We have all seen the array of statistics which shows that Australian consumers have social media fever. The most recent statistic proving our true obsession with social media shows that the average Australian spends more than 7 hours on social media sites (Dec 09).

But it seems that social fever is yet to spread across the corporate world. Many Australian organisations are yet to embrace it or at a basic level even secure their brand name in the social arena with a recent study revealing only 40% of Australia’s top 20 brands have a Twitter account.

So whilst having a Twitter account isn’t the only true indicator that an organisation is actively getting involved in social media it did make me wonder if major organisations operating in Australia are listening to what consumers have to say about them in the social space and if they are doing something about it.

Research shows that Australian consumers want organisations to communicate with them through social media outlets such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. In fact, 60% of those surveyed by RightNow said that if they posted a negative comment about an organisation on a social networking site, they would welcome contact from the organisation to try and resolve the issue. 66% also said they’d be happy for an organisation to contact them following a positive comment post.

So as Australian consumers want interaction and many consumers are spending a significant amount of time in the social space, I conducted a “social experiment” - 5 complaints/ pieces of feedback posted, for 5 big brands over 2 weeks on Twitter. As I have 750 followers on Twitter, and my Twitter account is connected to my LinkedIn account, according to social experts I would have some level of authority and given this I could spread some bad PR quite quickly. My normal nature is not to place negative comments online however in the name of research I thought it was worth a go (so sorry if you had to hear me rant and rave.) But did any of them care?

# commbank ;This would have to be my favourite complaint. I have to go in to the branch to set up my net banking. This was met with frustration from me but the not so lovely person on the other end of the line made me even more irritable as they served up some bad customer service. Any response from commbank? Not likely but had some discussions with a fellow twitterer who kept the conversation alive. So someone is listening to my rant.

#portmans; A bit of feedback for their in-store service seemed to fall on deaf ears. Unfortunate given that I have found some nice additions to my wardrobe recently – just a shame the service experience was lacking.

#bunnings; A lack of availability for furniture items caused a few post Xmas & pre-Australia day frustrations met by little response. Even some contact to find out what I was looking for and to help me track down the item would have been appreciated – but instead I trekked across Melbourne to hunt them down.

#redenergy; I do have a soft spot for these guys and by the end I was running out of things to complain about. The promise of a rewards card on sign up was exciting only to leave me wondering when in fact that card will come in the mail. Still none the wiser after complaining on
Twitter.

#ikea; 2 trips to the superstore in Richmond in 1 week left me pondering how much better the experience would be if I could find a customer service representative on the floor when I need one. My complaint regarding the lack of staff on the floor was also left unanswered.

So what does this teach us and why should your company care?

Firstly there is probably a lot to be learnt online through our customers. Take some time to see if people are talking about your brand and try to turn a bad experience into a good one.

Secondly there is a lot of talk by many companies and little action. The opportunity to differentiate your service offering before others could put you in a healthy position against your competitors.

Lastly, Google has integrated social media results into search. It is still only early days and much more innovation is to come in this area – BUT if I want to ensure that my brand is being accurately represented I would like be ensuring that 2 sides of the conversation are appearing in search results – not just leaving Google to serve up the unanswered cries of a powerful generation of customers.

© Digital Marketing Lab Blog

Written By: Teresa Sperti

As a follow up to my recent article highlighting 7 of Australia’s best social media case studies and examples, I decided to prepare an overview of 4 of Australia’s social media bloopers along with the learning’s we can take from them. Despite the negative press received by all of these examples one thing is for sure and that is that I have no doubt that most of these cases would have received many positive outcomes from it – ranging from receiving many inbound links from a search perspective to getting awareness for their latest products. So whilst these are bloopers they may not be complete disasters for the companies involved.

1. Cotton On – Shaken By Social Media
A few months back Cotton On was hit by a social media communications crisis when one of their risky baby t-shirt slogans crossed the line. Outrage erupted online and whilst anger was growing Cotton On was nowhere to be seen or more so heard of.
What can we learn from this example; Even if as a brand you are not ready to actively participate in the conversation online – start to monitor it so when issues like this arise you can react accordingly.
Read about how the disaster unfolded

Vegemite – It’s Not Technology – It’s Vegemite
In September 2009, Vegemite released a new cheesy vegemite product that it named iSnack 2.0. Vegemite decided to crowd-source the name for their new product. With over 48,000 entries engagement was high, until the winning name was announced, which was then met with public outrage.
What can we learn from this example: Rather than choose the name, Kraft executives should have chosen a shortlist and then put it to the public to decide. Crowd-sourcing the name was a good strategy to allow passionate consumers to feel like they were involved however this was then over-shadowed by final decisions made internally. In such instances Kraft should have followed the theme of such a campaign and put the final name to a public vote.
Read about how the campaign unfolded

Samboy Chips – Playing With Fire
Samboy Chips started with an idea that was good and to their credit the campaign was a strong concept and did actively receive a lot of engagement through the process. The idea was simple consumers were to create a “Samboy is back” group on Facebook and the group with the most members would win $10,000 and loads of free chips. Samboy had a lot of entries and one group attracted over 110,000 members. But one thing Smith’s forgot to consider was the impact of incentivizing consumers to use their brand name for the group. What unravelled was that the biggest “Samboy is Back” group was created to raise money for the Victorian Bushfire appeal – causing campaign hijacking.
What can we learn from this example; Before handing your brand completely over to consumers think through any implications of such an exercise. In addition ensure you think through situations which may result in campaign hi-jacking in an attempt to mitigate them before they occurs.
Read about how the campaign unfolded

Telstra’s – Now We Are Talking – Now We Are Not
Telstra was one of the very first Australian companies to launch into the blogging arena in a big way. Their blog “Now We Are Talking” was active for 4 years and over its time would have attracted a number of followers. And then one day – it was gone. On the 7th of September Telstra put up a message to say the blog is no longer in use and they are working on something new. But what happens to all of their followers and those who were engaging with the site in the meantime?
What we can learn from this example; It seems Telstra has chosen a new direction and with it comes new tools. This is common for many companies however organisations need to have a better plan to migrate users over to new social sites rather than just shut down a platform with little warning. It is hard for brands in general to get consumers to participate in active conversations and thus those who were active on the site may be difficult to re-engage.
Read about how a knee jerk reaction from Telstra has social media experts shaking their heads. http://laurelpapworth.com/telstra-and-shutting-down-nowwearetalking-social-media-site/
http://mumbrella.com.au/telstra-closes-nowwearetalking-com-au-9274

Have you got an Australian social media blooper? If so share it below.

© Digital Marketing Lab Blog

Written By: Teresa Sperti