Supermarkets court brand advocates via social media

Earlier this month, Sainsbury's gave independent blogger and self-styled consultant Steven Dresser a tour of one of its megastores, after he built up a Twitter reputation by repeatedly tweeting about new stores and developments at Morrisons. While he tweets about all the supermarkets, he is a self-confessed "Morrisons obsessive".

The official Sainsbury's Twitter account later tweeted a link to the analysis Dresser compiled following his tour of the store.

Sainsbury’s tweeted: "Good read: @Dresserman completes his epic, 2-part review of our Heaton XL store http://ow.ly/92G4j #UK #retail".

A shopper marketing source commented that it marked an interesting development in the industry, because "now anyone who goes into a supermarket and tweets a couple of pictures can be considered an analyst".

Sainsbury's puts great emphasis on its social media efforts and now boasts more than 357,000 likes on its Facebook page. 

It received a further brand boost from social media, when a letter it wrote to a three-year-old girl went viral after her mother posted it on her blog.

The letter resulted in the supermarket rebranding tiger bread as giraffe bread, after the three-year-old suggested the bread looked more like a giraffe.

Follow Matthew Chapman at @mattchapmanUK

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk