We’re listening: How Facebook private messages changed the game

It’s been a few months now since Facebook flipped the ‘on’ switch for the compulsory roll-out of Timeline for brands. Like it or loathe it, the switchover has brought major changes to the way brands communicate with their fans. However; in our experience, the biggest change Timeline has brought to the table is also one of the least discussed – private messaging for brands. 

By opening the floodgates to direct interaction between companies and consumers, can Facebook play the big customer service catch-up game with other social networks that have better-established customer service credentials?

If you were to ask the majority of people, we’d bet that they had always just assumed private messaging was built into Facebook. It now seems bizarre that with Twitter’s increasing prevalence as a customer service tool, brands on Facebook had been left without an option to conduct their affairs in private. Of course, a number of support forums and apps help bridge this gap (notable examples include Get Satisfaction and Zendesk), but in our experience, a lack of consistency has meant that the process is often more cumbersome than intuitive. With Timeline now live on our clients’ pages, Yomego’s community team can request customer account numbers, discuss potentially volatile topics and diffuse situations in a discreet yet personal manner, building advocacy and serving to protect our clients’ images in the process.

The change brings Facebook’s functionality in line with a general shift in the way organisations use social media. Facebook now recognises that companies can no longer rest on the platform as simply a tool for self-promotion and casual engagement. Consumers now expect that wherever a company has a voice, there will be a means to interact with them beyond the corporate bravado. For now, the option exists to disable brand private messaging, although by disabling the feature, page admins risk appearing ‘closed off’ to customer interaction.

  

Additionally, with the added customer service emphasis on a Facebook page, it now falls on companies to re-assess how they are managing their presences. Facebook page content is often left to PR and marketing staff, who may be skilled at push messaging but out of step with customer services and haven’t yet acquired the skills to deal with potentially complex support issues.

Ensuring that the resources exist to enable rapid communication between PR / marketing and customer service teams is absolutely essential. This should be complimented by a well thought-out escalation policy that helps all aspects of a company work together to resolve matters.

We’ve had a lot of positive feedback from both our clients and their customers on the addition of private messaging; however we’d love to hear some stories from those who have had different experiences or perhaps decided to disable it altogether? Let us know your thoughts.

By account manager Sam @cooltweetbro

Football players on Twitter. Do clubs need to get stricter with regulation?

Although it may be obvious to the majority of us that Twitter is a public forum, we continue to hear stories of people not only looking like an idiot to the masses, but on occasion, incriminating themselves by posting derogatory content. Despite regular reminders in the media, and the courts continuing to hand down serious custodial sentences, many people just can’t seem to shake the idea that it’s ok to say what they like whilst hiding behind a computer screen.

So, it makes me wonder; do some top-flight football players even consume media? Because by looking at their Twitter accounts, you’d think that many of them wholeheartedly believe that what they are posting can’t be viewed by the entire nation and is simply locker room chat.  

For some players, Twitter has led to serious trouble, with clubs and sporting bodies dishing out some pretty hefty fines.  Carlton Cole recently received a fine of £20K for using Twitter to post racially aggravated comments and Ryan Babel received a £10K fine for Photoshopping a picture of referee Howard Webb onto a Manchester United top.  This has led to the FA announcing that it is to take a hard-line stance against players who use Twitter and other social networking sites to criticise match officials.

Ryan Babel - Photoshop genius.

In my opinion, no one has successfully managed to paint as bad a picture of themselves as QPR captain, Joey Barton.  Despite publically humiliating himself (just click here for some of his finer moments) and taking a sabbatical from Twitter at the end of March, he has returned with a bang, reminding us all that not only does he love a physical attack (see below), but also a good war of words with the likes of Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer.

Barton tweeted soon after the match that he had attacked Aguero on purpose so as to "take one of theirs with me".

So, with Twitter giving those players with their brains in their boots a platform to tarnish their club’s reputation as well as their own, should players be banned from Twitter? Or, should their personal Twitter accounts be heavily regulated?

Twitter gives fans unprecedented access to players, and I think in this web 2.0 orientated world that this is great. Players have the opportunity to thank and reward their fans, and they’ve done this in some really nice ways.  Basketball player Shaquille O’Neal announced to his Twitter followers that he was retiring before telling the media, and QPR owner Tony Fernandes used Twitter to ask fans for signing suggestions last November.

Fans now cherish a response or retweet in the same way that a traditional fan valued an autograph.  So, to take this access away from the fans because of a few bad apples is definitely the wrong approach. At the same time, there is more clubs could do to regulate its use.  For example, the NHL operates a blackout policy in which players cannot tweet on matchday until they have spoken to the media post match.

With clear social media guidelines in place and some effort at fairness and compromise from players and their clubs, I think fans will continue to enjoy this close relationship with their heroes online.

Oh, and Joey Barton; paying some money to apologise in a promoted tweet doesn’t make your behaviour OK!

