Social media monitoring is high on everyone's agenda at the moment. Technology companies have been quick to respond. They always are (they're the guys who gave us CRM and Y2K remember!). They've now introduced tools that do everything from capturing conversations to segmenting them by sentiment - negative, positive and neutral.
The real challenge for brands though the way I see it is not capturing conversations but doing something about them.
This is not as simple as it seems.
Social media conversations - issues vary
Very often I've found that social media conversations relate to the way a product has been designed, built or sold. Sometimes they point to an issue with the way a firm hires or treats its customers. And in still more cases they suggest a need for ethics, or for a firm to re-look or refocus on key elements of strategy such as staff empowerment or business process - such as its decision to outsource for example.
These issues do not require a company to set up a blog or presence on Facebook or Twitter. What they require it to do on the contrary is "introspect" and make fundamental changes to the way it operates if it is to successfully change the nature of conversations consumers are having about it online.
Bose is a high end audio brand with a significant amount of negative publicity online.
This is driven largely by the audiophile community who see the brand's products as "overpriced" and "poorly built" using components that enable to maximise profits over performance.
Audiophiles (and they include high end audio dealers - a key influencing segment) - also rip into the brand for the way it chooses to sell its products. Bose insists on dealer exclusivity for example and does not allow customers to take their system home to try it before they buy it - a practice considered standard among audiophiles.
If Bose seeks to influence the conversations this segment (audiophiles) are having about it online, it will need to do a lot more than set up a blog or page on Facebook. It will need to relook its entire marketing value proposition - all the way from product design to build and sales experience.
Bose's response to social media so far has been unimaginative. It sued Consumer Magazine in the US for a negative review for $200,000. Only a change in its fundamental approach to business will get audiophiles to think and talk differently about the brand.
The problem - no one will review Bose's products any more. An issue given that when people buy an expensive audio system the first they do is check out its reviews online.
Walmart is America's biggest retailer with 2 million employees worldwide.
Consumer groups and employees slam the brand for its policies on a range of issues -low wages, poor working conditions, predatory pricing - the list goes on.
The unions started websites like walmartspeakout.com to force the retailer to change its game. The comments on the site are damning like this one from a staffer who chooses to remain anonymous "I’ve only been with Walmart for 3 months, and can already see the writing on the wall. Low wages, backbreaking work, unaffordable health insurance, and no personal life due to a ridiculous schedule!"
To make matters worse, in Feb 2009, a 58 year old employee set himself on fire and died saying he "couldn’t take working there any more”.
What’s amazing about all this is that Walmart had embarked on a social media strategy which consisted of engaging with bloggers, providing them with news and information about the company and even inviting to Walmart’s headquarters to see how things worked – as far back as 2005!
The strategy clearly hasn’t worked, as negativity towards the brand has continued.
The reason Walmart’s strategy hasn’t been successful I think is because the brand’s focus is still on social media – not the issues it has raised and that it clearly still needs to resolve within its business. The only way the brand will change conversations is by taking the issues people have raised head on and doing something concrete to address them.
Few brands have faced as much damage to their reputation as Nike. The brand’s refusal to address allegations over its use of sweatshops in Asia were one of the key reasons that competitors like Adidas were able to re-emerge as challengers.
Today conversations about Nike and its use of sweatshops continue in social media. The new debate is about the use of China as a hub to manufacture. The issue - workers are paid not just low rates but organised unions are not legal so they can’t complain.
To influence conversations, Nike must address the issues they raise. Unless it does so, demonstrating in the process a visible commitment to fair wage levels, the conversations people have about it online will continue to be mixed.
United – if you’re going to break anything – make sure it’s not a guitar
When Dave Carroll, lead singer for Sons of Maxwell boarded a United Airways flight bound for Nebraska and looked out of the window he was horrified to find baggage handlers throwing baggage into the air cargo hold
Part of the baggage they were throwing, were his band’s expensive music equipment which included his beloved Taylor guitar.
He immediately informed the air stewardess about the matter and asked if she could do help. She said she couldn’t as the baggage handlers were not United Airlines staff but contracted agents. If Dave wanted them to stop he’d have to speak to them himself.
He did. But they brushed him away as they left the tarmac.
When Dave got to Nebraska he checked his guitar and found that it had been smashed due to the way it had been handled. He spoke to United about the matter for the next 6 months but they refused to replace or repair his damaged guitar.
So then Dave did what any musician in his shoes would. He wrote a song about his experience “United breaks guitars’. The song went viral and got more 6 million views on YouTube with 37,000 comments about other customers’ experiences with the airline.
The issue for United
It’s not Dave’s guitar. It’s the systems the airline had in place to address his complaint, the level to which staff were empowered to act and the Airline’s decision to outsource an increasing number of processes – baggage handling being one of them.
Sure United may have saved a bit of money by contracting baggage to an outside supplier. However in doing so the airline lost control over the quality of service provided. In the process, they damaged their reputation…and Dave Carroll’s beloved guitar!
To stem the flow of negative conversation online, United doesn’t need social media marketers or bloggers to help. It needs to get its act together internally. Only once it does, will it have any chance to move the conversations the right way.
You have a social media monitoring tool.
Question is - what are you now going to do with it now?
You could spend hours playing with the options the dashboard gives you. You could sit in on any number of presentations by consultants to show you month after month what the latest conversations about your brand online are. Or you could – once you’ve identified the issues – decide to act on them. Move your focus from outward to inward, involve your organisations key stakeholders – and work with them to develop a lasting solution – ground up - to addresses the problems customers have raised - whatever they may be.
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2 comments:
Yes, you are absolutely right, there are many companies overlooking the opportunities to engage with their consumers through Social Media. I predict a sudden breaking of the dam as companies wake up to the opportunity. (These opportunities are particularly great in Asia!)
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