The Privacy Irony

As humans, we want our privacy. It is in our nature. No one wants people to know everything they do. We demand privacy from a multitude of companies ranging from healthcare providers to financial institutions to legal institutions, and, last but not least, social media sites. That's right, we voluntarily post stuff on the web for others to see, knowing that stuff "never disappears from the web," yet we demand privacy. Ironic? Yes! We are all guilty; no one wants creepy people seeing their information and photos, myself included. So why do we post them? Our desire for connecting with others clashes with our desire for privacy. Many people are willing to put their privacy on the line to connect with others. Kind of crazy. Just connect with them in person!

A recent discussion in a financial course brought to my attention that creditors, although subject to many privacy laws, can actually friend you on Facebook and see your activity. So, hypothetically, you add this random person who sends you a "friend request" even though you don't really know them. They see you just bought a new car from a picture with the caption "MY NEW CAR!!" Surprise! It's your creditor you've been trying to avoid... and although they cannot legally call you out on the site about your financial obligations, they know what alley to take to get their money (aka, your new car). Crazy, right? Not really, you allowed them to be your friend and see your activity. In reality, they probably wouldn't even have to friend you because it is likely you aren't aware of your privacy settings and rights and who on the site can see what information you have posted whether they are your friend or not.

To summarize: go check your privacy settings! Read the policies and be informed. Watch what you post and who you connect with...or simply remain socially abstinent!

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The Carnival (did not bring) Triumph Incident

Carnival Cruise Line has been the subject of public scrutiny lately. First, I'm sure we all remember the Costa Concordia incident, where the ship "crashed" too close to the shore of Italy, halfway sinking. More recently, the Carnival Triumph lost propulsion due to an engine fire in the middle of the ocean with over 3,000 passengers on board, eventually losing all power. When it seemed that Carnival did not handle the Costa Concordia incident well, I think they did handle the Triumph incident very well.

I took a close look at Carnival's Facebook page, and they have been very forthcoming with updates about the condition of the Triumph. They also let everyone know of the compensation passengers would receive, what would happen once they arrived in Mobile, as well as their choice for an additional offering of $500 extra dollars. They posted notices for future passengers of the Triumph and their options for refunds. Reading through some of the thousands of comments on the updates Carnival posted, I noticed there were more neutral to positive comments then there were negative comments. People would comment on how they had a cruise booked next month and are so excited, and how they love cruising and Carnival is their favorite. Many others commented on the hard work of the staff and crew in the worst of conditions. I then visited Social Mention to get a look at the sentiment analysis, which was 18:1!

I can't help but think of the difference in the action taken by Carnival compared to that of the recent Applebee's incident. Where Carnival was open and honest, Applebee's was sketchy and argumentative. Carnival does so much more to create and maintain a relationship and instill trust amongst passengers that people have remained loyal and positive throughout this incident. For Applebee's, they kind of just exist. Perhaps this goes to say people respond in an entire different way when a brand acts opposite of our morals and beliefs versus threatening our safety. Is it because psychologically we think about cruise ship accidents like, "it won't happen to us," whereas we can all be personally offended by the actions Applebee's took? Or is it all in the way the situation was handled?

Either way, it is crazy to think people are less outraged about people being stuck on a boat with little to no power for 5 days in the middle of the ocean in seemingly terrible conditions then they are about a waitress who got fired for posting a photo of a guest's receipt!

Company Pinning or Company Sinning?

Lately, more companies have been expanding their platforms to Pinterest. Does anyone else see the problem with this? It is annoying. Fashion, makeup, home decor? Yes. Categories where people are constantly looking at for new ideas. You can tell where the market really lies on Pinterest. From a little research I did, I concluded that appliances, TV networks, and brands like Blockbuster are extremely less popular than a brand such as Anthropologie. Some hard numbers: Official GE Appliances - 1,040 followers; Lifetime TV (official) - 2,517 followers; Blockbuster (official) - 1,541 followers. Let's compare this to Anthropologie's followers: 258,546 total followers, a number greater than the first 3 combined. People look to Pinterest for "new." They are not interested in microwaves and stoves (unless decorated wonderfully in a mansion, of course). Companies existing in mature markets where most people already have the goods and aren't going to have to look into buying that good for another 10 years are lacking the attention grabbing feature that a bowl that separates cereal and milk creates. That's why I've created four unique questions to ask yourself before your company enters the Pinterest world.

1. Product or Service? Services are harder to market via Pinterest because of the risk of killing your business through your pins. For example - say Orkin (you know, the bug killers; "here comes the Orkin Man") creates a Pinterest and fills it with DIY ways to keep termites from eating your home. Sure, awesome for consumers to know, but for the business? NO! If people can do that on their own, and you provide the information, what good are you to them? For products, people see it and they want it immediately! That toaster that prints messages on your toast? Yeah it probably burns the toast way too much on the message, but it's cool, right? Way easy to sell. People can't do that on their own. Don't take business from yourself. If this consumers your business' Pinterest site, re-strategize!

2. What is the niche market for my product? Essential to pinning is knowing who will be looking at your pins. With this information, find ways to make yourself available to those pinners, who will frantically re-pin your pins for all of his or her followers to see, who may do the same. This will enable you to spread knowledge of your products far and wide throughout the niche market. Hobby Lobby has tons of followers! They do a great job of creating pinboards for all holidays, etc with ideas. Who is their niche market? Crafters and creative people who love to create new decorations and take on new projects. Hobby Lobby knows this and ensures their content will appeal to this particular market.

3. Can I make this a long term project? Those companies that relentlessly take on the social media world for 4 days and then quit are lacking content to keep it alive. This is embarrassing for the company. Why have a Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest if you are not constantly giving followers new content to keep them interested? Content consumers want new, now. Daily activity is vital, which takes time and resources. Someone must work diligently to create this content and come up with ideas for pinning. Summarily: don't create a Pinterest to say you created a Pinterest. Eli Lilly (the pharmaceuticals company) has a Pinterest, but with only 23 followers and absolutely NO pins. Someone could come up with some relevant content, such as lifestyles of users of drugs like Cymbalta or Cialis (maybe, not so much Cialis, ha!) who blog, surely there is someone out there! Having it to have it is not useful unless you are going to use it. Keep that in mind for any social media site.

4. Will I be able to link my content to relevant content? No one wants to be spammed. Make sure your pin will be linked to what the consumer expects. Maybe this is your company website where the product and information are displayed. Maybe it is a company blog, or maybe a fan or loyal customer's user-generated blog. People actually delve into these pins and see what it is all about sometimes. If I pin a Food Network recipe for shrimp pasta, I don't want to be led to an in-between site trying to sell me something. Keep this in mind. Consumers expect to see exactly what they are clicking on. This creates a trust between the pinner and the brand, instead of the pinner thinking "Are you kidding me!? Never pinning from them again, I can't even see the recipe I wanted!" They'll return to your Pinterest page for recipes all the time if you can provide this simple step for them.

Of course there are many more things a company can consider before using Pinterest, as well as any other social media site, but these are four critical questions. Don't play social media "keeping up with the Joneses" unless you are actually going to put forth the effort and stay ahead!

Everyone is a Media Outlet

A previous discussion in my Social Media course gave me something to ponder: everyone is a media outlet. We have so much these days; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the like. We are all capable of sharing information and creating content. This brought me back around to a State Farm commercial I've been seeing a lot lately.

"They can't put anything on the internet that isn't true"....what a kick! But why do people want to fill the web with false information? False information serves no purpose and often backfires. Lately, a lot of incidents have been occurring in my hometown, like a teen dying at the high school or a gunman at the air force base. Since I'm not living there, the first thing I see about these things has been on social media sites. Turns out, much of what people initially post is false. Yes, something did happen; no, to all of the extra fluff and opinion-rumors. What inspires people to post statuses and tweets or blogs about issues they have little knowledge of? Has social media taken us so far off path that we HAVE to include our opinion, even if it is an uneducated one? Why do we expect companies to be completely transparent and truthful online, but endorse our peers when they post illegitimate information? One day, our peers (who are posting poor information) will be the ones behind the social media lines of these companies (who are expected to post truthful information). This poses the question: how long will we really be able to trust even the most reliable sources on the web?

Using Social Media the Right Way: Outraged Customers

When routinely scrolling through Facebook Monday evening, I stumbled across a friend who was outraged at the service she received from an arts and crafts furniture business. Of course I took interest in this drama and clicked thru to see what the hype was about. Pretty much, this girl wanted to buy a table at what she thought was a good deal, worked it out with the sellers, went to view it, and asked if they could repaint it. They told her yes, she offered a deposit, and they told her nothing was needed until she picked up the table. A few days passed and she did not hear from them and saw the table posted on Craigslist. After trying to contact the business, they ignored her.

As the typical Facebook user, I took the next step and visited the Facebook site of "She Sells Sea Shells Shabby Chic Furniture & Designs," and was appalled at what I found! 

From what I have learned collaboratively in some of my marketing courses, this is NOT the right way to approach a situation like this! Online, or in person. As an adult woman (seemingly, from the picture), the business owner/co-owner should not have responded the way she did on behalf of the business. I was in shock that the second owner's comment on the business page addressed the situation equally as poorly. 

I have a few critiques for the responses from "She Sells Sea Shells" owners. First of all, this Facebook page is entirely public. If I was a random consumer looking for some cute furniture, of course I am going to look through the recommendations on the page before I were to make a purchase, let alone contact the company to see about a price or other information to see if it is even worth doing. Have some etiquette! Negativity should never show up on a business's social media site on behalf of the business. I read this and felt like I was in 9th grade again when Lulu Thomson (not a real person) took Jenny Newman's (also not a real person) seat at the lunch table. They never said anything to each other, just beefed it out on the internet. Such a huge turnoff from this business!

Business etiquette on social media sites is not limited to the content of the message they are relaying, but also how they relay it. All capitalizations is never necessary, unless promoting the urgency of a sale of giveaway, and even then it is only slightly needed. It makes the social consumer feel like they are being yelled at, I feel like that, at least. I am sure many others feel the same! A million exclamation points is also unprofessional. It is okay to be fun and witty on social sites as a business, or on a business's behalf, but there is a time and a place. These two ladies running "She Sells Sea Shells" now look like to bimbos to me, and you, and everyone else who saw the initial posts on Facebook. Bad news spreads like the flu, and these ladies have lost themselves a ton of business as a result of their response to an outraged customer.

The phrases "lunatics" and "bad apples" are completely unnecessary for this site. Calling potential customers a lunatic? Alternative words could have been used here. Maybe instead of responding to the girl's initial post with phrases like this, they could have said "I am sorry you had a bad experience with us. Next time, enjoy half off on us," and left it at that. It is easier to have good customer service to earn loyal customers, which in turn will be more beneficial to the business in the future. Even if the girl did not want to shop with them ever again, at least they tried to limit the outrage, instead of making themselves look worse and calling her names. 

In the end, the business "She Sells" obviously lost this battle. If you read the main post picture above, at the very end, the outraged customer said she reported them to the IRS for doing cash-only business and not reporting it (for tax reasons, etc.). Yes this is illegal to do and they should be reporting to the IRS, but now they may be facing even greater financial consequences for not reporting the income in the first place! I am eager to check back in a few months to see if "She Sells Sea Shells" is still around.

Realizing the importance of handling customer outrage through social media in both what you say and how you say it, as well as how others are responding is a crucial side of using social media to interact with customers.