“Twitter hashtags,
Facebook comments and Yelp reviews are a powerful marketing tool, but they’re
also a quagmire of potential faux-pas.”
So true. I have been caught out myself this very day
on Twitter.
Click here to read the
article in the Guardian
In the article, Thomas
Brown, Director of Strategy and Marketing at The Chartered Institute of
Marketing, suggests taking the ‘bull by the horns’ and admitting fault, acting
swiftly and not running away and hiding are the best responses to bad
publicity:
·
Ignoring
a problem doesn’t mean it will go away – social media is a real-time channel
and demands responsiveness.
·
Failing
to admit fault or taking a dispute with a customer on to social media only
casts your business in a more negative light.
·
Complaints
on social media don’t always stay on social media – local or national press can
pick up a story, worsening the reputational challenge facing the business.
·
Closing
down a social media account or pages doesn’t make the problem go away – it can
be seen as an acknowledgment of fault or a disdain for customer feedback.
As for my own experience
today, I responded swiftly and apologetically to the tweet in question, I followed up with an
email with further apologies and did what I had been asked to do and I hope that I have rectified the issue on the
website which was partly responsible / which I could blame for the error immediately.
There are certainly
lessons to learn – the main one being think before you blog, tweet or
facebook and don't make promises and then fail to fulfill them.
A friendly journalist did
remind me recently that there is no such thing as bad publicity – and that in
her opinion Oscar Wilde’s words are true: “There is only one thing in life
worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
Does this still ring
true in this savage media age?
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insurance needs on 0208 2550617 / 07768 865983
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