Easyjet launching themselves on social media platforms? A disaster in the making, some would think. Imagine, a soap box for everyone who has had a delayed flight, poor customer service or any of the other crises that seem to happen daily on this notorious airline, to freely air their complaints for the world to see. This surely is a recipe for a corporate communications catastrophe!
However, thanks to a very ambitious social media push to source user-generated content using networks including Facebook , MySpace and Twitter, Easyjet aims to transform its site into a ‘travel encyclopaedia’. Through a clever competition, Easyjet has achieved a great balance between the positive and the negative comments on their new Facebook and Twitter pages.
The competition that the company has introduced; ‘the great Easyjet getaway’, is the turning point on which this successful balance of opinion has been achieved. Fans are invited to submit their personal, funny story telling of why they need to get away to win free flights.
Not only has Easyjet incentivised joining their network (becoming a fan on their Facebook page allows you to enter the competition), the company has also increased the number of fans to its page and is creating a highly engaged community, as judging of the competition will be by fellow fans. Ultimately though, the real beauty of this competition is that positive and engaging feedback has been encouraged through the funny stories and if you look at the wall of the Facebook page, you’ll find comedy like anecdotes and positive messages which tempers all the abuse and by-and-large creates a tone which reflects very well on the company.
This serves as an excellent example for all those reluctant organisations who see social media as a high risk activity, that with careful and strategic planning, a positive image can be achieved for even the most unloved corporations.
I hate email. There, I’ve said it. It is distracting, time consuming and perhaps just one in ten has anything useful / interesting to say.
So I was mildly horrified to read new research today from TalkTalk which claimed that email would die out within ten years - will it really take that long? I feel that as a personal communications tool it has served its purpose and been superseded by IM, texting and social networks.
And I’d suggest that it is now the biggest workplace productivity sapper since Stick Cricket. I’d estimate that I spend at least 25 per cent of my time reading and checking emails that just didn’t need to be sent. IM is far more effective for quick communication and Twitter also allows me to connect with colleagues, journalists and suppliers - so why cling onto email for another ten tortuous years?
Lets begin the migration of our contacts to IM/Twitter and end this email madness ASAP. Who is in?
I have to admit, I was fairly surprised when I started my new job and a member of my team already knew what I’d been up to the previous weekend. I had underestimated my online visibility, as do a lot of people, and could have jeopardised my job before I’d even started. Luckily I lead a quiet life so no damage done…
The online distinctions between business and pleasure, once so definite, now seem to be blurring. With the announcement of a partnership between LinkedIn and Twitter, allowing users to share status updates across sites, the gap between individual social networks, and indeed our online personas, is being bridged.
Even Google is getting in on the act, announcing deals with Facebook and Twitter to include their live feeds into searches.I googled myself and although I’m quite far down the list (I’m not as popular as the other Laura Strong from London) I’m definitely on there.
I’m sure many of you will have heard the story of an employee ranting about her boss on Facebook, only to be publicly humiliated and sacked on their own news feed.The Guardian has devised three rules to avoid social media catastrophes as ‘behaviour is very important in public and we all live public lives now’:
Don’t be rude or abusive about people, projects or a company.
Don’t post rumours or revelations – Twitter never forgets.
Think before you type – some things are better left private.
So what do you think?Do you think the two should be kept separate?Can they be kept separate or should we be more aware of how we are perceived online?
My tip: do as your mother says and mind your P’s and Q’s…
I love the way new media and digital communications have become intertwined with political discussion. It will hopefully lead to a bright future of government, political debate, public interaction and general engagement. But It is important to remember, just because it is a public conversational tool, doesn’t mean you need to have a public conversation. People who use social media for reasons other than just saying hi to your friends, should be clever about it and aware of potential ramifications, especially people who are in positions of respect and power.
This was what David Cameron meant when earlier in the year he said that twitter could cause problems for MPs because tweets can be taken out of context or the MPs could get involved in conversations that normally they shouldn’t. These conversations are also permanent and can be dug up at any time.
It is with these comments in mind, over the past few days, I have been watching an argument between Kerry McCarthy MP, Labour Twitter Tsar and Shane Greer, the executive editor of Total Politics. Both of these people are in positions of power and respect. A senior and respected Member of Parliament on one side and a journalist who has a vast number of followers and loyal readers and edits a magazine with no-particular party politic on the other. People follow what both of these individuals say with interest and they, as a people’s representative and as a member of the fourth estate respectively, are in a position where it is important where they act and carry themselves properly.
But as you can see from this twitter conversation, things have become a bit out of hand. Remember this all started over what music people should like as a display of their political ideals.
I won’t go into detail about what each said, but to be sure, it has clearly been a case of misrepresentation by both parties. Kerry McCarthy is at fault because she took the bait. But what is concerning is she has taken the bait before as you can see from these conversations with Nadine Dorries MP. In this case, as the Labour Twitter Tsar, Kerry should know better.
As you can see, Shane went into a diatribe about being from Northern Ireland and his time there which sounds awful. But if Kerry hasn’t met him or heard his accent and she is right, there is no reason for her to research Shane’s birthplace or personal history. She is also right to suggest it is fairly egotistical to suggest she should know his heritage and she is right to not apologise. He then proceeded to blog about it with gusto.
A spat between these two is fine, it happens. But when these two started off at each other, each others followers and supporters joined in and attacked each other. Together they produced this;
As well as a large number of tweets over the matter from everyone’s respective cronies. Here is a sample.
As I said, both of these people are in positions of power and respect. Arguments like this turn people off politics, getting involved at the local level and engaging. As you can see, it is a pack mentality, but that is politics, but sometimes, someone needs to be the adult.
This whole argument won’t have any severe ramifications. It won’t lead to resignations and won’t even make the news. But it turns people off. As I said, it is important that people use social media conversational tools wisely.
This analysis by 14 digital PR experts shows that Google Wave is the site set to be the biggest hit. Farmville, Posterous and location-based network Centrl.com are next, with the all new comment-augmented BBC website in fifth.
While these are all exciting developments in the social media world, are we really able to predict the extent to which these sites are likely to take off and how strongly we should work them into our PR strategies for 2010? Are any of them really set to be the next Twitter?
I think that no one could really have predicted the extent of the unprecedented rise of Twitter. If it hadn’t been for the high profile support that the site received - through things like the Obama presidency campaign and Ashton Kutcher’s activities, in addition to the vast number of celebrity tweeters sharing the ins and outs of their celebrity lifestyles - Twitter may never have taken off as a viable and valuable communications platform.
However, while I predict that evolution of what we already have is more likely to take off than innovations like Farmville next year, it is certainly important for us, as PR and communications experts, to be ahead of the game with social media. We will all now be keeping a close eye on these big 5 to see how they all pan out for 2010 so watch this space!
The Internet has been changing every facet of modern life, even the mother of parliaments (at least to a certain extent anyway). An exact state of affairs at parliament would be tricky to gauge, as innovation seems to be happening in different places.
Examples include the recent guide to Twitter, published by Neil Williams, head of corporate digital channels at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), which outlined how the micro-blogging service could be used to share policy information and engage the general public around issues of interest.
The main political parties have shown enthusiasm in adopting social media as well, although this hasn’t necessarily translated across to their respective Parliamentary Members where there is the more familiar range of adoption patterns from early adopters to laggards to complete technophobes. Pretty much every Member of Parliament and election candidate not contesting a safe seat has a web presence of some sort, whether that is through a party backed website, or through extensive social media branding. Most of these are run through constituency or Westminster offices however, there are few MPs who are leading the way in the digital space.
Amongst the social media front-runners are:
Tom Watson. The Labour Party MP for West Bromwich East is known for being the first blogging MP and lists the digital world and social media as being keen personal interests
Kerry McCarthy has been made Labour’s Twitter Tsar, managing social media engagement in the lead up to the next General Election, as well as being an active tweeter and blogger
John Redwood MP. The Conservative MP for Wokingham was recently voted the second best MP blog by Total Politics readers, losing his number one position last year to the aforementioned Tom Harris
Apart from the lack of uptake of social media tools across the Parliament as a whole, the biggest area where there seems to be a lack of understanding about social media is that it is a conversation. Although Twitter lends itself nicely to sound bites there doesn’t seem to be that much political engagement going on. There also doesn’t seem to be that much awareness about the impact of what they can be talking about. For instance, one MP recently complained about the workload required to deal with constituents.In another case, an automatic news feed on Peter Hain’s Facebook page prominently displayed an embarrassing piece of coverage.
Peter Hain's Facebook Feed
Despite the high profile digital campaign of Barack Obama, the US generally isn’t anywhere near the level of near universal digital and social media adoption that one would expect. For example only 29.5 per cent of US Congress members and Senators are on Twitter – 123 House members and 35 Senators out of a possible total of 535. .
But the fact is, the next election is going to be a hard fought campaign and this is likely to have a transformative effect on digital politics as a new generation of politicians come through.
So where is the opportunity in digital for parliamentary and public affairs campaigns?
The most obvious use of social media is for campaigning as it is easy to demonstrate support for a cause, through re-tweets or number of members in a Facebook group. Social media both facilitates and reveals groundswells of popular support. Nixon’s famous silent majority, are no longer silent or invisible to politicians.
For electoral candidates, Obama’s secret was always to tweet asks and Calls-to-Action and this should be harnessed by MPs or PPCs. There is no particular need for an MP to tweet about what they are having for breakfast, although the ‘inane’ tweets do personalise the tweeter so they can be beneficial.
But the key is, actively engage and converse with users online by asking supporters, party members and voters to do something. Come to my rally, get one friend to help deliver leaflets, donate £5 to the party, come knock on doors with me. Tweets like these that actively call for support and include the public are far more likely to help the candidate get elected.
This method of personalised engagement and Calls-to-Action can also be harnessed for out and out public affairs campaigns. It isn’t something that will transfer well to asking for support for a bank’s or defence company’s campaign, because the public will always be wary of sinister motives. But it will transfer brilliantly to campaigns surrounding NGOs, charities, patient groups, green and sustainability projects, local engagement and welfare organisations due to the need to rally support through calls-to-action.
A second and underrated factor is providing content for researchers. Like the rest of the UK, parliamentary researchers will often hit Google as their first point of call when finding out about a new subject and developing a point-of-view for their MP. Providing the freshest, most relevant content around a particular area, particularly if it has an industry rather than a specific corporate slant is one of the best ways to influence from a digital point-of-view.
There has been an increasing level of political social media analysis in the recent months. Tweetminister essentially aggregates tweets by Members of Parliament, as well as blogs on interesting issues surrounding communication and an open Parliament while the Hansard Society has recently published a report into the use of Facebook by MPs.
We would love to hear your views on the matter, so please feel free to leave comments.
Stephen did the same list a year ago and it was a great help to many of us in the industry…so what’s changed in the past 12 months?
Well volume for one, there are a lot more journalists using the medium today.
Also an increase in the use by regional, tabloid and trade journalists…last year the majority were national or freelancers but this has changed substantially.
And finally, many journalists are figuring out how they want to be contacted via Twitter and their blogs and are posting guidelines on what they want / don’t want to receive. Essential reading can often be found on their own blogs and I advise taking the time to do this before you get in touch with them.
As with all kinds of PR outreach…use people’s contacts with care and don’t give the industry a bad name by spamming the hell out of the list…I know, as if you would?!
Yesterday’s newspapers were full of the news that Hollywood film studios have banned their stars from using Twitter *gasp*. While some papers and comments suggested that the ban encompasses any use of Twitter…
‘Hollywood A-listers are being banned from using Twitter in case they leak film information’ [Daily Mail]
‘it seems that Cam and Mike have no choice but to close their accounts’ [Glamour.com]
When you delve deeper into the story it would appear that things have not gone as far as that. What the studios have in fact done is ban their stars from tweeting about any upcoming films. The justification of this is that information leaked by stars using Twitter is said to be damaging the industry.
While this may seem like an action which will affect a small few, as a talent lawyer told The Hollywood Reporter newspaper - “This is just the beginning,”.
Indeed the love affair between celebrities and Twitter has taken several dents recently. The number of celebrities quitting Twitter grows longer by the day, with the most notable recent ‘departee’ being Miley Cyprus, who cited a need to regain her personal life as the reason why she took the decision.
Surely this growing trend is not something that Twitter should be worried about? Or is it? After all it is often the celebrities that bring the crowds to Twitter – Miley in particular was credited with bringing large numbers of the younger generation, traditionally a harder target audience for Twitter, onto the site. And why does Twitter need this generation? Well personally I think of Twitter more as a business tool than anything else, an opinion held by many and certainly if Twitter wants to escape this image they need the younger generation to remain interested.
