Social Media ed_16 nov 19/04/2010 11:44 Page 32
run,” he explains. “They can then plug that back into their computer and compare their running to everybody else’s. It’s a social tool and a way of establishing long-term relationships and additional value for customers. It’s not just a fun video shown once then forgotten about a month later.” He goes on to say that this represents the shapes of things to come for companies in the social media space: “I don’t think many marketers are thinking like this yet, but they will.” For those less savvy companies, even just listening in to what is being said about their products and services online will provide valuable insight. “Sometimes my advice to clients who have low ambition when it comes to online activities is ‘do me a favour and at least analyse what customers are saying about your brands and campaigns online’,” says Huijbregts. “That’s the lowest admission level you can have but if you are not aware of what’s happening online then you don’t know anything. There are quite a few examples of big brands that did not listen to what was happening online and it backfired really hard because they were a week or two late when it came to responding to negative feedback.”
Disaster recovery A rapid response to an online PR crisis is crucial given the speed (as demonstrated by Nestlé) with which it can unfold. Companies no longer have the luxury of waiting for newspapers to print or news broadcasts to be broadcast, before preparing their response and, thanks to websites like Twitter, are often expected to respond in real-time to comments as they appear online. Companies may be encouraged to put social media strategies in place and create sites and online communities to maximise their use of the technology as a
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marketing or research tool. But that’s where their level of control over social media ends. So how can companies regain control over their brand reputation if an online PR crisis breaks out? Cheliotis says the first step is for companies to fully understand what social media is and to embrace the fact that it is not just another form of traditional ‘push’ advertising. “The big difference with social media is that it is not just one-way – it’s a two-way conversation with consumers. You’re not just talking to customers and saying ‘this is what our brand is about’ and expecting them to just absorb the information. They are giving information back. And information isn’t just coming back to you, it is coming to everyone in your online community. So in effect there are people distributing messages directly on your behalf to customers and potential customers. In some cases these may be positive messages and that advocacy is more powerful than advertising can ever be. But of course they can also be negative messages, which are equally as potent but obviously to the detriment of the brand. Companies have to accept it’s a two-way thing and they have to embrace that in order to be successful. You can’t block negative messages or manage the negative messages in a dictatorial way. Because if you do that then people will just take those messages elsewhere.” Osmond adds: “Companies need to have an ethos that if there is something wrong with their products they need to know about it in order to make an improvement. If you have that ethos then being involved in social media is going to tell you what’s wrong quicker so you can make the improvements faster and more accurately. Unfortunately, there are a lot of companies that aren’t ready to hear the brutal and honest feedback.”
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Insider Secrets Photographic giant Eastman Kodak has successfully used Twitter to gather 11,000 followers online. Jeffrey Hayzlett, Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Eastman Kodak, describes his company’s social media vision and the joys of twittering.
1 hour ago Our social media activity is very, very heavy. I describe Twitter very much like a fax machine. It’s unlike any other marketing tool that’s out there. I think it’s one that’s going to stick around a little bit longer but there are lots of other great tools that are out there.
you. The second one is education. They educate us; we educate them. The third is about excitement. How do we use that to excite people? Then the fourth is evangelism to get the word out there and turn these people into brand ambassadors.
We approach social media with what I call the “Four Es The first one of those is engagement. Let’s get engaged. Those conversations are going on the internet whether it’s on Facebook or Twitter or on the blogs, with you or without
I started Twittering for my family. The only reason I wanted
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to Twitter was to let them know what I was doing. Then I started gathering all these other followers, and a lot of them were B2B contacts, so it was all these commercial