Join me this week on All The Social Ladies as I speak with Lauren Salazar who is currently the Director of Social Media at Weight Watchers. She oversees all aspects of Weight Watchers Social Media and you'll learn how she grew through the company to take on all of these responsibilities. You're going to hear incredible things about Weight Watchers' approach to content and how they use their community to help get their message out.
Key Topics
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The Story of Lauren's Career
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Evaluating The Success of Social Programs
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The Value of Word of Mouth
Key Answers
How has social media evolved for Weight Watchers?
"I think social media is an inherent part of our company's DNA - I like to say that we were born social. The first Weight Watchers meeting was over 50 years ago in our founder's living room and it was women coming together to share their experiences around weight loss, and to support and connect with each other around this. Flash forward, and those experiences still happen today, but the way we live our lives and connect with each other is no longer in living rooms - it's in digital spaces and it's on social platforms. Our marketing tactics and our focus on where our members are engaged and spending time has shifted to keep up with that also. We want to connect our community around the shared experiences they are having and to showcase the power of our brand through them. The amount of time and investment that we've put into social media programs has grown exponentially, as a greater amount of our community's time is spent on these platforms."
How do you know when to get into a new network and what's right for the Weight Watchers community?
"We don't jump into any platform lightly, nor do we just rest on our laurels. The great thing about social platforms themselves is that as they evolve and mature, they're able to share a lot more from an analytics perspective and from a partnership support perspective. We've gotten some really great insights with deep relationships with the platforms themselves by understanding who's there, what they're there for and whether or not that's a good fit for our mission - which is "to help people live a healthy and happier life." When we invested in Pinterest, that was a strategic decision because we knew that people were going there to think about the future, what they want to eat, what they want to look like, want they want to buy, how they want to live and what they want to wear etc. For a brand like ours that's helping you achieve this best version of yourself - it was a natural fit from a platform investment standpoint. From a new and emerging platform standpoint, we ask "does this round out a portfolio of robust activity that we already have?" We're across six platforms right now and we go pretty deep on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest because that's where our members and prospective members are. There's still so much more potential that we have within those platforms."
Key Soundbites
- "I think social media is a big part of our company DNA. I like to say that we were born social."
- "It's critical for us to support our members; are we giving them content and ways to connect that they feel is valuable and supportive? This is ultimately the mission of our company."
- "The power of our community surprises me every day."
Resources
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Company Website: https://www.weightwatchers.com/us/
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Personal Twitter: @sassandglitter
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Company Twitter: @WeightWatchers
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Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenmsalazar
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Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/weight-watchers
Enjoy, and check back here for more episodes of the All the Social Ladies podcast on Social Media Today.
This article was originally published on Apple News: