We covered in Chapter 1 why there is such a thirst and demand for social media. But what does social media demand from us? While hundreds of millions of people have discovered the benefits of social media, some people and companies have also experienced the potential pitfalls of such mass transparency.
More than a few students have been kicked out of universities for collaborating on Twitter, hi5, Facebook, MySpace, and the like on assigned individual school projects. It's old news that potential employers haven't hired some people because of inappropriate content or associations on their LinkedIn or Facebook pages. Or, how about the teachers who have been asked to step down for overtly sexual content within their social networks? There's also the famous Jeff Jarvis blog post about Dell's inadequate customer service.
So what does this all mean? Are social networks powerful enough to cause an adjustment in personal and corporate behavior on a macro-level? You bet your camera phone they are. This is why we are seeing governments starting to step in to help try and regulate social media. Hopefully the social media suppliers can self-regulate as much as possible.
The 20-something now thinks twice about getting so drunk that she blacks out and can't remember how she wound up in the hammock of a stranger's backyard. Cameras document everything, and technologies like Facebook's Mobile Upload and "tagging" can disseminate a naked keg stand to your network faster than you can count to five.
Sure, many still have the desire to put their deepest and darkest thoughts and behaviors into a black box, but they are less likely to be able to keep their actions secret.
When you get home from a hard day at work and ask your kids what happened in school, many respond with the same answer that you did when you were a teenager—"nothing." They aren't intentionally being difficult (at least most of the time); they are just teenagers being teenagers. They do not understand that the fact that their classmates Holly and Suzy were pulling each other's hair in gym class is incredibly intriguing. Or, the fact that the substitute teacher went an entire class period not knowing she had toilet paper on her shoe would provide much needed levity to a parent returning from a stressful or monotonous day at the office.
In many instances, social media can help bring families a little closer by enabling parents to unobtrusively follow their kids' lives. Oftentimes in today's busy world, parents and teenagers share time only around the dinner table, and then everyone goes about his or her own life. Many families don't share the luxury of sitting down together at dinner.
To some extent, social media can bring families together—it connects parents to their kids like never before. "I think one of the real beauties of social media is the passivity of it. Unlike e-mail that requires a response, a mother or grandmother can passively observe the whereabouts and activities of their children or grandchildren," indicates Steve Kaufer, CEO of TripAdvisor.
While ignorance can sometimes be bliss, social media provides insight for parents into the day-to-day activities of their children. But you shake your head and say there is no way that kids would allow their parents to spy like that. You would be right, but it's not universally true. Although some junior high students don't mind being seen with their parents at the movies, others would rather be dead than be spotted with their parents in public. Also keep in mind that some parents will not bless their children's social media usage unless they are a part of their child's network. Sixty-nine percent of parents indicate they are "friends" with their kids on Facebook (The Social Media and Personal Responsibility Survey). The same study revealed that the vast majority (73 percent) of parents believe it's acceptable for their child to have a Facebook or MySpace account. However, those same parents claim they will monitor their child's social media profile until they are 18 years old.
Obviously, if their parents are in the social network, then teenagers will be taking on preventative behaviors. Keep in mind that teenagers will also take on preventative behaviors not only for their parents, but also for some of their classmates. For example, if a rowdy, partying guy was trying to impress a particularly prudish and reserved girl—his behavior in the social network might be a little more refined after she becomes a part of his network and is privy to his activities and behavior.
There is also "Facebook Dating." Facebook dating is where teenagers change their profile to reflect who they are dating. However, in the "real world" they aren't really dating, have never held hands, or even kissed. Simply put, if a girl likes a boy she can simply change her profile to reflect she is dating the dreamy guy in her geometry class.
The great thing about technologies like Twitter (microblogging) for businesses is that this is a tool that enables a company to search for a brand name like "Hershey" or "Prada" and see what millions are talking about. Good companies do this, but savvy companies take it one step further and act on it.
