November 28th, 2008 by Nils Maier
Here are some Twitter links to fit previous postings …
http://www.twitter.com
A Twitter search engine:
http://www.twitscoop.com
A Twitter – Tool, which concerns itself with “followers” of specific User:
http://tw33t.me
Tool, for auto Follow People on Twitter >> Twollow
A tool for ranking your twitter account and checking the twitter fame within your city >> Twitter Grade
Another tool, which picks, sums and ranks posted links of twitterers :
http://www.twitturls.com
Yet, another tool (kind of old actually but still interesting), which lists corporate twitterers:
http://blog.metaroll.de/2008/04/17/corporate-twitter-die-liste
Twittering as PR – Tools? Here are 2 available online presentations:
http://fly.ingsparks.de/2008-11-15/twitter-als-pr-tool
A quick guideline, on how a company should act on Twitter:
http://valleywag.com/5056678/how-to-keep-your-company-from-looking-stupid-on-twitter
The infamous Obama on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/barackobama
Watch out, two r’s are needed! http://twitter.com/barrackobama
One gets to read interesting statements such as: “Yes, President Bush is really every bit as intelligent in person as he appears on television when Barney lets him get a word in edgewise.”
That’d be all, have a great weekend!
November 28th, 2008 by Nils Maier
From failures one learned – writes the influential marketing blog in reference to companies utilizing social media and it sure does fit. Crisis in brand communications can lead to new approaches in daily basis for improvement of brand communications. Dell and Comcast are two shining examples of how powerful social media as relevant communication channel can be for their brands reputation. Comcast, as well as Dell had to experience it first based, what it meant to be in social media communication crisis. From clips of Dell flaming laptop to sleeping Comcast technician on the couch circulating in YouTube, both brands finally saw the long lasting imminent threat for their brands reputation through these social media activities of users and consumers. Ultimately, they recognized the need to change and now both brands actively embrace the social media tools. In short, lessons well learned by both brands.
Unfortunately in Germany, reputation management in social media is yet to be managed accordingly by vast majority of PR executives. This was my assessment taken from my experience in PRofile 08. The conference focused on ways of PR in social media and it also emphasized on the existing lack of interests in social media due to the absence of invited PR execs and companies spokesperson. In particular, Mrs. Annete Kahre (Melitta Kaffee spokesperson), from my point of view, she might have misunderstood what social media is actually all about, it is more than just about monitoring blogs. At the end of the day social media is more about marketing. Firstly, blog is only one part of the consumer generated media and secondly, social media is more about marketing and communication tools.
As we mentioned countless times, PR and marketing in consumer generated media are about two way conversations. Users of social media platforms should not just be consumers and target group for the marketing department, but utmost, they are the key influencers (opinion leaders) in reputation and issues. Let me make a hypothetical assumption using Melitta as an example. How communication crisis, like the ones Comcasts and Dell experienced, would affect Melitta’s performance and communication’s strategy?
Mrs. Kahre would likely noticed, that her classic press clipping would not suffice, to actually register the development of issues in all relevant communication platforms. Furthermore, she would also experience, that news travels fast like wildfire in social media and how it could provide wide coverage about damaged brand reputation. At last, she would likely realized, aside keeping close contact with classical media (Print, TV) how truly important social media platforms are and keeping close contact to user generated media has become inevitable.
Such crisis would be like a Wake Up call for Melitta. Therefore, each opinion of bloggers or posters must be taken seriously and it should be monitored. It’s not only about classical media spreading the bad news but it could have been the consumers themselves. Hence, consumer’s journalism has become the relevant communication channel.
With all said, I got the impression that lots of PR agencies and company’s communicators are lacking in knowledge about social media. But this should have actually compelled PR execs to deal with it for their own good before it’s too late.
In the end, I do share the same point of view of Brian Solis: Engage or Die.
Unfortunately, the majority of communicators in Germany would likely be actively aware, after damages are done and not before.
November 28th, 2008 by Nils Maier
Dell continues to engage in social media. The success story off ‘idea storm‘ motivates to do more. In Jeremiah Owyang’s podacst Vice President Communities & Communications Bob Pearson shares his positive experiance Dell made by engaging in digital customer conversations.
Last week we could read the first rumors about Dells Sales numbers via Twitter. Bob Pearson confirms that they haven’t made 500K$, they even broke the 1 million Dollar via selling used PCs via Twitter.
Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Social Media, Web Marketing
Jeremiah Owyang discusses how web tools and social media enable companies to connect with customers.
Executive Video Interview: Why Dell Continues To Use Social Media
Check out the podcast:
November 28th, 2008 by Nils Maier
Angry twittering moms can cause serious damage to the company and brands online reputation. The U.S Company Johnson and Johnson got the taste of it recently from a mass of outraged and twittering moms. The creative approach of the marketers on the subject strains caused by a baby carrier/sling and Motrinas the perfect problem solution, were found way too offensive by the majority of moms. After all, for moms, it is more about the undeniable powerful bond of being close to their babies whenever possible and less about sore muscles caused by carrying them.
The storm of outrage started in particular through Twitter and You Tube, where young angered moms exchanged their opinions about the offensive and disrespectful ad. AdvertisingAge gives a short overview about how it all started, from one posting up to masses of protest against the brand:
The beginning of the end for the Motrin push probably came Friday (14.11) night, when Los Angeles blogger Jessica Gottlieb said she was tipped off to the ads and started expressing her outrage over the campaign on Twitter, where she has 1,018 followers…On Saturday (15.11), Katja Presnal (4,221 Twitter followers), a New York blogger and proprietor of online children’s clothing store Skimbaco, collected tweets from offended moms and edited them into a nine-minute video on YouTube titled “Motrin Ad Makes Moms Mad,” which had been viewed 21,000 times as of today.
The Motrin campaign got off on the wrong foot with the wrong bloggers, namely mommy bloggers, which led to an immense danger of the brand’s online reputation in within only 2 days after the campaign kicked off. So basically marketers and PR executives should always keep in mind, to take each posting seriously, because it does not take much of influencer for an issue to end up as a crisis.
This communication crisis of J&J shows that Twitter has become a great a challenge for communicators in the realms of issue and reputation management. No other medium has this kind of online influencer’s concentration.
The marketers responsible for the advertising had no other choice than to pull off the campaign after that PR disaster and issued a public apology to all the offended women.
As I mentioned in my previous posting, most companies take social media as a relevant channel after they fell flat on their nose and not before. So I am quite curious, if in the future J&J would take social media more seriously into their communication efforts.