The love loss between celebrities and Twitter might also have further implications in terms of brand uptake of the site. If celebrities effectively and publically pull their “brands” off Twitter, will this add to the unease brands feel about their presence on Twitter? Will business brands begin to rethink their Twitter status?
I’m sure anyone who follows politics through social media may have seen or heard about the interview with David Cameron on Absolute Radio this morning, essentially making a jibe at twitter and having a good joke with Chris O’Connell on the breakfast show.
Essentially Mr Cameron was asked if he used twitter and his reply was “politicians have to think about what we say” and the instantaneous nature of twitter can lead to a problem of keeping on message and not being able to get a message across in 140 characters. This is a reasonable and legitimate argument against the use of twitter as a political engagement tool, albeit one I disagree with.
But these perfectly reasonable points led to a bit of a gaffe when Mr Cameron said “too many twits might make a twat.” Oh dear.
Funny at the time maybe and I’m sure absolutely no offence intended -he clearly didn’t call people who use twitter twats, but in the blogosphere and twitterverse, eyebrows have been raised. If you search for Cameron on the Twitter search engine today, most of the tweets are focusing on this. I personally feel it shows a lack of awarness of the medium by the Tory Leader. The fact that this message has spread well-past normal Absolute FM listeners shows the power of social media. Even if you aren’t on twitter yourself, the message is still instantaneously released as Mr Cameron found out. He has since apologised for his slip up.
It also shows an inherent lack of understanding of the medium by UK politicians generally. Tools like twitter should be used to create calls-to-action for public engagement. Examples include asking followers to come to rallies or events, calling for support on specific issues, making people aware of campaigns.
Twitter, politically speaking, isn’t just for stating what you are having for breakfast or with marked frustration, tweeting how many letters you have opened today, as one MP did I noticed, although tweets like these do personalise the user, so they should be interspersed with the calls to action.
The slip up won’t lose Cameron too many votes, but the question remains, does Mr Cameron and the team not get social media, or do they just not get breakfast radio?
Below is the video of the interview embedded from the Absolute Radio YouTube site - let me know your thoughts
The Government has published its Template Twitter Strategy for Government Departments (even more impressively, it is available for download on a Scribd page), suggesting to civil servants to begin tweeting and explaining how to do it, with the ultimate aim of improving public engagment.
The document is a really interesting, well put-together twitter template. It sets out pros and cons, twitter stats, a glossary and a reasonably significant list of influential twitter uses including journos, departments, MPs. It also has devised twitter objectives and metrics, which I’m sure will spur plenty of debate amongst bloggers and tweeters.
Written by Neil Williams (a.k.a @neillyneil), a self admitted “Web strategy geek at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills,” the document advises civil servants, particularly those from the digital comms teams, to tweet on departmental campaigns, news releases, ministerial announcements, highlighting content on other social media platforms such as YouTube and even asking and answering questions.
Amazingly, this all means that civil servants will be crawling out of the shadows of Whitehall and will have a face, albeit a digital one. By encouraging interaction, there will be a transparency and two-way communication that, possibly, has never existed in Whitehall before.
Tom Watson MP, the first blogging Parliamentarian and avid social media nut, was also on the Today programme on Radio 4, spruiking the benefits of social media and, in particular Twitter, as a method of communication and interaction.
Tom Watson also made the point that many old mandarins still get their secretaries to print out the mandarin’s emails for review.
MPs are similar; we are currently surveying Parliamentarians and politicos about the use of twitter in Westminster. There are indeed MPs like Tom Watson, who was among a number of MPs on the Independent’s list of influential parliamentarian twitter, who are actively involved on the blogosphere and many of those listed have actively participated in our survey. But the truth is many still don’t get it and don’t see the point.
But surely, strategies like this show that social media has been adopted by the main stream and the idea that social media is just for kids, computer geeks and a small sector of society is no longer true. The powers that be have recognised the revolution will be digitalised and they have no choice but to get on board.
If you are interested in this issue and you would like to take our survey on the use of twitter in Westminster and Whitehall, we would more than appreciate your comments. http://bit.ly/10sf8B
