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So, 2012 is nearly here and the digital community has been predicting what will be hot in social next year. One of the most repeated predictions is f-commerce will take centre stage as brands continue to innovate on shopping experiences.
Figures from the recent IMRG / eDigitalResearch eCSI study show there has been an 8.8% growth in f-commerce in just four months. And, engagement remains key – 61% of the 2,000 consumers polled have recently been influenced by a negative product or customer review online. IMRG chief marketing & communications officer David J Smith explained: “Facebook and other social media sites play a crucial role for retailers in terms of engagement with consumers. Although these results reveal that 12% have been encouraged to make a purchase through Facebook, the channel is about far more than recording sales“.
Some companies are still hesitant on setting the pace in social, so it’s always useful to highlight how some of the latest innovators are using f-commerce in the marketing mix.
A quick look at the topic cloud for the UK conversation in the past month shows there has been a real buzz around ODEON Cinemas’ ODEON Event Organiser – a Facebook app that enables users to plan cinema trips.
Marketing and sales director, Luke Vetere, explained the cinema’s strategy: “With a Facebook community in excess of 50,000, we wanted to create a simple mechanic which celebrates the social interactivity of the site and allows users and their friends to plan a trip to their cinema in 3 easy steps“.
BMW has also recently set up a trial pop-up fan store on Facebook to sell a limited edition, personalised, ‘Key2Joy’ car key cover. Social Commerce Today views the move as ’smart’ because it’s a cost-effective way to ‘test the potential of f-commerce in driving customer retention (by boosting brand loyalty) and customer acquisition (via the referral effect of brand advocacy)’. For BMW a simple campaign is the springboard to test f-commerce.
These are just a couple of the latest examples. Many brands have increasingly looked to Facebook to drive sales, brand loyalty and advocacy in the past year.
So, back to the future. The prediction for 2012 is people will increasingly want to shop where they connect. Do you agree that Facebook will revolutionize the shopping experience? It would be great to hear your thoughts.
For the second year running, Santander has been voted the worst for customer service in the Moneywise Great British Customer Services survey. Moneywise editor, Johanna Gornitzki, explained that long queues in branches, unhelpful call centres and untrained staff were three of the most common complaints about Santander. 12,000 people took part in the survey and 40% of comments on poor service were linked to the bank.
But, what’s the UK conversation behind the headlines? Not all Santander customers use social media to express an opinion but it’s a good barometer of consumer sentiment.
First up, what was everyone talking about in the past month?
As you can see, Santander’s ranking as the worst bank was one of the leading topics, driven tweets of the survey and broader customer complaints about service.
There were over 4,000 mentions of Santander and 13.7% were negative.
And, the most active channels in the critical conversation were microblogs (47.3%) and forum replies (39.6%).
Here’s a quick sample:
On Twitter:
‘#savings Santander is STILL the worst for service.’
‘@JensonButton Ah Santander, the worst bank in the UK. Tried them for three months, they were dire. Now moved to First Direct. HAPPY!!’
‘Santander loses potential customers due to poor customer service’.
On the forum MoneySavingExpert:
‘Well I’m about to close a Santander account because internet banking with them is impossible because of this ‘feature’. Even to logon to view the account I have to start the process of registering my non-existent mobile and then decline its T&C’s’.
One the biggest discussions on the site asked whether it’s ‘time to end Santander bashing’. There were a couple of positives including the number of UK jobs the bank had created and interest rates from its savings account. But the comment thread just opened the doors to more criticism of its customer service record. Common themes were long queues in branch, call centre response times and delayed responses to enquiries.
‘One more thing I hate about Santander – you go to the branch to speak to someone, and they tell you to phone head office instead! How unhelpful and unwilling is that?’
The conversation on the forum influenced others:
‘Read just some of the Santander threads on here – they are by far the worst bank for customer services and that is saying something’.
This comment was posted on the forum as part of a wider discussion with NAF, who was rumbled as a Santander employee.
‘I had my suspicions Naf worked for Santander, having looked over their previous posts (seemed knowledgable about Santander business accounts on one thread), when I posted last night’.
But there were positive comments, which accounted for 24% of the buzz, driven by the Santander Spanish Grand Prix, and some favourable comments on customer service.
