Learnings from the BA Sachin ‘drama’

So, a few days ago there was a huge hullabaloo over Sachin Tendulkar’s tweets around his disappointment with British Airways.

In case, by some remote chance, you missed it here are his tweets.

And here is BA’s response..

This seemingly concerned tweet from BA had Sachin’s followers in arms. How can BA ask for Sachin’s details. After all who doesn’t know Sachin.

The whole saga has been well covered by my friend @Saritharai here. http://www.forbes.com/sites/saritharai/2015/11/13/how-a-standard-twitter-response-has-makings-of-a-pr-disaster-for-british-airways-in-india/.

Then there were the saner bunch of people who asked questions around ‘whose baggage was lost? Sachin or his family’s?’ ‘How can BA be expected to know Sachin’s exact passport name’ etc.

Many fingers pointed out to the templated response from large corporations. Some expected that poor fellow, from BA, who tweeted to be fired. Maybe he, or she was as well.

As a marketer I have 3 lessons to share

1. Response: BA got this right. Within 15 minutes of the original Sachin tweet, there was a response. Now I don’t know about you, but my experience with customer service on-line is patchy. Staying with the airlines industry I have tweeted twice. Once to Qatar and once to Emirates. Qatar was prompt and we had a proper twitterversation. Emirates did not bother to respond. I think the fact that BA responded and that they did in 15 minutes gets them full marks on that score. But that’s where it stops.
2. Handling complaints: I was in a restaurant last month. And the guy next to me was unhappy about something and started shouting at the waiter. Within minutes the manager showed up. Started talking to the angry customer and placated him and all of us could continue with our meal in peace. Someone tweeting is akin to shouting. Sachin shouted out to his 8.4 mn followers that he was unhappy with BA. And BA shouted right back ‘Hey tell me what’s the problem’. Completely wrong. Take complaints private immediately. You can then apologise, give freebies etc and satisfy the customer. You don’t negotiate in public.
3. Know your customers: With data available in plenty, data storage being cheap and adequate technology solutions out there every marketer should have a database of their most valued customers and prospects. Complete with their twitter handles, instagram accounts, facebook profiles etc. Cover every aspect of the social media channels and set them up in the ‘social media control room’. The moment someone in that list makes a complaint that should initiate a protocol that involves a high touch program. A call, an email whatever it takes. In some industries this list is static. In the services business this is a bit more dynamic. eg: All first class bookings MUST be in that list. This may be different from the high value customer list. I don’t expect this master ‘watch list’ to be more than a few thousand. If BA had this set up, the moment @sachin_rt tweeted with the words ‘Angry’, ‘Disappointed’, ‘Frustrated’ the flag would have gone up. An account manager would have tracked him down and called him. It’s not so hard. At the risk of a plug, IBM has the knowledge, skills and technology to make this happen today.

So that is what I learnt from this drama.

BA responded and promptly, but wrongly. And their CRM system needs to be set up appropriately to include social media footprints of their valued customers and prospects.

This episode again shows that non issues can threaten a brand in a relatively short time. Having proper mechanisms to deal with it is critical. Large companies need it more than the small ones. And large companies like IBM can help (another plug;-))

Varied useful links 1

1. 5 uses for crowdsourcing

2. Reality check for location based services

3. Phone is your new room key

4. New tool to analyse Tweets

5. 10 social media infographics

6. In retail, less is more

7. 50 tips to being a better boss

8. Wired, now on iPad

Brands as media

Came upon this great post by Brian Solis where he talks about Brands as Media.

He says, and I paraphrase..

Once brands react to events in the media through activities on various vehicles like FB, Twitter etc brands need to view their communications through the prism of a conversation calendar.

To this end media can be segmented into the following types

Owned media is essentially that brands. If they design it the content is theirs and they can manage what they publish within it Examples here would be web sites, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts. Brands need to create such presences where their target audiences already spend their time. Actively go out and play a role in their lives.

Paid media is that bought by the media. Tends to be conventional media. And this still has a role to play in brand communications going forward. A great advantage of Paid Media is immediacy.

Earned media is the outcome of activities in Owned and Paid media. This is reflected in the blog posts, tweets etc of ones customers and prospects. Of course the great issue here is that brands have absolutely no control on this media.

Viewed in this way, brands need distinctive strategies to address each. Old models of structures and communications don’t work so well in this new context.

A good strategy earns the brand influence, just as media channels do in the ‘paid media’ world. This influence can work to the brand’s strength as it gives it control over media that historically it was subject to. And that is Nirvana for a brand where it is not dependent on what intermediaries think and communicate about them.

..end of paraphrase..

I thought it was a good article that neatly captured all the various scraps around social media, new media, old media and the ilk.

Is anyone watching you?

Remember the old story where a couple get an all expenses paid holiday for having won a lucky draw or something? They return to find their house ransacked.

There was an updated version I saw recently on a program called ‘Hustle’ where the couple got a free show and dinner invite complete with limo service. They were out for 4 hours and come back to an emptied out house.

The moral of the story is ‘If something’s too good to be true, it probably is’.