Comcast, who has notoriously terrible customer service, did a progressive and great thing from the beginning when it came to microblogging. Comcast assigned a person to monitor conversations for any mention of the term "Comcast," and more importantly, they also gave that company representative the authority to respond and act. This first came to the public's attention when famous blogger Michael Arrington of TechCrunch had his service down for over 36 hours and was getting no help from customer service over the phone. He ranted on Twitter about how much he despised Comcast's service, and pals like Jeff Jarvis ("Dell Hell") started reposting the story. To Arrington's surprise, he was contacted within 20 minutes by a Comcast representative who was following rants on Twitter, and his issue was resolved by the next day. Another example of Comcast's progressiveness was posted by C. C. Chapman on the blog "Managing the Gray":
I just had an amazing experience in customer service from Comcast.... With all the flack they have gotten over the years, I've actually been very fortunate to have a mostly good experience with them and the last 24 hours really proves that when a brand pays attention to the conversation happening out on the Web about them and actively works to engage in that, good things can happen.
... last night I made a snide remark about the lackluster quality of my HD picture on Comcast during the Celtics game. Comcast saw that and tweeted me back minutes later. This morning I got a call from their service center. This afternoon someone came out. Now my HDTV rocks! THAT, my friends, is customer service and how it should work all the time.
Brands need to wake up to the fact that "new media" isn't going away and in fact, I'd argue that it isn't new anymore, but is here and at the forefront so you either wake up and pay attention or you lose business to the company that is paying attention.[22]
JetBlue also engaged in trying to keep a pulse on its customers. When a company starts to follow you on Twitter, it may seem a little too Big Brother, but if the company is transparent, then the consumer's concerns about too much information-sharing go away. For example, this is a typical response from JetBlue:
Sorry if we weirded you out by following you on Twitter. @JetBlue isn't a bot, it's merely me and my team keeping our ears to the ground and listening to our customers talk in open forums so we can improve our service. It's not marketing, it's trying to engage on a level other than mass broadcast, something I personally believe more companies should try to do.
Because corporate involvement in social media is a new and evolving discipline, I also take a specific interest in conversations revolving around our role here. I'd have messaged you directly if you allowed direct messages, so please also forgive me for following the link on your twitter page here to send you this note.
You and Lisa are no longer being "followed" as you indicate.
Again, my apologies.
Morgan Johnston
Corporate Communications
JetBlue Airways[23]
Notice what Morgan says, "It's not marketing, it's trying to engage on a level other than mass broadcast."
In another use of Twitter, authors are constantly doing vanity searches on Twitter to determine if people are talking about them or about their books. One author says, "I was doing a vanity search on my name within Twitter when I saw a post out of Billings, Montana, that had happened in the last two minutes and the exchange went something like this."
Author: My husband just handed me a book by Tim Ash called Landing Page Optimization. Is this any good?
Tim Ash: Yes, it's a great book.
Author: Aren't you the author?
Tim Ash: Yes, I am.
Author: Well, if I don't like this book will you refund my money?
Tim Ash: Yes, I'm so confident that you will like the book that I will refund your money if you don't.
As you read this, you may say wait, this isn't necessarily new; good companies have been responding to comments on message boards for several years now, especially after popular blogger Jeff Jarvis flamed (no pun intended) Dell in his "Dell Hell" post in 2005.[24]
The concept of responding to customer unhappiness is certainly not new and especially not new on the Web. The difference with social media is the speed and ease in which this occurs as well as the sphere of influence.
A post on a message board can take a company quite some time to find (i.e., time measured in days), if they find it at all. This can also be a labor intensive and costly process for companies to follow. The key problem is that it is often very labor intensive for the user to post a complaint. To post on a message board, you generally are required to set up an account for that particular message board. Message boards are sometimes difficult to navigate to a particular topic area, and so on.
In the past, millions of frustrated customers didn't bother to comment. According to a study by the Strategic Planning Institute, historically 96 percent of dissatisfied customers don't bother to complain. An astounding 63 percent of these silent dissatisfied customers will not buy from you again.[25] Hence, companies didn't know they had hundreds of frustrated customers. Now, it is so much easier to provide feedback from anywhere (in particular from your mobile device) that more and more customers are doing it. With programs like Facebook Connect and Friend Connect (Google), one can use an easy-to-remember login (Facebook or Google) no matter what site you happen to be on, whether it's cnet.com or cbssportsline.com. Or, if you don't feel like posting a comment with one click of a button you can simply Facebook "like" a particular website, brand, or company.
