Launching into the realm of social customer service may seem like a daunting prospect, however, failing to take the leap may actually lead to even more frightening consequences.

A shocking statistic from a recent consumer survey commissioned by Conversocial, revealed that: “If confronted with unanswered customer complaints on a company’s social media site, 88.3% of respondents said they’d be either somewhat less likely or far less likely to buy from that brand”.

That same study found that: “78% of respondents believe that social media platforms would either soon entirely replace other means of customer service altogether or become the dominant way for consumers to communicate with corporations”.

Still not convinced that you need to consider your social service offering? Bain & Company may persuade you. They discovered that companies, who engage with their customers through social media, score an average 33 points higher NPS score than those who don’t.

So, now is the time to act. Particularly as the social customer service revolution is more or less still in its infancy. Sooner rather than later, all customers, not just the early adopters and digitally savvy, will begin to reject the original customer service channels and, in turn, the volume of social customer service queries will grow exponentially.

Customers will expect to be able to communicate with brands, both big and small, through social mediums and so the assimilation of social customer service into your existing multichannel offering becomes paramount. Take control of your customers’ social experience to improve brand sentiment tenfold.

A word of warning: ensure that your social customer service adoption is paced. Do not just dive in at the deep end without considering the technology, process and resourcing implications.

If you don’t want to pay the price for poor social customer service, we can offer you expert guidance and training, so give us a call. 

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You may notice that the internet is slightly quieter than you are used to tomorrow.  This is due to numerous internet giants protesting the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA). Opponents to the bills state that if passed into law, they will stifle innovation and undermine free speech through unreasonable internet censorship.

On 18/01/12: Wikipedia, user-submitted news site Reddit, the blog Boing Boing and the Cheezburger network of comedy sites all plan to participate in the blackout.  They will follow in the web steps of the Italian Wikipedia site following similar anti piracy legislation proposed in Italy last year.

According to Wikipedia, SOPA “would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement.  Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators, such as PayPal, from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites.  The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for ten such infringements within six months.”

I urge you to read this today as Wikipedia will be ‘dark’ tomorrow.  You can find more about the Wikipedia: SOPA initiative here.

Both bills appear ill thought through and have been condemned by the internet at large.  You can see a pretty reasoned argument against both bills in this video by Cynical Brit, a UK gaming journalist and learn more about the bills themselves in this handy infographic from AmericanCensorship.org.

As a social media consultancy that generates revenue and jobs directly through a healthy and free web, both of these bills need to go back to the drawing board.  It is obvious that companies that produce games, music, film and other IP need to be protected from piracy, but knee jerk legislation is not the answer. There needs to be future consultation with the internet big guns, Facebook et al.

SOPA was ‘shelved’ yesterday awaiting consensus on the bill. PIPA advocate and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a vote on the bill on 24/01/12.  Swot up on this subject, because if you operate online this does effect you.

Tweet #stopsopa

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So in the first blog in this series, we established that Reddit is significant online social movement, but what exactly can it offer a brand or business?

Monitoring:

Businesses can utilise the platform as a go-to for cutting edge news and content. Monitoring the platform for relevant industry or brand mentions can also yield interesting results. A search for ‘Coca Cola’ on Reddit reveals an interesting and perhaps surprising variety of conversations taking place around the global leader.

Engagement:

Businesses can actively participate in discussions or initiate new conversations. It may be worth considering potential CSR opportunities – is there a particular cause that is important to your business that you would like to talk about with the community?

A word of warning: tread carefully and be transparent about who you are. If you act in an underhand manner, you run the risk of the community turning on you.

The IAmA or “I am a” subreddit is another opportunity for business or brand ambassadors to engage with the Reddit community and answer their questions. Recently the intrepid explorer, Bear Grylls engaged in an IAmA, sponsored by Degree Men, the US version of the Sure antiperspirant brand. He answered redditors’ questions with text and video responses. His presence on the platform resulted in some gentle teasing from the community…

Sponsored links:

Reddit also offers sponsored link opportunities, allowing brands and business to target views according to their interests. As with a typical Reddit post, sponsored links can be commented on and are subject to the Up and Down vote system. They appear at the top of the Reddit feed and are clearly marked as a sponsored link. A savvy brand can get in the eyeline of a very targeted and motivated audience.

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We love purple as much as the next company, but it appears Cadbury have decided to take it to the next level in a recent trademark dispute settled yesterday with Nestlé. Cadbury wanted to trademark the tint and made the case that it has used the colour on its packaging for more than a century.

