Social Media Crisis Management

November 18th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

With companies realizing the importance of being on social media, comes the interesting advent of poorly managed accounts.

Every digital marketer out there has their eyes on the prize: the metaphorical “gold pot” at the end of the digital marketing rainbow: virality.

With the quest for virality comes a delicate balancing game.  All too often, the best intentioned tweets or attempts at hashtag creation end disastrously.

For example, recent headlines highlighted JP Morgan’s attempt at using a Twitter hashtag #AskJPM to engage its followers in addition to its attempt at attracting student engagement.

 

However, this hashtag severely backfired…

JP Morgan has since cancelled their Twitter chat… and has yet to post anything else.

Source: Mashable

 

Having effective social media crisis management strategy in place is imperative for any company on social media.

Statistics show that those in the 18-34 age category are the most annoyed at slow responses from companies on social media. On Twitter, companies such as Hootsuite have developed a separate Twitter channel just for helping its customers and Translink actively respondes to customer tweets with helpful information.

 

Source : eMarketer 

 

It is important to realize that a company cannot possible please everyone on social media by responding to everything. Response in moderation and relevance is key to not getting swallowed up whole by the demands of the social public. Response however is necessary before having something spiral completely out of control.  Having a social media crisis management strategy in place is extremely important for companies in the ever evolving world of social media.

Another example that gained virality for unsightly reasons is the case of Amy’s Baking Company from Spring 2013 that stemmed from an episode of Kitchen Nightmares by Gordan Ramsey.

Responding to everyone and accusing people of sabatoging their business, Amy and Samy’s Facebook page was quite an unbelievable sight. In the world of social media, it is imperative to realize that whatever content that is posted is eternal–everything is recorded somewhere by some website or search engine online.

It is better to admit faults when faults happen and move fowards; people equally share about negative and positive experiences on social media so there is definteily room for recovery ( unless you continue to exacerbate the situation a la Amy’s Baking Company ).

 

Source: eMarketer

Changing user sentiment and ultimately moving forward will help rebuild a brand’s credibility in the eyes of the public. Having appropriate measures such as teaching all employees how to act and react online and offline are also key to maintaining a strong brand image. Detracting attention from company errors such as ill informed tweets or comments and accentuating positive things that the company has done, said by users across social media is also another way to diffuse the situation. Of course, this must be done when appropriate. It is again, a delicate balancing act between corporate goals, values and customer service. Choosing to reply or engage with users who have no intention to “let go” of a problem after it has been solved is not a smart way to go about doing things. Monitoring social media and the eSphere for conversations is also a key component of a successful social media strategy that brands must implement. Monitoring using Hootsuite is a good example of a way to identify potential risks as well as opportunities.

All in all…. social media mishaps are bound to happen. If a brand survives them …that is another story.

Brands must:

1) Choose their battles –> Do not respond to everything / everyone.. not everything can be solved via social media

2) Be authentic and own up to mistakes; apologies sometimes are not a quick fix to a problem, but can be a good first step for a company to mend its reputation both on and offline.

3) Mitigate risk by constant monitoring

4) Teach all employees the importance of social media etiquette and conduct, not just the ones that run SM accounts.

5) Carefully plan social media content by identifying potential pitfalls ( eg. #AskJPM) and ensure that nothing disastrous can result

 

Digital Influencers: A Powerful Tool for Brand Awareness & Equity

November 18th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

It pays to be a social media influencer. Literally. From companies endlessly sending samples to your doorstep and asking to do collaborations that reach thousands, having a large sphere of social influence is just as valuable as creating amazing content. Companies pay social media influencers to post about messages on social media networks to help extend reach and influence in a world where millions of messages are sent out frequently. There are a few classes of social media influencers such as celebrities, bloggers, and brand advocates.

Take for example this infographic on how much a celebrity influencer is paid to tweet

Source: Huffington Post Infographic

 

However, paying a social media influencer to write a sponsored post can seem quite tacky at times.. that’s where networks such as Klout come in handy.

