Matthew Melander

Hello,

I am the eSupport Manager for a Fortune 100 company, with the exciting job of creating an online communities and leading the engagement around our brands. Using the social space allows us to build real relationships with our customers that translate into sales. Our community has grown over the past two years from almost no fans to now over 700,000 fans of retail grocery stores. Let's be honest grocery is not exactly the most exciting topic to follow in social, but we have been able to make it fun and engaging. We now also have stores on Twitter along with our customer service and our corporate brands for a total of over 45 Twitter accounts! In addition to this we have an awesome blogger outreach program and are continuing to grow our social presence! My work in Social Media has even been featured in the Supermarket News, which is really exciting!

"Supervalu also used Twitter and Facebook to inform customers of closings at its Shaw's and Shoppers Food Warehouse locations, while one Shaw's manager in Peabody, Mass., tweeted some words of encouragement to potential shoppers: "We Are Open, we have plenty of water and plenty of ice and the bakery has lots of fresh baked sweets to help sweeten the day."

Read more: http://supermarketnews.com/retail_financial/social_media_storm_0829/#ixzz1WiNMOcwt

"Minneapolis-based Supervalu has recently assigned call center employees to monitor the Facebook pages of some of its retail banners and respond to queries and complaints as soon as they can"

Read more: http://supermarketnews.com/news/supervalu_facebook_1013/index.html#ixzz1WiN384st

I am very passionate about engaging and talking to, not at our customers. I believe in having open, honest, and productive conversations about our brands and products. This is the only true way to really earn your place in social media and more importantly with your customers.