Archives for posts with tag: twitter

Waitrose twitter campaign – Hit or miss

September 23, 2012 //
1

By Stephen Fairweather

A lot has been written this week about the so called ridicule Waitrose suffered on Twitter after running a campaign to complete the tweet “I shop at Waitrose because….” , encouraging users to use the hashtag #WaitroseReasons.

While Waitrose did receive some serious responses it seems on the whole they got a host of hilarious tweets playing up to the ‘posh’ image of the shop.

For example @amoozbouche tweeted ‘I shop at Waitrose because it makes me feel important and I absolultely detest being surrounded by poor people’ and ‘I also shop at Waitrose because I was once in the Holloway Rd branch and heard a dad say ‘Put the papaya down, Orlando!’

I won’t publish all of the tweets but you can imagine what the others said.

This was seen in many quarters as a massive social media fail with Sebastian Joseph in Marketing Week suggesting that it ‘brings into sharp focus the worrying lack of understanding that some brands still have about how to use the micro-blogging site.’

I disagree I think Waitrose knew exactly what they were doing and the resulting impact from it has done them no harm whatsoever.

Let’s think what would have happened if the campaign had generated just straight laced replies. Sure they would have been seen by their already signed up twitter followers as caring and sharing but that would have been that and nothing much gained from it.

Instead they have managed to receive massive amounts of national news coverage not only online but in print and news coverage and they also managed to promote to other Waitrose customers that they have an active social media offering.

Yes Waitrose have been trying to project an image of providing an affordable option by price matching some of its products and that the resulting tweets only emphasized the upmarket nature of the store but all the news stories mentioned this, getting the message across to all that read it.

The only criticism I would level at them is that I think they should have leveraged the amusing responses more on their social media channels perhaps by awarding a prize to the funniest tweet.

I for one only shop in Waitrose occasionally, wishing I could do it more often. After all at the end of the day who would you rather be shopping with Wayne and Waynetta or Henry and Henrietta?

And as for the news coverage, as one of their rivals say ‘Every little helps.’

 

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Categories Social Media

Rooney’s own goal. Thou shall not advertise.

June 24, 2012 //
0

By Stephen Fairweather

What a week for ‘follicley” challenged Wayne Rooney, on Tuesday night he headed in from less than 6 yards to be installed as a national hero, then, only a few days later he and Nike were slapped down by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for incorrectly advertising on twitter.

To set the scene, earlier in the year the ASA received a complaint about the following tweet, stating that the tweet wasn’t “identifiable as marketing communications”.

“My resolution – to start the year as a champion, and finish it as a champion…#makeitcount gonike.me/makeitcount”.

The ASA quite rightly upheld the complaint and the watchdog, for the first time, banned a Twitter campaign.

Apart from the legal breach of the advertising code this also broke the unofficial rule of Twitter ‘Thou shall not advertise’. In a week that should have seen Rooney gain Twitter followers, it actually saw him lose followers. Before the controversy he had over 4.8 million followers – a quick look yesterday showed that he had lost at least 400,000 followers and all because he wasn’t open and honest and broke that unofficial rule.

The headlines around this and the subsequent ruling showed that promoting via social media is still in its infancy and that companies are still trying to guage how far they can go without stepping over the line. It shows that even a media savvy company like Nike still haven’t got this medium sussed, thus illustrating the dilemma facing every marketing or advertising team out there.

However, all this has actually damaged Rooney far more then it has Nike. People and companies need to be careful if they don’t want to damage their brand. Rooney should be using the medium to talk to his fan base, not turning them off by selling out to his sponsors. He may have been able to grow back his hair but he won’t be able to grow back his Twitter community quite so easily, especially if he continues to score own goals and ignore the commandment ‘Thou shall not advertise’.

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Categories Social Media

Social media’s Troll trouble

April 4, 2012 //
3

By Stephen Fairweather

Troll

Much has been written and spoken on the subject of abuse that some people have received from Trolls in the social media space.

High profile personalities such as Noel Edmonds, Richard Bacon, Derren Brown, Rob Brydon, and footballers such as Stan Collymore, Darren Gibson, Micah Richards and Fabrice Muamba have all received abuse in some shape or form. Several other high profile premiership footballers have even closed their accounts due to the level of abuse they have received.

It seems that a small section of the social media community feel that they have the right to abuse people. Some, when caught claim, it is only a form of harmless banter. There has also been a suggestion that the people issuing this form of abuse do not realise what anxiety and harm they are inflicting.