In the words of marketers this is called ‘cold calling your prospect’. You invite them to something not knowing if they would be interested or not. If they are, you strike.

But what about a world where the prospect says ‘Come strike me’.

Or rather ‘Come rob me’.

This post mentions what seems like a real life incident linked to this site called foursquare.

I am not a user of foursquare, but apparently, it is an application whereby you check in to a location. And you broadcast it to the world. So if you have signed up, you can say. I checked into the Starbucks@Esplanade or Harrys@boat quay or whatever. The outlet concerned has the option of giving away freebies/promotions to people who check in frequently etc.

The flip side of this of course is that people know your location. (assuming you tell the truth. If you are not then the whole four square is pointless to you any way). This could be an invitation to be robbed.

In this post the author talks about getting a call from a stranger at the coffee shop, as he said that he’d checked in there. And proceeded to inform him of a break in at his house.

While the internet opens the doors to free communications, one needs to also be aware of who is watching.

On the one hand there are the brands that are trying to tempt the tweeters or facebookers with targeted offerings, while on the other side are unscrupulous elements out to cheat.

Brands have the tough task of not being lumped with the latter category and need to walk the fine line of erring on the side of privacy.

How to Tweet

A bit late in the day but here’s a very comprehensive article/book on using Twitter effectively.

From setting up an account to building an image to using hashtags and Twitter applications to automate following etc.

Good article that covers all that you need to know and beyond!!

Enjoy.

pdf here

Read on-line here

The State of the Twittersphere : 2010

For those ‘watching’ the amazing growth and use of Twitter here are some really interesting facts.

• Twitter growth peaked at 13.5% in March 2009 and dropped to 3.5% in October 2009
• The average user is following more people; about 160 up from about 40, 6 months ago
• The average user has more followers too. About 300, up from 60, 6 months ago
• 82% of Twitter users maintain a network of less than 100 followers
• 91% of Twitter users follow less than 100 people
• Thursday and Friday are the most active days for Twitter
• 10pm – 11 pm is the busiest time in the day
• And…leave space at the end of your tweet for someone to add a user name and maybe a comment, to increase chance of RT.

Many many more bits of data on Twitter right here.

USD 100k from Twitter

Here’s a post from someone who made 100K from Twitter.

No it was not a lucky draw nor a sudden great idea.

Persistent hard work was at the core of it.

What the author did comprised 8 steps.

1. Followed prospects
2. Started conversing with them
3. Informed them of his business
4. If they were interested they talked business
5. He sent proposals
6. Won some work
7. Delivered
8. Repeat

So rather than look for that killer app that is going to bring in millions here’s a simple story of a person who used Twitter as a targeted acquisition tool.

Big step up from cold calling. Wonder how many businesses are doing similar programs.

Whose copyright is it anyway?

Today there was a bit of kerfuffle today amongst my ex company’s ex colleagues, including myself now having seen the film. ie friends at Ogilvy. From what I can gather, today being Republic Day, this film called Phir Mile Sur was launched/released. The reason we were rather agitated with the whole saga is that this film is based a lot on this film, Mile Sur Mera Tumhara.

When Mile Sur was released it took the country by storm. It generated a huge positive feeling of joy, patriotism and national unity amongst a normally cynical lot. It was rated amongst the best ever film of it’s genre and it spawned a rash of similar endeavours, all of which paled in comparison. Even today the film can give one goose bumps..I refer to the Indians of course

Now amazingly none of the publicity for this new film even refers to the creator of the original film, Mr Suresh Mullick, a legendary copy writer and creative director of Ogilvy India. And beyond that, a much loved man. This obviously made many of us who knew him, and were around when the film was made quite rather unhappy.

That led me thinking along the lines of giving credit when using someone else’s work. Beyond the obvious fact of due recognition, is the issue of copyright.

Looking at two vehicles that have gained tremendous traction recently..Facebook and Twitter, leads me to think that technology should make it more difficult to steal, but these two are going in the reverse direction.

Take Facebook for example. It is extremely easy to ‘share’ someone’s post on to your page. So the ease with which one can share what we like with our friends is admirable. But when you do this, you lose the name of the source. So unless the ‘sharer’ specifically mentions the source, the perception is that this material belongs to the person who shared.

Or from Twitter. Retweeting is very common ie passing along something you got that was interesting. Again most Twitter clients allow you the option of removing the name of the original tweet. Ends up with the similar situation as that of Facebook.

So technology that should prevent ‘stealing’ copyright is actually enabling and spreading it.

Then we start having the debate about IP and who owns it etc.

I don’t understand why the technology of today doesn’t embed basic ‘sharing’ and ‘RT” copyright for starters.

We need to start somewhere. The sooner we start with the widest impact the better it is to make a step forward. We need to make ‘acknowledgement’ part of the lingua franca of the generation coming up now in the age of Facebook and Twitter. This in turn leads to a greater understanding of copyright.

And going back to the point which I started, about Mile Sur..It is clearly conceived by Suresh. And now seeing people ‘remixing’ it without recognition is a symptom of the disease where copyright means little. The one who speaks the loudest or most often gets credit. That is a shame. And should stop!