Klout is a network that scores people based on social media influence and offers Klout Perks to those who qualify for them and fall within  targeted demographics of their client companies. The interesting thing about Klout is that the receivers of the Perks are not obligated to write about receiving these. However, since perks are free with influence and users must claim them. it seems to create a positive effect in which WOM is generated.  Some past Klout Perks have included Cadillac Test drive ( occured in 2012-early 2013), blog review of this on Eager Beaver Web Werx Blog  and many others such as a recent Samsung Note campaign at various US university campuses.

These Klout Perks aide in generating unique views and impressions and generally are quite successful at helping a brand grow awareness and equity in the ever changing social media space.

Here is a snapshot of what the Samsung Campaign looked like:

 

 

The power of utilizing bloggers to promote product launches is demonstrated greatly by the  success of brands such as Holt Renfrew utilizing the reach of influencer PS I made This aka Erica Domesek in a recent collaboration:

Bloggers generate buzz around a brand and help bridge the gap between a corporate entity and its customer base. Bloggers have built up a following of loyal readers who trust their opinions. It is common practice for savy shoppers to google reviews for a product such as nail polish before buying in store.

As much as social media is powered by the content, content creators who influence others cannot be ignored. There is definite opportunity for leveraging positive word of mouth through influencers  and it is important to realize with the myriad of automatic technologies, all readers still crave genuine human connection — whether it be through a honest review or recommendation through a tweet or Instagram post.

 

Snapchat: A Gamechanger for Brand & Consumer Interaction

October 16th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

While there are a variety of social media platforms widely used today, Snapchat being used for brands is relatively new. Snapchat is an app that enables users to send photos and videos that will disappear after a certain amount of time once clicked.  To view a Snapchat, users must physically touch the screens of their smartphones.

Brands are always looking for ways to engage and customize the experiences of its customers and the use of Snapchat to do so is innovative. Snapchat is yet another avenue that brands can use to personalize relationships with consumers.  To receive an exclusive Snapchat from the brand, users must first be friends with them. Taco Bell was one of the first to experiment with the Snapchat platform, urging its followers to friend them. An article in Techcrunch ( also ref. the Taco Bell & Snapchat), also points to the fact this could be an interesting platforms for ads. I agree with this–the extra step of having to touch the screen in order to watch and knowing that the message will disappear after 10 seconds is enough to keep most users’ curious enough to pay attention.

Recently, fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff chose to use Snapchat to give her loyal fans a preview of  5-10 pieces of her new collection :

Content consumption is part of our daily routine. I am extremely curious to see if more brands will start using Snapchat to further bridge the divide between company and consumer. Snapchat’s new introduction of it’s “Stories” platform allows for longer Snaps which makes it even more attractive for companies to engage in creating platform specific content for fans.

A yogurt company in New York called 16 Handles experimented with an idea : sending its friends a mystery coupon with discount ranging from 16%-100% after users sent it a Snap of them trying a flavour a location.  This has some caveats though, as the user must open the Snapchat and the cashier must scan it within 10 seconds, before the message self destructs.

I am extremely intrigued by this new platform for brand and consumer interaction –if Snapchat makes a way for brands to save these messages –perhaps they can use the UGC on other platforms such as Facebook.  All in all, Snapchat is a relatively new social media platform with possibilities that have not yet fully been explored. Snapchat enables brands to become more “friend” like with consumers in a way that is not possible through other social networks. I think this has great potential for strengthening brand equity and customer relationships.

The Power of Content Creation : Youtube

October 16th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

With the amount of content that is on the internet these days it is a tough feat to achieve ” virality” through views and shares.
Through harnessing the power of Youtube content creator Casey Neistat – Brands like Nike and Mercedes Benz have experimented with a different style of video to get people talking.

Nike #Makeitcount:

Amassing an astonishing 9.8Million views since it was first posted, this is what I would call a viral video success. Shooting a commercial with the pretense it is not a commercial and that they took Nike’s money and went on a trip around the world until it ran out is quite a clever way to reach out to Nike’s adventurous and fitness conscious consumers. Nike definitely reached out to the right person for an excellent end product that spoke to their consumers. Great, relevant content gets shared; virality is  just the cherry on top.

 

Mercedes recently also reached out to Casey Neistat resulting in a rather daring offbeat commercial for their CLA car.