There were a few concerned looks around the office when we realised the similarity between Cadbury’s Pantone 2865c and our own Pantone 275c. This prompted an official statement.

An unnamed insider from social media consultancy, immediate future (established in 2004)  said: “If they come after our purple they should be prepared for a long, drawn out and debilitating battle. You may have beaten Nestle to Pantone 2865c, but we’ll defend our beloved Pantone 275c to the death. Plus we’re not bloody redecorating, alright!”

The company is awaiting an official response from Cadbury.

p.s. We might consider negotiation if Curly Wurlies are part of the deal

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Gotta catch 'em all

Netflix have learnt the hard way that social media can’t be a last minute consideration when it comes to a rebrand. Marketing has to be fully integrated with social media planning. On demand video service Netflix struck upon the name Qwikster for its DVD side of the business, you can find its official web holding page here. While the company may have managed to secure that prime piece of web real estate, it appears it was a little tardy in bagging relevant branded social media estates. Twitter was where it all came unstuck.

I urge you to visit the Twitter profile of Jason Castillo or @Qwikster as he is better known; Jason has an enviable way with words, a love of weed and an aversion to wasps. And he’s not beyond talking about the offers he has begun receiving from Netflix’s rapidly mobilising marketing dept to try and secure his Twitter handle (however, these references to money have been deleted from his account in the last 24 hours, it appears he doesn’t want to kill the goose that could lay some golden eggs.)

Dayum $1,000!

Jason has seen his follower count increase from the tens to more than 11k in just two days. This is high profile embarrassment for Netflix, more media attention is now on this social media faux pas and the expletives being pumped out from the @Qwikster profile than in the new service. The company’s online reputation had taken a knock on Sunday about the way it communicated its service update to customers, as seen in this apology from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.

The reality is that the Jason Castillo incident could have been avoided.

If you’re a brand manager you simply have to remember that old Pokémon adage – ‘Gotta catch ‘em all.’

It’s a fine art, coming up with an original name and idea, but the proliferation of social media and the fact that anyone can own potentially valuable online real estate without out-laying cash means that brands are ever more likely to run into these clashes between the general public and their brand aspirations. Google +’s Huddle feature is another example of a big company (that really should know better) not researching new branding sufficiently.

The key learning?

Bag your brand handle and do your research. You can social media estate sense-check campaign and brand names via sites like Name Chk BEFORE an announcement or making your web site live. Prevention is better than cure, after all your online reputation is at stake.

Finally, you can’t Pikachus your social media estates after the fact, sorry, I had to put that in there.

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What we can learn from the world’s leading social businesses about how things can get out of control.

You can’t stop a crisis once it happens. But you can minimise the chances of getting embroiled in one in the first place.

New research from Altimeter Group backs up this maxim; three quarters of the 50 social media crises they tracked over that last 10 years could have been averted or diminished.  Note that these companies are described as ‘advanced’ in their deployment of social media – they are not novices.

So where exactly did they feel most exposed? We have talked previously about the steps to prevent a crisis but the chart below highlights the feedback from businesses.

Reproduced from Altimeter Group research

There are three here that I want to focus on:

1. The wrong team

The top two relate to education and people. Staff need to understand the difference between a ‘traditional’ and a ‘social’ crisis. The speed and the contagion effect are different and need to be understood. You also need the right skills in the crisis team – a blend of crisis management best practice as well as practical experience of using social media. All the crisis experience in the world isn’t going to save you if no one in the team can actually send a Tweet.

2. What? No plan?

Yes, you need a plan but not a ring-bound bible that sits on the shelf gathering dust. In the midst of a crisis you need a plan that can flex with the unique circumstances of each crisis. At its heart is the decision-making process – how to gather information, assess it, make decisions and then act on it. To some extent the plan needs generic processes – such as how and when to go live with a dark site but it should focus on principles rather than rigid rules.

3. Mediocre moderation

Knowing when to step into a Twitter storm or a frenzy of negativity on your Facebook page is always a difficult call. A workflow provides  a framework to help make that decision – when and where to get involved in the conversation and when to sit tight. Here is an example of one such model.

Social media crisis triage by immediate future

It’s not the sexy end of social media. But it’s the detail; it’s the policy, plans and training that will save you from a crisis.

Let us know your thoughts.

Find out more about our online reputation management and crisis management services.

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In the last post we looked at figures from the twentieth century and the lessons that could be learned from their experiences when implementing brand social media training.

In this post we’ll investigate some historical recommendations crowdsourced on Twitter over the past week.

