Social Network King or Queen

Good morning everyone, we hope you’re all well and ready for the weekend, this week went by rather fast don’t you think?

Today we will be discussing social networks and which ones are the best, of course everyone has a different opinion to this as everyone uses these networks for different purposes.

Firstly we will mention Pinterest, not many people seem to talk about it even though it is one of the fastest growing networks out there. But how good is it really? When compared to the likes of Flikr and Instagram, can it perform better? Each of these platforms offer different functionalities but at the end of the day they all do the same thing, share images and this is the key focus, which one allows this to be done more efficiently?

Secondly there is Twitter, of course almost everyone knows what Twitter is and what it is used for. However, believe it or not there is a very high number of people who have a Twitter account but never use it, then there are other users who have an account but are not active very regularly. These points can be used to show how much social media still has to grow to encompass everyone.

Finally, there is LinkedIn, I would say Facebook but it is talked about enough already. LinkedIn is a very different platform, whereas on Facebook you would speak about almost everything, on LinkedIn the context behind what is being discussed is business almost every time. One would not find anyone speaking about the weather on LinkedIn, this is a great platform for professionals but to also share knowledge.

All in all, all these platforms offer great capabilities but in today’s world it is so difficult to decide which one is best for you considering there are so many that have twins.

Which of these platforms do you find most useful and why? Are there other platforms you would like to share with us?

Comment below of join the discussion on Twitter with the Hashtag #SMNetworks

Reoccurring Crises

Good morning everyone, how are you all doing today? The end of the week is nearly here, ready for the weekend?

Yesterday we spoke about how much social media should be done. Today we’re talking about a different subject.

 This morning we all woke up to find out that RBS is facing yet another crisis due to another fault in their systems, causing the same issues that happened back in June. The difference this time is that the Social Media activity has tripled which means the damage will be a lot higher.

RBS was in the firing line several times last year and this year already and with customers using social media as a resource to complain more and more it immediately makes a small issue a rather substantial one.

So how does RBS handle the gigantic amount of activity directed at them via twitter? Considering they have had several crises over the last couple of months it is essential to contain them before they spin out of control.

Today, their crisis is still on-going, millions have been affected which means millions could potentially be complaining on social media making it even more difficult for RBS to keep up.

What are your thoughts on this crisis? How do you think they should handle it or even avoid it in the future?

A Crisis

Good morning everyone, we hope you are all well and ready for the weekend.

Yesterday we spoke about a few steps that need to be taken when doing Social Media for the first time, whether you are a business or a simple user.

Today we will speak about crisis management on the social world, believe it or not there are many crises in the social sphere that can go global in a blink of an eye, and banks are the entities in the firing line most of the time.

So how do you handle a crisis? The first step to take to be prepared for a crisis is to have the tools in place to see that it is developing, second step is to minimize casualties by resolving any issues that may arise.

Of course, this sometimes means increasing the amount of manpower behind the responses, unfortunately many businesses have very small social media teams and when a crisis hits they don’t have enough people to handle it. NatWest is a very good example of this, back in June they experienced an IT fault which meant any payments made into their customers’ accounts would not show at all in turn affecting any Direct Debits being paid from the account. This has detrimental effect on how the customer trusts the organization they get services from.

The result was a huge spike in complaints, not via the phone, not via email but via social media channels, this includes blogs, twitter, forums, etc. Below is a line chart showing how big this spike was.

So, without the right people and tools, how does an organization handle a crisis? The answer is, they don’t, without incorporating social media into every strategy, one can’t manage it.

Do you agree with the statement above? What are your thoughts on managing a crisis?

O2 And Social Media

O2 has been another victim of a good old crisis which have placed it right next to the likes of NatWest. With high volumes of complaints flooding in from all corners, how did O2 handle their crisis from a Social Media perspective?

As many other businesses, they struggled and are still struggling to keep up with all the customers complaining and targeting them on the social web. After carrying out an analysis on their crisis we could determine that with the right tools, they would have been able to contain this issue from the beginning which would have saved a lot of time.

Let the figures do the talking in this case.

This single analysis was carried out just from the 11th July to 12th July, the amount of mentions is extraordinary and frightening for a business.

If you would like to find out more about our services feel free to contact Peru Fourie on 02078145282 and we will be happy to help.

Which brand do you want us to analyze next? Let us know.