Ellen, Twitter, brands

I am not sure yet about Twitter. Oh yes I have an account and I tweet infrequently, but follow many folks.

The people I follow, falls into 4 categories.

1. People who may have something to say that would be of professional interest to me. eg Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki
2. People who follow me. Apparently the rule is you follow those who follow you. I have since wisened up of course.
3. Family esp the in-laws:  Not really a choice, especially if they are also in bucket 2 above.
4. And finally those who can entertain. Here I club the people who tweet jokes. I recommend funnyjoker and funnyoneliners whole heartedly.

As part of the last category I decided to follow Ellen deGeneres. Yes the funny lady of TV.

Now I don’t know about you, but when I think of Ellen I think hilarious, clean humour, sarcastic, whip lash funny. Following someone like that would be like watching her show, except in text.

But it was not.

For the few weeks I did follow her, all she tweeted about was her show, her guests, her appearances, the events she went to etc.

I waited for this to change and get to the funnies. It didn’t.

I stopped following her.

Thinking about this recently I see a few lessons for brands who want to get into this space.

1. Understand what the brand is about?: People follow others on Twitter for any number of reasons. I am sure there are people who want to know Ellen’s program schedule and who is going to be on the show next. And then there are people like me, who want to experience the funny Ellen. Brands have many facets. Understanding that is key to ensuring a consistent Twitter, or any branded, experience. People may follow a travel operator to know about great travel deals. There may also be those who follow to get travel ideas. How do you cater to both without alienating either. Or do you choose? It comes down to understanding the brand essence and then using that to define the Twitter profile.

2. Getting followers: Once you have defined the brand the next step is getting followers. In many ways getting followers is easy. Remember Ashton Kutcher who said he could get 1Mn followers faster than CNN? Getting the right followers is the challenge. As my Ellen experience shows, big brands with interesting stories would find it relatively easier to get followers. But given how easy it is to also unfollow, the importance of getting the right followers cannot be understated. Rather be relevant to small set of people, than irrelevant to everyone. This is akin to the opt-in programs run in the email world. Giving freebies to get opt-in gets a ton of people signing up. But they also drop off rather quickly because they are not interested in the following messages. (Please see separate post here on this subject a few months ago)

3. Activate the followers: Because of the ease of following someone, it is rather easy to get many followers. Conversely the followers are also following many others. It is thus easy to get lost in the hundreds of tweets the person receives. It is therefore important to, at some frequency, send out activation tweets to check the participation of followers. This could be link to a site or a promotion or some such activation idea to make the brand active to the followers. Ellen does this through her messages about her shows.

4. Metrics: Before you start the tweeting program, set some metrics so that you know how you are doing. Ashton’s metric was 1 mn followers. Ellen’s probably is program viewership. Marriott’s could be hotel room sales. etc.Your brand’s could be different. Should be different based on why you started this in the first place.

The 4 points above need to be seamless.

Defining the brand is intimately connected to the followers, activating them and then measuring the performance.

It is a sort of virtuous circle as well as interconnected dots. What one learns in the metrics could impact what the brand stands for as it could impact the nature of follower or the activation program. etc.

This post is by no means meant to be a ‘How to set up a tweet program’, rather sharing of my experience and learnings thereof from following Ellen deGeneres.

Do you have similar experiences?

User generated advertising

Thought I’d share an idea that I’ve been toying with for a while. A way, I think, Facebook and Twitter can generate revenues.

In this era of User generated content and ‘brands’ like Facebook and twitter which have high user engagement but little revenue I wonder if there is an opportunity to create a new form of communication.

I am calling this user generated advertising.

The principle is quite simple really.

There are three parts to this .

1. Creation : From a pre populated ‘tray’ of brand devices, owned by the advertiser, an user creates his/her own ad. eg If Dell’s array comprises the logo and the line ‘Take Your Own Path’, then an user can create an ad using those two elements and anything else she/he thinks brings the brand to life. Think of the tray as ‘mandatories’

2. Submission : This created ad can then be placed on the user’s own page on Facebook. Or his/her blog.

3. Payment : The advertiser pays the host eg Facebook per click. Say 1 cent a click. (all clicks lead to a generic landing page for onward discussion dialogue). The host splits this income with the creator/user.

This, to my mind, has many advantages.

For the blogger/Facebooker :

1. Money o f course

2. Fame through creativity

3. Another avenue to show off to her/his friends

For Facebook/bloghost

1. Money and a revenue model which they currently seem to lack.

The Advertiser

This is a great research tool.

Obviously user generated ads are likely to be far more customised than advertiser created ones. The ads will reflect the user and will be targeted at her/his friends.

Only bands that the user relates to will get ads created.

Only ads that are attractive/creative will get the clicks.

So an advertiser benefits from

1. Saving on advertising creation costs

2.  Getting highly targeted advertising

3.  Knowing the kind of advertising that appeals to which target profile

4. Provides huge testing opportunity as they can decide what needs to be in the ‘tray’. This can change by geography, season, user

A similar model can work for Twitter, where it is obviously copy driven and revenue flows by number of Retweets.

Does this sound like a workable model?

Will I get money if anyone picks up this and executes?

Thoughts/comments?