We all know about the more traditional forms of marketing such as mailers and promotional products, but the world of social media marketing is now taking the world by storm.
Everywhere you look there is advice on how best to use networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to talk to your customers and develop a more interactive brand, but what are some of the potential pitfalls that can arise as a result of a company taking the plunge into social networking?
A recent study by Scottish researchers has found that the more friends people have on Facebook, the more stressed or anxious they feel about using the website. Although this study only covered private users, the same could well be said for businesses when things go wrong for the world to see.
There have been some rather infamous gaffes made by companies who have dabbled in social media without giving it the proper amount of thought, and thanks to the internet we can all learn from their misfortune when comprising our own social media strategy. Here are some of the worst social media gaffes to have caught the world's attention and what you can learn from them when working on your strategy.
The Toyota Recall
In early 2010 Toyota had to deal with one of the worst things that could happen to a car manufacturer, a mass recall due to faulty accelerators that were linked to 19 deaths. PR disasters don't come much bigger and a strong, consistent response was expected by both the press and those that were affected by the issue. Their response did not live up to these expectations and in fact a week went by before any senior management were seen to publicly comment on the matter.
Although it is unlikely for the vast majority of companies to encounter such a serious and widespread problem, lessons can be learned for any company who find themselves facing a PR nightmare. In situations such as these social networks can be you biggest enemy, as more often than not they will be the focus of the public's outcry and anger. But they can also be your biggest friend as they will allow you to regularly comment on the issue on your own terms without facing an immediate awkward press conference.
Press conferences may be called for further down the line, but utilising social networks can be an effective way of showing that you are dealing with the problem and can help you to get your explanation out without it being spun in the press.
The Habitat Twitter Debacle
Before venturing on a brave new Twitter campaign, read up on how to use its various tags properly first! Habitat did their upmarket brand a fair bit of damage by resorting to spammy tactics to raise their profile by abusing the #hashtag function. This function is supposed to indicate a comment that is following a trending topic, but using the Iranian election to get people to join their furniture database didn't go down well with the Twitterati, who twigged that they were trying to spam their way to popularity.
If you are going to use social networks, be sure to use legitimate methods of building interest in your presence. Resorting to spammy techniques just doesn't look good, especially if you are representing an upmarket brand. If you choose to use an external company to handle your social presence, make sure they are clued up on what is and isn't acceptable.
Ryanair
It wouldn't be a blog about PR problems if it didn't include this scrappy Irish airline. There's actually quite a lot to admire about their "it's not our problem it's everyone else's" approach to PR and their utter contempt for the outside world telling them they are wrong must quite appeal to many business owners and marketers.
Their robust approach to PR certainly didn't disappoint when a blogger had the gall to call them up on a glitch on their website.
"jason! you're an idiot and a liar!!" was the opening line of the repost on the blog of the unfortunate individual who called Ryanair up on the mistake, and the Ryanair employee went even further, by criticising the blogger's website and questioned his programming abilities.
It gets even better, as when it was proven that the individual who was attacking the blogger was an employee of Ryanair, their humble response was;
"Ryanair can confirm that a Ryanair staff member did engage in a blog discussion. It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won't be happening again.
"Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel."
You don't need me to tell you what was wrong with this! Companies like Ryanair who are known for this attitude can just about get away with it, but for most other companies a professional public face is far more appropriate, even in the more relaxed world of social networking.
Stick to some basic, common sense principles and almost any company can use social networks to their advantage. When used properly, they can be effective ways of driving traffic your way and interacting with your customers.
Avoid a social disaster and put as much planning into your social marketing as you would with any other strategy to achieve success.