On MoneySavingExpert:
‘I can honestly say that Santander are well aware of the bashing they receive and I can honestly say that they are working damn hard “on the other side of the fence” to improve their systems, training and processes and provide a better customer experience’.
‘My husband and I have always been very happy with Santander. They sort out card fraud instantly (and after having dealt with Lloyds TSB when it came to card fraud, it made me realise how good Santander are …’
‘While people are more likely to post about bad service, there is nothing to stop somebody posting about good Santander experiences.’
Reporting on the Moneywise survey provides the story but an analysis of social media content gives an insight into actual consumer conversations, and actionable intelligence to help the brand repair relationships, and improve areas of customer service that its customers just aren’t happy with.
This sounded ominous.
Over the past week, Qantas has faced a social media backlash over the appearance of private pilot and A-lister John Travolta in its new air safety video. According to Pop Eater, the airline’s cabin crew were highly critical of the campaign and described the video as ‘tacky’ and ‘corny’.
We’ve run a quick analysis of the social discussion to evaluate how the story developed and gauge sentiment towards Qantas in the context of the video.
First up, the channel breakdown shows us where the discussion has been.
And, how the story has spread across different social platforms.
There were no surprises that Twitter captured the conversation and we were able to drill down to the topic cloud for microblogs.
There were two stand-out phrases. ‘John Travolta angers’ based on tweets and reweets of ‘John Travolta Angers Qantas Employees With In-Flight Video Appearance’, mostly by celebrity and movie gossip sites. Social media relates to tweets warning of a ‘storm’.
The news hit the forums mid-week and the most influential site was airport.yuku.com which mentioned that staff had ‘taken to anonymous posts online to discuss their dislike of the Travolta video’ with some calls for Qantas pilot de Crespigny to replace him. It also mentioned staff members felt demeaned by Travolta calling them the team, not cabin crew.
In terms of sentiment, the standout negative comments (11.4%) regarding staff reaction have been discussed. Wider comments claimed that the video was a bit ‘misleading’
But, an analysis of the positive comments (13.8%) has showed that while some crew were upset by the video, on balance the story had little impact on public perception of the airline’s safety. For example, responses to a piece on the Huffington Post included: ‘What is the noise all about? This is a very good safety video. There’s no difference between it and the many ones I have seen, well, except that it begins with a celebrity whom the Qantas crews are jealous of’.
If a crisis breaks and a story goes viral, any brand or PR agency needs to mitigate the situation. Fast. And remember, there are four helpful rules: monitor the discussion, listen & communicate, participate in the conversation and then follow up.
If you’ve ever seen Newsnight’s Jeremy Paxman interview a politician then you’ll know that sometimes it can be hard to get a straight forward ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. Now the tables have been turned. The coalition is asking the public to vote in the referendum on the Alternative Vote (AV) on 5 May. Both the yes camp and no camp have launched their campaigns so it’s a good time to take a quick look at how the discussion in social media has been developing over the past seven days.
First up, where’s the discussion been?
Figure 1: Channel breakdown for the AV discussion- 18/2 to 25/2
Looking at the channel breakdown, it’s no surprise that Twitter has captured the conversation. The forums have also been buzzing and the most influential social source has been Amazon’s politics forum.
And, what’s everyone been talking about?
Figure 2: Topic cloud for the AV discussion- 18/2 to 25/2
The political stakes for David Cameron and Nick Clegg are high as the Prime Minister leads the no campaign and the Deputy PM leads the yes camp. We’ve drilled down from the topic cloud to gauge the sentiment around the two party leaders in the context of AV question. In terms of negative mentions, the cost of the referendum has been one of the key comment threads.
‘… If we hadn’t had to have Nick Clegg’s referendum on AV we would not have to spend at least £250m’. (Tweet by Charlotte Vere 24/2)
‘… David Cameron says AV is the wrong system. Well why did you introduce a referendum on it then? Wasting money and time’. (Tweet by HouseofTwits 18/2)
Almost 10% of mentions of Nick Clegg were negative compared with 4% for David Cameron.
Facebook and Twitter have also been two of the stand-out topics. Campaigners have been using the hashtags #no2av (3422 tweets) and #yes2av (3315 tweets) to mobilise supporters. The immediacy of Twitter has also been used to counter opposing arguments – in 140-characters.
In the long run, how influential do you think social media will be on the outcome of a referendum which, according to the latest polls, is too close to call?