From insight executive John Paul @johnpaulfox

Mobile handsets in social media

In case you missed it this week, we'd just like to point you in the direction of Marketing magazine, pages 22 and 23...

This week's issue of Marketing, being read excitedly over lunch by @claire_foss

...where you'll find a comprehensive look at how the top 10 mobile handsets are doing in social media, produced by Yomego. We've scored each of the handsets using our proprietary SMR system and seen who comes out on top and why - and the answers might surprise you.

If you want to take a look online, head over here for more - and if you want more information on any of this, just get in touch and we'll be happy to help.

www.yomego.com
@yomegosocial

#AndTheWinnerIsNot

BrewDog’s Twitter bio states it is a brand which pushes limits and challenges conventions with award winning craft beer. Unfortunately it didn’t add another award to its shelf at the 2012 BII Scotland Annual Awards, held in Glasgow on Sunday 6th May. 

The BrewDog team arrived for the night with high expectations. This was helped along by the fact they were sat at the same table as a number of judges, who might have let it slip that they were set to win the ‘Bar Operator of the Year Award’. It was then that things took an interesting twist.

“The winner is…not BrewDog”. Despite being etched on the award, another party was named as winner of the ‘Bar Operator of the Year’, much to the surprise and uproar of BrewDog. The winner, Behind The Wall, based in Falkirk, then refused to accept the award as it didn’t bear its name.

The controversy began with a Diageo executive, who remains anonymous at the moment, as he threatened to pull any future sponsorship of the event if BrewDog was announced a winner. These slightly childish tactics, mixed with the global reach of social media, ensured the story went viral. Manifest London, BrewDog’s PR team, clearly recognised the potential. Camilla Brown, an account manager, took to Twitter to look for a photographer to shoot at BrewDog Camden, undoubtedly producing the photos we see all over the net, giving a middle finger to Diageo.

Although it is a brand known for its controversial marketing, this is one campaign that forged itself, with a little helping hand from Diageo. The end result was a worldwide trending campaign, generating more than 1,500 tweets of the #andthewinnerisnot hashtag in 24 hours.

Diageo has since apologised, although the immediate sharing on social, partnered with the virality of the campaign means that the story has been seen around the world. BrewDog’s grasp of the PR potential ensured that its side of the story led the coverage, attracting comments from around the world, even as far as Chile.

Did Diageo feel it had to respond to the controversy due to the global impact via social? Would it have issued a response had the story not gone viral? One thing is for certain, Diageo was caught red-handed trying to carve its seniority and it came out on the backfoot. 

Here’s to the underdog, the drinks are on you.

From insight executive Mark @MisterMumble

Tiger Woods and J-Lo go social

Over the past few days a golfer and a singer used social to offer fans exclusive video content like never before.

First up, Tiger Woods took to social to answer to his fans with a 14 minute Q&A video. After taking answers to questions submitted on Twitter and Facebook, the resulting video was posted to his personal website ahead of the Wells Fargo Championship in North Carolina.

This intuitive approach meant Tiger could choose relevant questions and plan an answer to each. This meant he could avoid any criticism following the Masters and speak directly to fans.

Although the likes of David Beckham have participated in live Q&As, this pre-recorded method could be one we see replicated a lot over the next few years. The approach received a mixed reception, with industry commentators saying the golfing star didn't reveal much of interest –  but perhaps for Tiger that level of control was the point.

The next celebrity to offer fans exclusive content was Jennifer Lopez. She became the first musician to use Twitter to premiere a new music video, as she unveiled ‘Follow The Leader’ to her 6.4m followers.

J-Lo has been promoting the event as “a part of history”, pushing the event to her 12m Facebook fans. This approach further extends Lopez’s use of social after giving Facebook fans access to ‘I’m Into You’ before its official iTunes release in March 2011.

From insight executive Mark @MisterMumble

Hanging out with footballers

As an avid believer of the power of social media in sport (cue shameless plug of my previous blog post), the news that the top two picks in last week’s NFL draft will hold G+ hangouts with selected fans of their new teams really excites me.  

The NFL is renowned for its excellent approach to social media, so it’s no surprise that it would be the first sporting body to innovate on G+. 

The Indianapolis Colts have confirmed that its eight lucky fans will be ‘hanging out’ with Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck; with the Washington Redskins fans likely to be hanging with Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III. 

A great way to reward and engage with loyal fans - good job NFL!

By insight exec John-Paul @johnpaulfox

Facebook status: organs available

In its never ending pursuit of acquiring your private information, Facebook has made the next logical step from asking for your status updates – asking for your organs.

The new ability to tag yourself as an organ donor was met with mixed reception from users and and the press alike, however it definitely seemsto have done the trick. Within a matter of hours Donate Life California reported a spike of 700% in terms of new organ donors. By 5pm that figure was 1400%.

Currently Zuck intends to reach a goal of 100,000 people declared as organ donors – a number he looks more than likely to reach.

Do you heart Facebook?

By account manager Sam @cooltweetbro