wine & Spirits Department. Generally speaking, video is a tool we’re trying to use more and more on a variety of platforms, including Twitter and Facebook, to better communicate information about the products in our stores and then what to do with them when they get them home.

What’s one social media tool you can’t live without?

Amy: Before coming to Festival Foods, I was a professional journalist for more than 15 years. Because of that, I have a deep affection for the real-time, minute-by-minute nature of Twitter. It has been a tough nut to crack for many in the retail world, but I think that challenge is why I like it so much. It is definitely a platform with a bit of an edge to it and I have found it to be a great way for our company to showcase some personality as well as a little wit. I love the challenge of finding just the right photo and coming up with just the right number of characters to develop a tweet strong enough to get people to click a link.

Do you manage your food retail organization’s social media and want to take part in the series? E-mail Kelli Windsor.