What Makes a Social [Networking] Butterfly?
I recently had a colleague ask me about social networking and some of the more popular sites that are out there right now. Her company recently charged her with managing its social networking front using mainly Facebook and Twitter. I remember receiving a message from her reading, “Okay, so I’m on my Twitter page, but I don’t see where I can update my status.” After fumbling for about 10 minutes, she was finally able to figure it out. A day or two later she asked me for my take on social networking and if I think it’s a good idea for companies. I believe it can be very useful for companies, especially from a PR stand point - but you need to make sure it’s done correctly. Since explaining what “done correctly” means is difficult without going into great detail, I wanted to exemplify a brand that is doing a great job with social networking (and pretty much every other form of marketing they partake in); Starbucks Coffee Company.
It seems like Starbucks does everything right, so it’s no big surprise that they have very strong social networking ties. Creating a Facebook, Twitter or Myspace can be a challenging thing for companies. A major problem companies have with social media is actually producing enough relevant content on a regular basis. Starbucks is constantly promoting events, special offers and other cool Starbucks-y stuff, making Facebook a very strong branch of their social network. Because Facebook allows for much more content than Twitter, Facebook allows Starbucks to promote events, post pictures, share news and much more. They even conduct poles and post video content on their site! Recently, they have posted a photo album of Howard Schultz’s trip to Rwanda - which is a really great PR piece that doesn’t feel like a PR piece. You can spend a lot of time taking short surveys, browsing media and reading discussions on their Facebook site. Because they update often, Facebook users will be notified of new posts and messages Starbucks sends out. And because Starbucks provides a lot of relevant content, users will be more willing to reply and partake in the Starbucks Facebook experience.
Twitter is a much different animal. Twitter gives you 140 characters to send messages to your followers - and that’s about it. While it’s not as extensive as Facebook, that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful to a social media mix. Twitter has blown up in 2009. Celebrities and major corporations have fueled a major draw to the site - and its simplistic style make it easy for all age groups to use. With Twitter, more so than with Facebook, consistency is more important than content. Your followers follow you for your input on certain issues, but on Twitter, timely posts can be more important than the actual content of the posts. While constantly updating your status will keep you in news feeds, you can’t just post anything. Posting relative content is always necessary - a lot of posts will actually ask questions that get responses from other Twitter users (yes, I still refuse to use the Twitizen lingo…) which is a great way to portray that you want to interact with your followers. An example is Starbucks’ current Twitter post, “What did you get with your drink this morning?” Starbucks’ Twitter also takes the time to directly reply to many of the posts it receives.
Starbucks’ most recent campaign has been to promote the free pastry giveaway (that actually happened this morning). They plastered Twitter and Facebook with promotions, status updates and ads promoting the event. Thousands of people replied to status updates and notes posted for the event. From reading the site today, it sounds like plenty showed up (many stores reporting that they were out of supplies within hours). While this illustrates how powerful social networks and ecampaigns can be, there was another interesting occurrence that leaked through the Starbucks Facebook page this morning….
The Starbucks Facebook page has a lot of cool interactive content, including an extensive collection of Discussion Boards. While this sounds like a great idea, it’s turning out to be somewhat self-destructive. There are three anti Free Pastry Giveaway boards up right now where disgruntled customers are sounding off with their unsuccessful visits to Starbucks locations this morning. Many posters complain of poor customer service, broken promises and other negative comments concerning how the promotion payed out. Starbucks replied to some of these threads - however, they did not apologize - claiming they gave specific instructions for customers to follow. I understand that with every mass promotion (especially when you are giving away free food) there are going to be some mishaps and blunders, but this blow up is very preventable. While I love a lot of what Starbucks is doing, I believe the Discussion Board is a very dangerous piece of their social media mix. Sure, great posts can help further your brand’s rep, but (multiple) negative posts can do much more damage. I like the Discussion Board - I just don’t think the topics should be user generated. Starbucks should control the Discussion Topics and monitor from there. This will allow them to have more “YOUR Ideas for a Starbucks Drink” and “Do you go to a shop in a mall, Target, Barnes & Noble, or a Individual Starbucks Coffee House?” boards rather than “Starbucks Supports the Troops(I think not)”, “Free Pastry FAIL” and “Rude Customers” (a board where Starbucks employees complain about rude customers that come into stores - UNBELIEVABLE).
This really goes to show how difficult it is to cultivate a pure social media network. A company as brilliant marketing-wise as Starbucks can create a very relevant, complex and successful social media mix, but it is still susceptible to mishaps and backfires. The truth is, we’re all still really figuring out social media, some of us are just further along than others. This case-study actually turned out to be quite interesting. Instead of praising and building-up Starbucks the entire thread (as I had planned after witnessing their strong social media skills), I was able to witness firsthand a minor flaw in their social media mix as it evolved right in front of me (on my computer screen). I’m sure they’ll take the steps necessary to resolve any mix ups. Guess I’ll have to keep checking back to see if they take my advice regarding ditching the user created Discussion Boards…maybe I’ll create a Discussion Board letting them know they should read this blog…
