Following from last week’s post ‘Consumers on Social Media’ which discussed the way that brands are failing to match consumer expectation, this post looks at a number of brand twitter fails that have emerged in the past few days.
The first comes from the McDonald’s, who used Twitter as a platform to encourage customers to share their McDonald’s experience using the hashtag #McDStories. However, feelings were less than warm and fuzzy towards the global restaurant. Instead twitter users shared negatives views and stories about the chain.
Whilst McDonald’s set about to turn the campaign around to a more positive light, this particular case highlights how brands need to be aware that campaigns may not take the direction that was intended.
Social media has a way of exposing the mistakes and wrongdoings of any company, whether that comes from a campaign or from one particular customer’s negative experience. This was the case for gym chain, LA Fitness. Following a letter sent to The Guardian by a heavily pregnant reader who sought help against the gym, after they insisted she pay the full 24 months membership fees despite being pregnant and moving 12 miles away from their nearest gym. Her husband had also been made redundant leaving the couple relying on state benefits.
After a six week battle, LA Fitness agreed to waive six months of fees, leaving them still owing the remaining £360. Following publication of the letter in The Guardian a twitter storm ensued with some outraged readers cancelling their memberships. In a complete about turn, LA Fitness agreed to waive all remaining charges- announcing the decision with an apology on their Twitter account.
Thanks to social media, the consumer has gained power and influence with businesses under increasing scrutiny. Whenever a crisis occurs, brands need to consider exactly how they should respond and to ensure that the response is timely and demonstrates empathy. Timing is crucial in taking back control of any crisis; therefore brands need to be ready to act at any point.
Finally, Snickers set out confusing the followers of former glamour model Katie Price, when they took over her account on Sunday earlier this week with tweets on the global economy. Most presumed she had been hacked considering the economy wasn’t a likely choice for Price to cover.
It was finally revealed that it was in fact a stunt from Snickers as part of their current campaign, “You aren’t you when you’re hungry”. Views on the stunt vary; with some applauding the stunt and others suggesting that Snickers have put out the message that eating a bar can make you appear unintelligent. Let us know what you think of the stunt by leaving a comment below.
In an aside, Snickers have taken an entertaining approach with their current advertising campaign, supporting the twitter stunt, which features ex-Dynasty stars Joan Collins and Stephanie Beacham.
I attended a Memnet conference this week with sister company Refreshed Membership. Whilst it was aimed at membership groups, a session on social media raised one particularly interesting point. If a relevant incident or issue arises out of office hours would you be able to respond to it via social media?
Social media doesn’t operate traditional hours, it runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and anything can happen at any point. Yesterday, news broke that this Sunday, News of the World will close. The twitter reaction was incredibly fast and soon my tweet deck was filled with nothing but related comments. Essentially it became a live news feed. News doesn’t operate within standard hours, so why should social media use?
In the Memnet conference, a point was raised that one particular newspaper updated their Facebook page with breaking news before they updated their own. Social media has become completely integrated into people’s lives. We rely upon it as a core source of information.
So we return to the starting topic- brands shouldn’t stop engaging with their customers simply because the office has finished work for the day.
I’ve come across a few statistics regarding the use of facebook and twitter. One infographic from Kissmetricssuggests the best days to tweet are midweek and weekends. However, if your team aren’t in the office on weekends, then chances are the tweets stop. Likewise, the best suggested day to share a post on Facebook is Saturday. The pattern follows; if people aren’t at work then their social media activity is likely to be higher. Your weekend posts and tweets will gain greater exposure simply because people are more likely to pay attention.
This differs for B2B as shown by a report from Buddymedia which shows there are differences between industries. The report indicates that generally the best days to post are midweek and weekends.
Brands need to adopt a 24/7 social media strategy and ensure that they can act at any point if they need to. Schedule blog posts for the weekend and keep an eye on your twitter feed at weekends comparing it to activity on weekdays, you’ll notice to big differences. Have you changed your social media strategy to a 24/7 approach? Let us know how you’ve got on.
The Brief
Increase followers and awareness of a major retail brands twitter account from a standing start, without being SPAMMY.
@cometdeals had a handful of internal followers 5 days ago, now they have 613 and have been listed 12 times.
The good news is that we have managed this whilst vehemently sticking to the Rule book, which means no automatic software, and no mindless friend additions (so far the account is following no-one, giving it an infinite follow/following ratio stat fans!).
The idea was a simple one. A Christmas tie in where people pass a hastag #cometparcel around by tweeting it. When the music stops on the Comet site the last person to have passed the hashtag wins a prize.
The beauty of the campaign is in the simplicity of the message, and the execution of the visual. These factors have meant that the prizes do not need to be large, (a toaster and a radio are among the gifts so far) but the response has been phenomenal (averaging around 800 passes a day, hitting #8 in the weekly trending chart).
There is no call to action to follow the account, and in fact to play the game a user need not even know the game exists, however the stats speak for themselves. (The winners need to follow the account as they are messaged via DM to collect their winnings).
However if you do follow the account, importantly you are not just bombarded with game messages, but you get up to date news, information and voucher codes on deals and offers.
Other links about the Comet campaign:
NMA Article: Comet launches first mobile site and Christmas social media push
