In order to use social media to help build a successful company, you have to use every social media platform available, post several times a day, and invest in expensive social media tracking software, right? Not really, according to Adrian Reif of the rapidly growing Yumbutter food company based in Madison.

Yumbutter – a socially conscious maker of nutbutters – uses Facebook, Mailchimp, Twitter, Instragram (“just for fun”), and Kickstarter, and that’s about it, Adrian said Wednesday (August 20, 2014) in a presentation at the August Social Media Breakfast Madison event at the Best Western InnTowner. And, right now anyway, they are posting to Twitter about, oh, once a week.

But don’t get the wrong impression. Yumbutter’s social media presence is a big part of its business success.

Yumbutter is a rapidly growing company but still a small one and must be selective and efficient in everything it does, including its social media efforts, Adrian said.

“That’s how we’re staying very focused and streamlined,”Adrian said. “And it helps to have bad@ss fans.”

Bad@ss fans? Yes, nothing is better than getting your fans to spread the word about your product through social media. Like Samuel Greene, pictured to the right displaying his YumbutterGo as he rides from Washington state to Glacier National Park interviewing people about climate change. “We’re happy YumbutterGO can be fueling this passionate endeavor,” Adrian wrote on his Facebook post.

And, speaking of bad@ss fans Adrian took advantage of an opportunity by appealing to his new friends at Social Media Breakfast Madison, asking them to help spread the word about Yumbutter’s “mouth-rocking, world-changing nut butters,” which are showing up in stores throughout the country but concentrated in certain areas, especially in the upper Midwest and East Coast. As part of his Grassroots Challenge, Adrian asked the audience to help him tap into the power of social networks by:

1. Going to the the Yumbutter website and clicking on the store locator.
2. Asking yourself, “Who do I know in one of these locations?”
3. Spreading the word through social media, targeting friends in those locations.
4. Emailing Adrian@yumbutter.com with a story about your efforts and, hopefully, successes.

Adrian knows how to promote his unique products and target audiences. He and his partner Matt D’Amour have built a brand that is not just about great tasting nut butters but about “holitistic responsibility” to the planet and the people who live on it, as outlined in their GOGSS approach:

1. CRAFT food that’s clean, fun and fair (everyone is treated responsibly and with love)
2. OPENLY share about Holistic Health
3. GROW compassion through supply chain
4. SUPPORT organic farmers and responsible companies
5. SUSTAIN a positive financial return, and use it to do more good.

In fact, Adrian asked the audience to use #NurishTheWorld during his presentation.

A business like that – which Adrian says is “disrupting the nut butter industry” – has very dedicated customers and ones that are willing to spread the message on social media, especially their communities on Facebook. Adrian said for Yumbutter, Facebook is more about connecting with those dedicated fans who have already discovered and love the company than it is about generating new customers. He posts “fun, cool stuff,” like recipes, photos of food, pictures of people eating Yumbutter and even artistic photos of Yumbutter packages on store shelves, as well as big announcements like the launch of YumbutterGo last spring.

Adrian confessed that he hasn’t delved heavily into Twitter yet but is using it for trade shows and events, such as the Social Media Breakfast.

Probably Yumbutter’s most successful social media endeavors have been on Kickstarter, where the company raised more than $20,000 to help launch YumbutterGo, packets of Yumbutter that can be easily transported and eaten directly from the package or squeezed onto other food items.

A successful Kickstarter campaign takes a lot of planning, preparation, engagement and follow-up, Adrian said. People did not just find the campaign, he said; he and his colleagues aggressively used social media, email and personal connections (“social reality”) to promote the campaign and drive people to it. Sometimes that involved a lot of follow-up messages and words of encouragement.

“We were hustling to get people to this (Kickstarter) page,” he said.

Adrian also said a very successful element of the campaign was the website landing page (pictured right), where they made it very clear what actions people could take to support the cause. And when it was all over, they produced an entertaining thank-you video that involved making snow angels.

In the end, it was well worth it as the YumbutterGo campaign was the second-highest grossing food project ever launched on Kickstarter from Wisconsin.

You might say Yumbutter’s recipe for successful social media is a lot of enthusiasm, a tad bit of aggressiveness, a sprinkle of sophistication and a little bit of down-home common sense.

Asked what software he uses to manage and track his social media, Adrian took the microphone he was holding and tapped his head. “That’s it,” he said.

Written by Bill Hurley, (@billhurleymedia / billhurleymedia.com ) Editor, writer, social media strategist, website developer, digital publisher.  BillHurleyMail@gmail.com, Bill@smbmad.org.

Photos by Bob Wydra:

Video by Jeffrey Powers at Geekazine.com

Adrian’s Presentation:

After Yumbutter’s Adrian Reif finished, a group went poolside at the BEST WESTERN PLUS InnTowner and The Highland Club to help Rowan Childs take the Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) #icebucketchallenge. Tony from SMB and Adrian shared in this moment.

Social Media Bonus: Why the ice bucket challenge is a watershed moment for Facebook

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