Don’t expect people to be interested solely in your news, get the mix right - Samuel Pepys – a mixture of your own news and timely social comment is always advisable. People aren’t just interested in your latest news, version 2.6.8 of your latest software package or the appointment of so and so to Vice President of Packaging. By all means update your customers and fans through social media, but don’t expect them to share it with others unless it is relevant to their interests. As the great Pepys provided eyewitness accounts of great events, such as the Great Plague of London, the Second Dutch War and the Great Fire of London he still provided daily insights into his home life from his love of wine to his wife’s dancing lessons. Getting the mixture of news and comment right is key in any social media and blog posting.

Watch your supply lines and make sure that your resources can live up to your social media platform commitments – Erwin Rommel‘s failure in North Africa was exacerbated by stretched supply lines and by limited resources across a wide front. Logistical problems plagued his Afrika Korps in 1941 and finally lead to his retreat. Brands need to realise that if they are going to set up social media platforms to interact with customers and fans then they need to be properly staffed, and have guidelines in place to respond to customer queries. A Facebook page with an empty wall or one that was updated months ago is worse than useless because it gives the impression that the brand does not care about its community and gives competitors the opportunity to step in and interact with your consumers.

Spelling and punctuation is vital – A social media platform is a real time representation of your brand, poor spelling and grammar reflect badly upon companies and give followers the impression that not enough care or resource is being devoted to them. Gordon Brown was hauled over the media coals for his numerous spelling mistakes in a letter to the family of an Afghanistan military casualty. The backlash was yet another costly PR mistake that took time and resource to try and resolve and still appears high in the Google search rankings when looking up the former Prime Minister. Proofing and sense checking should be at the heart of any communication that goes out on a branded social media profile.

Sex sells, or the prospect of sex and style sells – Now, I’m not advocating you to advise your social platform managers to turn branded profile into X-rated broadcasts, but Mae West certainly had the right idea in terms of promoting her personal brand. A maestro of the double entendre, Mae made a name for herself throughout Hollywood as the go to woman for quotes, quips and controversy. People don’t become fans of the mundane, they don’t share with friends and colleagues things that might label them as boring. Branded content should be treated in the same way as any other piece of content in the sense that; “If you wouldn’t share it with your own circle of friends, why should you customers or clients be interested?” With that, I leave you with one of Mae’s most famous quotes and one that has been shared by millions “When I’m good, I’m very good, but when I’m bad, I’m better.” Brand managers take note.

Please feel free to proffer any tips you may think relevant for social media training or blog training and I’ll update the post accordingly.

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Those looking to ensure staff are equipped to represent their brand across social media platforms could do worse than learn from some of history’s most famous and infamous historical figures. So what can your social media training learn from the past?

“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

Don’t take others at face value - Fake news stories spread like wildfire, especially on Twitter, from the reported death of Charlie Sheen to Rebecca Black’s pregnancy. Even seasoned journalists and media publications have been caught out by news that originated online without any facts behind to back it up. Even today, news that Madeline McCann has been found is a trending topic on Twitter, yet no news outlet has officially confirmed these reports at the time of writing this blog. Neville Chamberlain was easily swayed by a mixture of gullibility and persuasive argument from Hitler in Munich in September 1938. In short corroborate your news from a viable site prior to a blog, retweet or wall post. It pays to be vigilant and accurate rather than timely in many cases. It’s great to break some news early to fans and followers, but not at the cost of your brand integrity.

Wit and personality goes a long way – Brands looking to develop a voice and persona of their own, especially in a busy marketplace, should look to Oscar Wilde.  His belief that; ‘Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.’ should not be taken lightly, there are many brands on Facebook and Twitter who are happy to go along with the crowd and not distinguish themselves from the competition for fear of controversy. However, people are far more likely to retweet or share something that they find amusing or useful; this could range from the bizarre Skittles profile to the erudite and compelling Dr Samuel Johnson. However, Oscar’s theory that ‘It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information’ may now be somewhat redundant.

Controlled controversy - Kenneth Tynan made a name for himself as an outspoken theatre critic and writer, oh and the first man to say ‘fuck’ on television. Link baiting or controversy has a role to play in certain aspects of social media activity in order to excite debate and encourage shareability of branded content and messaging. On 13 November 1965, Tynan participated in a live TV debate and was asked whether he would allow a play to be staged in which sexual intercourse was represented on the stage, and replied: “Well, I think so, certainly. I doubt if there are any rational people to whom the word ‘fuck’ would be particularly diabolical, revolting or totally forbidden. I think that anything which can be printed or said can also be seen.” Critics later stated that Tynan’s use of the word was a “masterpiece of calculated self-publicity,” adding “for a time it made him the most notorious man in the country.” Notoriety is not always desired by brands, but publicity and the guts to say something out of the ordinary and that your competitors are afraid to, cannot be underestimated in terms of creating widespread brand awareness. Tynan was always one for breaking down linguistic inhibitions on the stage and in print and I’m positive that if he was still alive he would be confounding expectations on Twitter.