With social media tools, you can post a comment or video in seconds directly from your laptop or most likely your mobile device. This is critical because it allows frustrated customers to instantly post their exact feelings at the point of frustration. They haven't had time to ruminate, so it is unbridled. Similarly, the posts are easy for companies like JetBlue and Comcast to see. It's not laborious at all to find problems; in fact, they can assign one person to help handle most situations, which means they have more time to focus on the solution rather than spending time finding the problem.
This gets to another point on how savvy companies philosophically approach critical posts on the Web. Ineffective companies, that aren't in touch with their customers, view negative posts as nuisances. These companies approach negative feedback by attempting to figure out how to technically scrub or manipulate it by means of posting bogus "good" user comments or applying pressure to the site(s) via anti-trademark infringement laws to remove the post.
Effective companies and people relish critical online feedback. They use this information to make themselves more competitive by improving their products and services in the eyes of the consumer. These companies don't waste their time attempting to manipulate online systems; rather, they spend their time (like in the JetBlue Twitter example) trying to resolve the issue with the disgruntled customer and learning from it. Good companies view it as an opportunity to prove to that customer they are willing to go the extra mile for them. From the previously mentioned Strategic Planning Survey, of the 4 percent of unhappy customers who do complain, 7 out of 10 will do business again with the company so long as their concerns are handled properly, and 19 out of 20 if the grievances are dealt with swiftly. Rapid response is even more critical when it comes to tools like Twitter, where 10 minutes is considered a lifetime.
A good everyday analogy of constructive feedback is a friend who lets you know when you have an unsightly poppy seed stuck in your teeth prior to a big blind date. This friend is much more valuable to you than the politically polite and silent friend. Perhaps the biggest difference between these examples and traditional message boards doesn't have anything to do with the tactical or the technology. It has to do with the sphere of influence of the person posting.
If the fictitious Peter Poster places something on a message board, he doesn't know whom he is reaching, and the reader most likely doesn't know who Peter is. With social media, Peter posts a status update on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and so forth. This status update is sent to people within his network who all (personally) know him. By knowing Peter, they can readily identify with the position Peter is coming from.
If Peter complains about a Boston cream doughnut from a particular bakery, his followers may discredit it and say "That Peter is always so fickle when it comes to eating. It's rare if he likes any food item that his mother doesn't make." Conversely, if Peter complains about the poor customer response from a phone provider, a follower may say, "When it comes to eating, Peter is fickle, but he is very patient and forgiving otherwise, so if he says his phone company has poor customer service, I'm going to make certain that I steer clear of that phone company."
Someone who has stayed only at five-star hotels will rate a five-star hotel differently than a honeymooner staying at a five-star for the first time.
One step would be to find someone you don't know on general review sites who seems to have similar tastes; however, the next logical and more rewarding approach is locating a person in your social network who you know and who you are confident (via personal knowledge) has the same preferences you do.
Let's perform a quick calculation based on the average number of people that a person on Twitter has following them to underscore the importance of social media. The old rule of thumb was that a person who had a bad experience would tell 6 to 10 people about it. The average person on Twitter follows 100 people. If you take that and assume that 10 percent of the people following someone will pass it along, then you get to the number 10 (100 × 0.10 = 10). Ten people will be influenced directly. If those 10 also have 100 followers and only 5 percent pick it up, then another 50 individuals will be influenced indirectly, and so it goes on down the line. That's quite an impact.
Chapter Two Key Points
Businesses and people are willing to have open diaries within social media as a way to stay connected because their ultimate desire is to feel a part of something larger than themselves. With this openness comes responsibility for both businesses and individuals.
What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube.
Individuals and companies are starting to lead their lives as if their mother or board of directors were watching their every move because they probably are. While there are downsides to these behavioral changes caused by social media, overall it's beneficial to society.
Social media connects parents to their kids like never before.
Social media enables customers to instantly post what they like and don't like about anything from products to government.
Negative comments and posts are easier for companies to find with social media. Hence, those companies have more time to focus on the solution rather than spending time finding the problem.
Effective companies and people embrace critical feedback. Digital comments that identify areas for improvement are invaluable.
Ineffective companies spend time attempting to obfuscate or manipulate negative comments within social media. Good companies spend time addressing and resolving customer complaints.
Try to use social media to get hired vs. fired.