Learn from FedEx and turn a social media 'fail' into a huge win
If you’re reading this, you’re most likely a marketer - and you’ve probably seen FedEx’s addition to the ‘super fail’ hall of fame from late last year.
If not, click through to watch the video clip uploaded to YouTube in December by an unhappy customer.
In it, a FedEx ‘guy’ is clearly seen throwing a new computer monitor over the gate of the man who ordered it. He returned home, wondered why it was broken and uploaded a security video of the incident. Then all hell broke loose.
The 21 most horrific social media facepalms of 2011
2011 has been an interesting year for social media. It started out with various small uprisings in North Africa, with social platforms an apparent catalyst for the full-on revolutions that followed thereafter.
We’ve also seen lots of great social campaigns this year, and many brands are now using the likes of Twitter and Facebook to provide great service to their customers.
However, we also inevitably witnessed a number of foot in mouth incidents, and I thought it would be a good idea to compile them for your viewing pleasure.
I’ve sorted them into four categories: brands, agencies, people and platforms. Pull up a cushion…
Kenneth Cole in revolutionary hashtag hijacking [#fail]
Memo to brands of all shapes and sizes: do not jump onto hashtag bandwagons, especially ones that involve bloodshed, unless you want to purposefully incur the wrath of the outraged.
The latest example of what not to do as part of your social media strategy comes from fashion retailer Kenneth Cole, so called after the designer who established the company. What’s worse is that Cole himself appears to be personally responsible for this inappropriate tweet:
Oh boy... haven't we been here before?
Nokia upsets blogger due to marathon PR failure
Last week I wrote about how to engage bloggers, based on my experience as a (pro) blogger. I explained how I receive hundreds of emails every day, and how it can be difficult to make a message stand out amid that noise.
I also explained that campaigns – all campaigns – have budgets, and that it is highly lame for brands to expect bloggers to keep doing favours for them, for free.
Today I spotted a tweet by Malcolm Coles that makes for a fantastic case study in what not to do. He flagged up a real shocker between one of the world's biggest mobile companies and a humble blogger.
So on one side we have Muireann Carey-Campbell, who writes the Bangs And A Bun blog. On the other is Nokia. And in the middle is one of Nokia’s presumably expensive PR firms, Mission.
Why the Ryder Cup website sucks
Really bad company websites are organised around a business's internal structure - they reflect what departments the business has (which no one else gives a toss about), as opposed to reflecting what customers want or how they think.
The Ryder Cup site marks a new low in making your website reflect your organisation's internal structure.
How screwing up can help your business
Increasingly brand savvy customers are more wary than ever of insincere corporate apologies issued by emotionless commitee, and thanks to social media they're more able than ever to make your first strike count against you.
However, if you simply apply a little humility, making a mistake can actually lead to a better long-term relationship with your customers.
Groupola's £99 iPhone: a catalogue of major #FAIL
Last week, in a deal that sounded too-good-to-be true, group-buying website Groupola was offering the new iPhone 4 for a mere £99, sim-free. Users had to simply register interest on the Groupola website, where they would then be emailed a link to buy the new must-have iPhone on Friday.
With such a tempting deal on offer, on Friday morning, the Groupola website faced major meltdown, and that's essentially what happened.
A Groupola spokesman said 5m unique users tried to access the site between 9am and 9.30am. That number seems incredibly far-fetched to us but obviously the website fell apart as a result of the demand.
With thousands (if not millions) of users unable to access the site, it's unsurprising that a wave of angry consumers took to social media channels to voice their outrage on Twitter and Facebook.
The process was mismanaged from start to finish, resulting in a PR fiasco for the company. So what could Groupola have done to avoid such an unmitigated disaster?
International expansion fail: Groupon's non-existent deals
Groupon may be the 800 pound gorilla in the super-hot group buying space, but its prominent success story, coupled with low barriers to entry, has led to a significant amount of competition, both in Groupon's home market, the United States, and globally.
Not surprisingly, Groupon isn't content with its current U.S. dominance. Investors haven't poured nine-figures into the company so that it can maintain its current market position. So it's rapidly expanding internationally to tap into new sources of growth. But expanding beyond a home market almost always comes with challenges and risks, and that's becoming apparent as Groupon tries to move at breakneck speed into far-flung markets.
AT&T fail: Complaints sent to the CEO result in legal threats
Apple's Steve Jobs gets a lot of kudos for publishing his email address publicly (and occassionally responding to strangers). It's excusable if most corporate CEOs aren't ready for that, but today AT&T has demonstrated the flaws of the opposite approach.
A customer emailed AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson twice to ask for a phone eligibility upgrade. In response, he was threatened with a court order. Needless to say, AT&T no longer has that customer. But Stephenson is getting a lot more emails. And surprisingly, AT&T has yet to respond in a constructive way.
Irony 2.0: controversial online reputation startup caught astroturfing
Last week, I wrote about Unvarnished, the 'Yelp for people' startup
that has sparked a decent amount of controversy since publicly launching a private beta. In my post on the
company, I echoed the sentiments of a good number of fellow bloggers
and suggested that Unvarnished "may be 2010's worst startup."
Unvarnished's co-founder, Peter Kazanjy, left a comment on my post, which was shortly thereafter followed by an interesting comment from a fellow going by the name of "Mike."
