Anyone for karaoke?

So I’ve been meaning to start a blog for ages and luckily for me, the good folk who employ me at Movement Digital have kindly put me on ‘A Rising Voice in Social Media’, a course ran by the Interactive Advertising Bureau aimed at helping those working within the broad realms of advertising, marketing and media to become more skilled in facilitating and participating in online interaction. Starting a blog was a pre-requisite to starting the course and has served as the long overdue kick up the arse I have needed to create an online vault of sorts containing things that get me off, piss me off or anything that I feel warrants passing on. As listed in my blog description, this is likely to broadly consist of innovative forms of communication (probably with an emphasis on mobile), electronic music (probably with an emphasis on the constantly evolving musical landscape that is dubstep) and a few other bits and bobs in between. However, it seems somewhat apt to kick off with what I learnt on my first day at social media school.

The first session of the course started with a walkthrough of where social media is currently at, looking at its’ incremental growth over the past couple of years and the level of importance marketers are now denoting to it, both in terms of budget allocation and where it sits within their overall communications plan. It was at this point the cynic inside me couldn’t help but think that some of those interviewed were probably responsible for those horribly forced and awkward brand initiated Facebook conversations reminiscent of a 40-something scouse women bellowing out Celine Dion renditions in a dilapidated karaoke bar on the Costa Del Sol.

The main thing I took out of this session (along with the Where’s Wally style handout and the much needed Monday morning caffeine injection) was that the boundaries between search and social media are becoming increasingly blurred. Hearing that Twitter essentially now views itself as a search engine struck me as somewhat of a revelation, which is quite embarrassing really as it now seems pretty obvious when I think about it. Think I’ll blame the 9.00 am for this one.

I guess in its most basic format, Twitter provides people with a snapshot of what’s going on in the world at a specific point in time. I really hope that as Twitter starts to generate its own revenue, it doesn’t lose sight of how the end users’ experience of social media is significantly enhanced by the absence of page clutter. It will be interesting to see the success rate of the first few brands that have dipped their respective toes into the unchartered ocean that is sponsored tweets, and how this area will evolve over the coming months. As a little task, we have been encouraged to write two reviews of corporate Twitter accounts, one good, one bad. So, I'm doing just that.

The Good - http://twitter.com/americanapparel

So, a brand I feel has it bang on point when it comes to Twitter is American Apparel. A key point made frequently at the IAB session was that in order for a brand to have a meaningful existence within the social media landscape, it is essential that they commit a suitable level of resource; otherwise it ends up feeling horribly forced and awkward, that is to say, it ends up feeling like karaoke. And we don’t want that now do we.

For me brands that use Twitter as a customer service tool need to strike a healthy balance between appearing accessible, personable and ultimately down-right helpful opposed to just occupying a social space for the sake of it. Oh, and they shouldn’t appear too desperate. Remember, nobody likes a try-hard so play it cool, yeah. Those neon spandex-wearing scamps at American Apparel have got it right.

American Apparel uses Twitter as a hub for its customer interaction. It addresses complaints, tweets job vacancies and product updates, runs competitions and giveaways, creates vouchers to be redeemed online and in store, promotes sales running in different areas and prompts ideaation for new product development. Also when something goes wrong, like the police closing down their London stores during their 25% off rummage sale (man how a bit of police intervention can add an air of chic) they offer their a sincere apology and the equivalent sale online. That’s how it’s done.

On their Twitter page, they ooze authenticity and personality. They’re not doing anything revolutionary, in fact far from it, they’re just using the space to communicate effectively about everything that they think their followers will enjoy. Shucks any brand that can get around 1500 people to send in pictures of their posteriors are doing something right. As the age old saying goes; Bum UGC is the best UGC.

http://i.americanapparel.net/storefront/UGCStyle/BestBottom2010/index.asp

The Bad - http://twitter.com/DavidLloydUK

This is a classic example of the all to commonplace ‘let’s just have a bash and see what happens’ social media strategy that ends up with both the brand and the reader feeling like a tit for giving up their precious time.

David Lloyd does have a Twitter presence, but they just don’t quite get what operating in the social space means. I guess over and above anything else, brands using social media should aim to use a conversational tone if they want to engage in online dialogue. Instead, David Lloyd opts for a ‘straight from the brochure/website’ approach to responding to comments from its followers, or failing that, just aimlessly plugging itself. Now this isn’t a small enterprise with few resources at its disposal. Quite the opposite, as its page explicitly reminds me at every given opportunity: ‘with 78 clubs in the UK there’s bound to be a David Lloyd near you’.

Now I searched for David Lloyd’s twitter page because I wanted to post a few suggestions on how my local club could be significantly improved, mainly by just making sure there is hot water in the showers and the exercise machines actually work. Not much to ask for £42 a month eh? I’m thinking that my suggestions might go unnoticed due to the page not being updated since the 29th January, and the more worrying abundance of conflicting and pointless tweets illustrated below:


Hi NickyT, we have 12,500 exercise machines and offer over 10,000 exercise classes per week http://bit.ly/4UOT2u 10:40 AM Jan 20th via reallyworried


Um, remind me again why I need to know the cumulative total of exercise machines and weekly classes in the UK? Surely if you employed a location-specific approach whereby each club had its own page and had a dedicated member of staff to respond to queries from its members (both existing and speculative), you would be far more effective at achieving a more satisfied and ultimately larger customer base?




@martinwaring Hi Martin, we have 150 swimming pools (half are indoor) all with dedicated lanes http://bit.ly/4p5rax 9:57 AM Jan 23rd via reallyworried

@Beffneyy Hi Beth, we have over 100 swimming pools, more than any other health club in the UK. http://bit.ly/4p5rax 9:56 AM Jan 23rd via reallyworried


Err wait, how many swimming pools did you say you had again?

Maybe this last jibe is a little perdantic, but if your're going to make two contradicting statements immediately after each other, at least clarify which one is correct.

So my take on brands using Twitter effectively is essentially this:

Rule 1: Don’t use twitter as a glorified corporate RSS feed. Be personal. Be relevant.

Rule 2: Don’t bombard your followers with an abundance of overt promotional material.

Rule 3: If using the micro-blog as a customer service tool, employ a conversational approach, DO NOT than just copy and paste material from your website/brochure.

Rule 4: Update your feed regularly or your page starts to feel like barren wasteland.

Rule 5: If you make a mistake, just hold your hands up, apologise and move on.

Rinse and repeat.