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From the very beginning, Innocent was a social brand. They successfully engaged Joe McEwan, the speaker at this London Business Forum (LBF) event, and inspired him to work for them when he was at university. Now Joe is their communities manager, responsible for everything Innocent say and do across social media channels.

Back at university and like most students, Joe’s housemate Ian didn’t eat much fruit and veg. Ian’s Mum, Sue, was very worried about this so when he came home she would make sure her fridge was full of Innocent smoothies as it was the only way she could get Ian to have something healthy.

Sue penned a poem about this and sent it to Innocent. Not long after, a whole crate of smoothies landed on Joe and Ian’s doorstep with a note from Innocent that read, “Your Mum writes a lovely poem.” The people at Innocent go out of their way to connect with their customers and that is why Joe went to work for them as a people’s champion, he told the LBF.

To Joe, social media encompasses more than just the obvious brands that are associated with the term, such as Twitter and Facebook. “Think of it as communicating to people across different platforms,” he said. For example, Innocent’s first form of social media was their packaging. “It gave us the space to start talking to people in our own way,” he explained. The important thing for innocent was to establish a “natural, honest, engaging tone” through which to communicate with their customers, said McEwan.

Despite all the digital platforms for communication, McEwan insisted, “there’s no better way to break down the barrier between a brand and it’s consumers than getting out there and meeting people.” This is something that Innocent have always sought to do. They created Fruitstock, Innocent’s very own festival in Regent’s Park, which attracted 160,000 people one year. They’ve since scaled this back and now have Innocent’s Village Fête.

These events involve everyone that works for Innocent and therefore provide a valuable opportunity for employees and customers to interact. Feedback from these events, said McEwan, is overwhelmingly positive, “people really appreciated actually being able to meet the people that work for Innocent.” This feedback also led to the creation of their AGM, “Annual Grownup Meeting” so they could build upon this and better listen to their customers.

Innocent’s social media philosophy, McEwan told the LBF, is Fooeey or F.H.U.I – Funny, Heart-warming, Useful, Interesting. Everything they do to connect with people must fall into one of these categories. This has particular relevance for platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. “It doesn’t matter how any fans you have on Facebook. If those fans aren’t engaging with you, you slip out of their newsfeed,” he warned.

That’s not to say that Innocent don’t talk about themselves on these platforms, said McEwan. What they don’t want to do is bore people, or “chuck the hard sale down their [the consumer’s] throat.” Innocent will link back to things that they want people to know about, such as that they are the official smoothie for London 2012, but they remind their followers or fans with related content which links back to the Games section of their website. It’s about prolonging the conversation “in a way that doesn’t bore them to death,” said McEwan.

Mixed in with this content, McEwan explained that they will also share “random stories, random pictures and random links,” because they believe that communicating in this way is popular with their followers. What is most important, McEwan emphasised, is that you don’t ask for “likes” or “retweets”: “If your content is good enough, people are going to ‘like’ or comment on it, or want to share it with their friends.”

Communication is a two-way thing, suggested McEwan. “Talking is good, listening is much better,” he told the LBF. This may take effort but the feedback can prove invaluable. They created a banana-free smoothie as a result of listening to their customers. Similarly, they adjusted the recipe for their Thai Vegpot and have seen a significant improvement to that product’s ratings.

What did they do to all the customers who gave this constructive feedback? They sent them handwritten cards, said McEwan, to thank them and tell them about the changes the company have made as a result. “Never underestimate the power of a handwritten card,” McEwan told the LBF, “handwritten stuff is really powerful. People don’t expect a company, especially when it gets bigger, to do stuff like this.”

“Showing people that you’re listening is not always about big product changes,” McEwan continued. A customer called Kitty asked Innocent to draw a newt in a bra riding a rainbow in a thunderstorm at sea, so they did and you can see it here: http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/blog/2012/april/a-newt-in-a-bra. Innocent read everything they are sent, McEwan insisted, “We invest time in actually getting back to people with a personalised response.” It’s an opportunity to create a fan so don’t waste it was McEwan’s message.

Whilst McEwan admits it is hard to measure the direct impact that social media campaigns have on sales, it is all relatively new and the key is to try lots of little campaigns rather than one big idea in order to establish what works and what doesn’t. “Not every new bit of content that we put out there […] is a great success but by trying new things all the time, we’re learning all the time,” he explained.

Share things that you think are worth sharing, he urged. Companies are still experimenting with how to engage their consumers via these new platforms but McEwan believes that Innocent’s “healthy two way engagement with the people who buy their stuff” may go some way to explaining why there are at least three normal people out there with Innocent tattoos. These people are proof that Innocent’s natural, personalised approach is certainly creating some very dedicated fans!