The KitchenAidUSA Twitter crisis

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Crisis management for social media is challenging due to the nature of how the social web works. Now, iInformation on the internet can be spread quick and go viral within minutes between networks. Companies must always be aware of their online communities and manage issues real-time. Not being able to react quickly or ignoring issues on the web can cause further damage to a company's reputation and brand. 

(image source: http://oursocialtimes.com/index.php/2012/10/kitchenaidusa-handling-a-twitter-crisis/)

An example of a social media crisis was during the US elections, a staff member of KitchenAid (twitter handle @KitchenAidUSA) accidentally tweeted an inappropriate message relating to President Obama from the KitchenAid account, thinking it was their personal account. It seems it is a common mistake with plenty of organizations (see other Twitter crises) who have community managers using a social media application on their mobile device or personal computer which is also hosting their company's account.

In the case of KitchenAid, immediate reaction to the crisis is imperative to save as much of their reputation as possible. The first step is to address the issue of the mistaken tweet. Never ignore a PR problem, it will only escalate if the public senses that the company does not care to correct their actions. Do not delete the original message, at least without addressing it first. Admit to the mistake and take ownership.

Secondly, reach out to all of those who are affected by it. Think about stakeholders in this situation - who are directly affected by the company's brand and reputation? Communicate a message acknowledging the problem and corrective actions that will be taken. This message should be communicated to the audience of the social media platform, in this case Twitter. It should also be communicated to the those directly affected, in this case President Obama. Lastly, reassurance KitchenAid's customers that the brand do care about their brand and strive to keep it a reputable brand.

Finally, I would suggest that those who are responsible for managing a social media community in the company should not host their personal and the company account on the same social media application for their mobile phones or on their personal computers at work. Due diligence must always be taken in the interest of the brand's reputation. There should be strict policies implemented in the organization regarding the use of social media that has links to the company's account.

These steps can avoid future crises, save KitchenAid's brand and retain their customer base.

Measuring social web audience

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It is not news to anyone how much social media has grown over the last few years. A rapid growth in the number of posts, tweets or updates resulting in overwhelming data. What used to be random data from virtual users about their social life has become valuable information for many businesses and organizations. Marketers and PR practitioners are seeing the importance of paying attention, listening and reacting to communities in the social web. However, with over billions of posts and tweets thrown on to these platforms how are marketers or PR professionals understanding their audience? Also, how are they cutting out the noise of the social web and extracting the most valuable data?

Measurement tools for social media are imperative for successful communications, campaigns for products, and relationship building. There are plenty of tools to measure data on social media platforms. Here we explore some free tools and a paid tool.

Facebook Insights is a built-in analytic tool for organizations who have created a Facebook fan page. Facebook Insights reports metric on the content of the fan page. Some of the metrics are insight on fan growth, demographics, number of "likes", page views an many more. This tools is value to organizations with Facebook fan pages because Facebook is the most popular social media platform. Being able to measure audience engagement without paying for the data is saving the company from investing money into a measurement tool and still gain insight to useful data. Facebook insights provide a good view of who is on their fan page and the company is able to monitor their audience's interaction on the fan page as well.

bit.ly offers the ability to shorten URL links to allow maximum space for messaging. It also offers real time link tracking. This is useful for social media because the organization is able to see how many clicks they are getting by posting their website link on to a social media platform. They can see which platform is more successful than the other and will understand which platform they need to invest more time on. This tool is great for quick messaging and for organization who have the goal of getting online users directly on to their website.

Hootsuite is one of the best free measurement tool out there. This tool allows the organization to add all social media profiles on to one deck. This is a valuable tool because the social media specialist of an organization can manage all profiles on one simple deck cutting down time spent on separate sites and allowing the ability to update all profiles at once. Hootsuite also provides an analytic tool which measures engagement on all social platforms. Here you can see data under the same reports or side by side.

For more information on how to use measurement tools, this article suggests ways to measure with free tools successfully. Here is a list of other useful free measurement tools for social media: Ten tools for social media

Although free tools are great ways to gain insight on your audience, they are usually limited in functionality. The quality of data may not be in its true form and may not capture a true representation of your audience. Companies and organizations that are serious about understanding their customers should invest in paid analytic tools. The return on investment is always high due to the quality of information these powerful tools can produce. A very good analytic tool in the market is Google Analytics.

Google Analytics measures online interactions, conversions, investments in advertising and social networking. Particularly in social media, Google Analytics provides conversion reports which shows quantifiable data that can be analyzed. Basically, this report can present how social interaction on the web leads to the end sale or goal for a business organization.

This tools also tracks the path of users of social media towards the organization website. It also shows engagement and conversion for each social platform

Lastly, the tool tracks how users are sharing information about the organization and where they are sharing it, tracking the activity of users.

Measuring social web data is critical for business development and increasing brand reputation. Using measurement tools allows more efficient and effective ways to gather valuable data, resulting in positive return on investment.

Social media becoming more visual than written communication

It appears that social media has increasingly becoming more about visual communication than written communication. In the last week, Instagram and Facebook have made changes to their platform to enhance user/audience features.

Instagram announced that they are going to make their platform available online with web profiles (article here). What does this mean for users and those online? It makes it easier for users to follow and view their friends' photos. Also, available for those who do not have this platform to see some of their friends' photos via Instagram. I know, personally, I do not have an Instagram account and contribute filtered, artsy photos but as a frequent user of social media tools, I am still very much interested in seeing what my friends and favourite personalities or brands have posted. I think this is a good move for Instagram.

After purchasing Instagram, Facebook have finally rolled out the photo filter features for their mobile app (article here). This a good strategic move for Facebook to implement in their platform, since many online users are more inclined to be attracted to visual posts, plenty of users are more engaged on Instagram versus Facebook when it comes to photo sharing. Adding the highly favoured photo filters will get users back on to Facebook. This can potentially enhance user engagement via Facebook even more.