Dubbed the Mercedes CLA project, a series of videos detailing the behind the scenes of the making of the commercial lead up to a final finished product.

Final Commercial:

Part 1 CLA Project

Part 2 CLA Project:

Part 3 CLA Project:

Verdict? I think this video series was great at crafting a story. Although the actual “commercial” definitely veers away from Mercedez Benz’s classy, elegant style, I think this is a great example of a brand trying, testing and listening and not being afraid to create interesting, thought provoking content. Difference sparks discussion.

Neistat’s style is journalistic, and at times raw–but this seems to resonate well with viewers as it gives more of an unbiased, daredevil experimental approach.

Ad spend trends are promising results too: advertisers are moving more dollars away from broadcast media to non traditional social video mediums such as Youtube.  Ad spend for digital is increasing; in the case of these examples above, it definitely makes sense. Youtube is free and brands do not need to pay to put videos up. The beauty of using an influencer who creates unique videos with a story telling aspect is that these videos have an “unlimited” worldwide reach and it is up to viewers to spread the videos around if they deem them worthy.

 

 

 

taken from eMarketer

Authentic Influence

September 29th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

With the rise of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook Instagram and Youtube, brands have realized that in order to survive they must literally “engage or die”.  However, most users feel that an accurate measure of influence is how big of a following these brands have. With the scramble for attracting followers, comes the rise of questionable businesses that satisfy this need: sites that allow for you to buy followers at cheap costs.

“Followers”

A common conversation I’ve noticed among people is the topic of how large of a following do you have? With brands this is the same; certain accounts amass 10,000+ followers to a million+  and I cannot help but wonder how many of those users are fake as it is very strange to see large jumps in follower base ( 10,000+ ) in a short period of time ( see  Mashable infographic below re: Mitt Romney)

Every now and then I have noticed fake profiles on social media such as Twitter and Instagram where the users basically are spamming other users with links that are usually linked to unauthorized downloads such as phising sites or in the case of Instagram, there are users with photos of  text that say some iteration of ” follow me to get 100, 000 k followers” or go to this website to go to to buy “real” followers.

Faking influence can prove dangerous as brand can run the risk of real users discovering their fake following and developing distrust for the brand. Brands that purchase fake followers may not reap rewards such as an increase in sales of product in real life or online, or any increase in real followers. The practice of fake followers is both unethical and risky to businesses, personalities and brands.

The Business of Fake Follower Generation

The fake follower / generation of the illusion of social influence has created quite a profitable business for the social media black market.

“According to the RSA, the security division of cloud computing company EMC, 1,000 Instagram “likes” cost marketers roughly $30, while 1,000 followers cost about $15. These packages of “likes” and followers are sold on Internet hacker forums — the same forums where hackers sell credit card data. For comparison, a batch of 1,000 credit card numbers cost just $6.” –Kurt Wagner, for Mashable .

These numbers alone are quite horrifying… social media influence is indeed extremely valuable as 1,000 likes costs more than 1000 credit card numbers.

However cheap building an assumed large following is, there is no replacement for an authentic fan base.

Authetic Influence

Authentic engagement creates authentic influence. Brands need to actively engage in conversations with real followers ( their social media managers should make sure they are not talking to fake social media accounts) to create a larger fan base. Authentic engagement allows for brands to create online personalities and interact with users in a real non robot like way. Social media was invented for the purpose of two way conversations and its ability for consumer engagement should be harnessed. Brands that just tweet or advertise deals and never respond to customer complaints or comments are likely not to be as successful as those that do.

Take for example the Twitter account @dkny

Is a brilliant take on building authentic influence. From actively engaging her followers in conversations and having quirky comebacks and engaging in moments such as being able to suggestively persuade a potential client to purchase the signature DKNY cozy ( see below screenshot), @DKNY is a brilliant example of how authentic engagement builds a unique personality that upholds both brand values and creates brand buzz  to the point where her revealing her true identity was a big deal in the social media space.

 

Here is a helpful infographic  regarding Fake Twitter Followers  from Mashable below:

 

 

What’s your take on social media authenticity? Is it worth the risk to generate a large following and hope that real users will also like and follow? Would love to hear your thoughts!

 

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