Wednesday 11 September 2013

Pay Attention To Social Media


I comment frequently on the power of the internet to publicise poor service.  I’ve come across two examples over the last few months of what can happen.

One appeared as a Facebook comment.  At the time I spotted it, it had achieved 61,293 “Likes” and 5,371 comments.  That means that over 61,000 people saw the comment.  Imagine how long it would take you to get that sort of story out by word of mouth.  The only other way to do it would be to have the story published in a newspaper with a wide circulation (and remember, not everyone reads every article in a newspaper).

There was, among all the comments, one from the airline concerned, but I wonder if anyone saw it.  More to the point, did management appreciate that over 61,000 people knew how uncaring their staff appeared in this particular instance?  No matter how many satisfied customers they had, this one incident could ruin their reputation.

More recently, I came across a BBC news article concerning a person who had bought a Twitter advert to publicise a case of poor service by another airline.  

I’m sure that it’s pure coincidence that these two cases (which occurred some time apart) concern airlines.  My point is that businesses and other organisations need to be aware of the part that internet and social media play when it comes to publicity.  Many organisations now have websites and also “Twitter”, “Facebook” and other social media presences.  Fewer, I feel, make a proactive effort to actually shape and monitor what others say about them and to address any issues of concern or that may cause negative publicity if posted to a wider audience.

In the case of the Twitter advert, it was targeted at New York and UK readers (how many are there, I wonder?).  According to the site in which the article appeared, paid-for tweets get pushed up the Twitter feed of the relevant company.  They act as normal messages and can be re-tweeted by others.”  In other words, they appear prominently in the “victim’s” Twitter feed and readers can “relay” them to others.  To cap it all, the article goes on to say that six hours after the tweet went live, and was picked up by news website Mashable, it had been read by thousands of Twitter users, re-tweeted and commented on but that it took another four hours for the airline concerned to pick up on it.  In other words, 10 hours elapsed before they took any action.

The damage had been done.

Although it may not be familiar territory, organisations need to consider how to:
  1. Develop a social media strategy;
  2. Shape their image on social media;
  3. Monitor social media effectively (not just having a Facebook page, blog or Twitter presence);
  4. Direct unfavourable comments to an effective customer complaints department and a PR department or person;
  5. Act on favourable comments;
  6. Monitor “trends” to see whether a particular area or service is the recipient of attention (both welcome and not-so welcome);
  7. Monitor whether favourable or unfavourable comments or stories are “trending” favourably or unfavourably.

Organisations that can assist in this already exist.  Even if they’re too expensive, what could you be doing NOW to make sure that you can act according to the points outlined above?  

Remember, even if you’re just a small business, people can still “tweet” unfavourably about you or tell their friends on Facebook about you.


I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in the world financial services industry running different service, operations and lending businesses, I started my own Performance Management Consultancy to offer solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.  For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.

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