Social Media for Business

Whole Foods appears to be a social media success story. They have an extremely active presence in social media. On twitter they have over 1.2 million followers and on Facebook more than 100,000 fans.there is no doubt that Whole Foods has benefited by its active presence in social media.recently unfortunately Whole Foods has seen a more negative example of the power and influence of consumers using social media.

John McKey, Whole Foods chief executive officer, voiced his opinion about Pres. Obama’s healthcare reform initiatives. His comments were published in the Wall Street Journal. In essence he was promoting the benefits of whole foods and claimed that by eating a healthier diet many thicknesses and diseases can be prevented. He was outspoken in announcing that the government should have any part in healthcare reforms.

His comments were controversial and upset some people. Whole foods experience with social media had been extremely positive in the promotion of their brand and online exposure. However this incident is demonstrating to whole foods another side of social media. John McKay’s comments were offensive to some people and a Facebook group was formed called Boycott Whole Foods. Within a week Boycott Whole Foods generated a Facebook following of over 22,000.

The Boycott Whole Foods group have created a blog, organize picketing events and is increasing its Facebook supporters by thousands every day. The group is encouraging people to spend their money elsewhere and the Facebook group is a place where community is forming with suggestions for resources for buying elsewhere.

This boycott has been totally driven by consumers through social media and has elicited a public response from Whole Foods that was shared last week by a Facebook note it reads as follows “first off, whether you agree with John or not, our 50,000+ team members who live and work in your communities will continue to work hard every day to bring you the best natural organic products available. We hope you will continue to give us the opportunity to serve you.”

Companies can no longer do and say whatever they like without repercussions.This incidence with Whole Foods shows the power that the ordinary person has to make a stand and gain support overunpopular actions of organizations that impact the bottom line. Would it be wise at this point for John Mackey to make an apology?