I am sure the majority of these people would not dream of doing it directly to the victims face, and only do so because they feel protected by the remoteness of social media.

So what can you do if you are on the receiving end?

Firstly, you can report them to the relevant social media platform. Both Facebook and Twitter have extensive guidelines on what is and is not acceptable behaviour and how to report a violation.

Although, in regards to Facebook, it looks like you will need to complain to the police in order for them to act. This was recently highlighted when Noel Edmonds complained to Facebook of a page that stated that ‘he needs to die.’

If, like Noel, you get a ‘No Deal’ from the social networks, then as Facebook suggests, you should complain to the police.

Every individual in the UK is protected from abuse of this kind through Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003. Section 127 states a person is guilty of an offence if they send by means of a public electronic communications network, a message or other matter that is grossly offensive, or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character, or causes any such message or matter to be so sent.

If found guilty, a person can be imprisoned for up to 6 months. A heavy price to pay for Twitter abuse.

But there is criticism from legal quarters on this act. I will not go into detail here, an interesting blog in the New Stateman puts it far better than I ever could.

Recently, there have been a couple of high profile convictions under this act.

Joshua Cryer ,a law student, racially abused Stan Collymore on a number of occasions on Twitter and received two year’s community service.

More recently, Liam Stacey, a biology student at Swansea University received a 56 day prison sentence for racially abusing footballer Fabrice Muamba via Twitter.

At the end of the day, nobody should put up with abuse in whatever shape or form it comes in. If, unfortunately, you are on the receiving end of this kind of behaviour, report it to the relevant authorities and do not let the Trolls win by stopping you from using social media.

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Categories Social Media

To tweet or not to tweet, that is the question

March 20, 2012 //
2

By Stephen Fairweather

Twitter Shakespeare

I’ve worked in financial companies pretty much all my working life, and although I currently work for a forward thinking company in terms of social media, this isn’t the case for the majority of the financial services industry.

In a recent Mortgage Strategy article on social media it rightly says that Twitter is becoming the medium of choice for those financial firms willing to enter the social media space, but that a lot of firms are shying away from using it altogether.

In this blog I’m going to share why I think all financial services companies should have a presence on social networks including Twitter.

Why?
Let’s look at the stats. Twitter is approaching 500 million registered accounts and as at the end of 2011 there are 845 million monthly active Facebook users.

For a lot of people around the world, social media is their communication method of choice. It’s not a fad. The popularity of each one may change and new entrants could displace the current goliaths, but social networking is here to stay.

So if a large proportion of consumers are talking and sharing on social networks there is a good chance they could be talking about you on them. Companies can bury their heads in the sand all they want, but these conversations are going to take place whether you take part or not. So you might as well listen to what they are saying; at least that way, you can try and do something about it.

But one of the concerns of many in the financial services industry is compliance with the FSA financial promotions guidelines.

According to the FSA, “some of the key issues firms must avoid include misleading claims, key risks not made prominent enough, insufficient product information, unrealistic impressions of the product, or anything which might create an unrealistic expectation on the part of the consumer,” he says. “Essentially, we ask that promotions must be balanced, clear and not misleading.”

This has caused a lot of financial companies, both big and small, to decide not to use Twitter. I mean how can you promote and include an adequate disclaimer in 140 characters, right?

Easy, you don’t promote. Simple as that. One thing social media users hate is the medium being used for promotion/sales.

Social media isn’t about selling, there are other great uses for it. It’s perfect for customer services, relationship building and brand management. These are 3 great reasons for using social media without going anywhere near promotions.

Social media is also great for marketing, but marketing needs to handled with more care, as this can sometimes wander into promotions territory, I will blog about this another time.

To get started in the areas mentioned above, the first step is to listen. It’s crucial. Set up searches for your company name and keywords. Get to know your audience, find out what they talk about, their interests. Then gradually take part in those conversations. Social media is a long affair, not a one-night stand. You can’t build relationships overnight, patience is needed. Relationships are hugely important, and your audience is more likely to listen to you if you have built an understanding with them.

None of the above, if used sensibly will breach FSA regulations.

As mentioned in my previous blog, social media is a multiplier and a small problem can turn into a full blown crisis very quickly. So don’t bury your head in the sand, get out there and start taking part. If you don’t, you and your company could one day regret it.

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Categories Social Media
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