In the next part of the ‘Lessons from History’ series I’ll be delving into the training tips that can be gleaned from the lives of some recommended historical characters. Thanks to @photogirluk @Elle_Emmm @Carrot79 @nickhide @lesanto @Shinybiscuit for their input! Also please feel free to recommend your own historical characters who we could learn a few social media tips from.

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Hot on the heels of being included in Econsultancy’s top ten recommended social media agencies, we have made it into the Reputation Online listing.

And more importantly into the top 5 ‘most respected agencies’ and ‘ones to watch’.

Thanks to all those that voted for us and congratulations to others on the list.

Sadly this good news is somewhat marred by the fact that Reputation Online closed on the day the results came out.

Back when this was just a twinkle in the publisher’s eye, I worked closely with Centaur to create a magazine for the burgeoning social media industry. And two years later it is the central point of the UK social media community. Not least, because it was led by the superb editor, @vikkichowney. Vikki is the heart of the industry and made sure that the site was always topical and a jolly good read.

But in these hard economic times, and I guess tough decisions had to be made.

Although I do find it surprising that it wasn’t considered an investment by the publisher. As the magazine closes, the top 100 list is showing a social business in growth. A diverse range of agencies from boutique to mainstream are claiming success in social media ventures. An industry where there is a great deal of opportunity for future revenues.

I suspect the industry will bounce back and coalesce around an alternative news and feature source. But we will miss Reputation Online a great deal. And all of us here at immediate future wish Vikki and her team the very best for the future.

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Online crisis phase 1

So, in case you’re not aware of it, the international fashion retailer is facing a bit of a brand crisis. In short, it has been accused by Stevie K of tru.che of copying a line of her jewellery.  In the industry it appears that Urban Outfitters has something of a reputation for copying complimenting other designer’s work.

Stevie has stated on her Tumblr that international fashion brand had ripped of her designs for her “I heart New York” necklace, which can be purchased through Etsy.

This claim struck a chord with the Tumblr community first. The micro blogging site (with its high proportion of fashionistas and creatives, all early adopters) was keen to back the little guy, but from there the movement against Urban Outfitters was picked up by the hugely influential Huffington Post, rounding off his article yesterday, blogger Jason Linkis, openly called for a boycott of the company.

The spike in social media mentions

Here are a few more insights of how the online sentiment has really gone against Urban Outfitters in the last 48 hours. The monitoring of social media estates reveals in the last 48 hours the negative sentiment from consumers is rising against Urban Outfitters. You can clearly see the leap in posts and tweets around the brand from midnight GMT on 26^th May.

Reputation analysis

In the last 48 hours there have been more than 800 tweets with the word hate in conjunction with Urban Outfitters:

The normal average for daily mentions of Urban Outfitters is 1,470

The number of mentions yesterday topped 15,000 (that is a tenfold increase in 24 hours)

Mentions of hate/hating in conjunction with Urban Outfitters – 1,900 /25,000

Mention stealing in conjunction with Urban Outfitters – 1514/25,000

Mentions boycott in conjunction with Urban Outfitters – 6029/25,000

The word cloud below shows just some of the negative sentiment being expressed by consumers on Twitter: stealing, bastards, boycott and hating are prominent.

An inadequate response?

The US Urban Outfitters Twitter profile with more than 400,000 followers has, responded with the vanilla holding statement – “Hey guys, we see your tweets regarding the I Heart Destination necklace. Please know that our accessories buying team is looking into this.”

So why not kick back, get some snacks and see how this pans out. It’s going to take some deft footwork from Urban Outfitters’ PR dept to turn round this mass of negative sentiment with anything short of a public apology and remuneration for those with a designer axe to grind. This isn’t going to disappear from Google news results for Urban Outfitters for a while…

Here comes Miley

And once influential celebrities get a sniff of it you can be sure that they’ll make the biggest splash of all. In particular, Miley Cyrus’s tweet to her million plus fan base has been picked up in more than 180 news articles, dwarfing the number for the original story.

In short – If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire… A celebrity on Twitter.

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