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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?
In a landmark move, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is taking action on bloggers and tweeters who endorse a brand without declaring they’ve been paid for it.
The Guardian has reported that the watchdog last month started a case against PR firm Handpicked Media, which runs a commercial blogging network, for apparently paying bloggers for positive brand comment. Consumers should be told about any paid-for endorsements.
The eWord blog explained OFT could: “Prohibit any future promotion that does not clearly identify, in a manner prominently displayed with the editorial content such that it would be unavoidable to the average consumer, that the promotion has been paid for or otherwise remunerated.”
Celebrities in the US can make big bucks from paid-for tweets which are tagged with ‘ad’ or ‘spon’. According to Marketing Week, celebs there can pocket over £30,000 per month.
The social marketing trend is picking up speed here as well. Range Rover has been recruiting celebrities to tweet about its new Evoque 4×4, including Daisy Lowe, as part of its ‘Pulse of the City’ campaign. Interestingly, Charlie Trumpess last month tweeted: ‘Range Rover uses 40 celebrity “trendsetters” to tweet about its new Evoque 4X4. Soon this sort of blurry activity will be covered by the ASA’.
There haven’t been any rules here, but that’s all about to change. If your brand or agency wants to use celebrities for social marketing – it will have to be transparent.
At the beginning of November, news that an engine had blown on a Qantas Airbus A380 flight from Singapore just minutes after take-off triggered a dismal month for the engine maker, Rolls Royce. In the past few weeks, we monitored over 5,000 mentions of the social discussion around Rolls Royce, its failed Trent 900 engine and the damage to its reputation.
We also picked up an interesting secondary discussion on the way Qantas managed the crisis in the first few hours of the disaster. Passengers on the Qantas flight immediately tweeted news of the emergency landing. So, for the airline, what was the role of social media in communicationg what had actually happened?
Figure 1: Sentiment expressed towards Rolls Royce in the discussion around engine failure – 25/10 to 23/11
Looking at the Rolls Royce discussion, there were three, unsurprising stand-out peaks in negative sentiment. The first spike on 5 November was driven by speculation on Twitter that an engine design flaw by Rolls Royce caused the Qantas plane to make an emergency landing.
The second peak on 8 November was driven by confirmation from the Australian airline that it had found anomalies on three additional engines across its fleet – heaping more woes on Rolls Royce.
The biggest spike was on 12 November when the company confirmed that it had identified the component that caused the engine blowout and also said that the issue could hit profit growth.
The engine makers’ reputation was damaged. But, throughout the period, Rolls Royce was assertive in communicating the action it was taking on engine safety as momentum around the crisis grew on all channels.
What about Qantas? On 4 November, Crisisblogger posted: ‘Oh boy, this is what we in crisis communication in the age of citizen journalists and instant social media have been talking about’.
The blogger acknowledged the airline got many things right when news broke but was critical of the fact it did not make a response on Twitter where it could have responded to early rumours and reports – ‘for the news media tuning in to Twitter for the latest updates, Qantas should have been there’. Nor did it use other channels such as Facebook or communicate through their website ‘at least they would have been part of the stream’. But, none of this would not damage its reputation.
A reply to the post by J.D. pointed out Quantas may not have had ‘verifiable information to share at the same pace that the passengers were tweeting/posting’ and the number one priority was the safety of its passengers.
This was supported by another comment: ‘JD – I agree. While Twitter is critical; there are so many moving parts in a crisis that need to be considered that pulling a trigger too soon can have dangerous or unintended consequences’.
What are your thoughts on how companies should use social media to communicate or respond to a major news story?
Research from Experian Hitwise found that SMEs were more creative with social media than larger brands. Comparatively, they also generated more online traffic. Almost 15% of traffic for smaller enterprises came from social networks, driven by engagement in entertainment and lifestyle.
Looking at the bigger social picture, networking sites last month accounted for 11.6% of all UK web visits and Facebook, YouTube and Twitter accounted for 75% of activity. Facebook took 55% in market share. Only Google drove more traffic to websites than the networking giant. The most prolific social media users were in the North East, and also Wales.
Experian Hitwise research director Robin Goad also explained that retail brands were starting to utilise the power of social media to generate online traffic and sales as social uptake grew. The study concluded that: “Social media is not a fad, it is not a passing online trend and, whether we like it or not, social media is not going to go away.”
Is your brand ready?
There’s been a lot of chatter recently about how to build your brand profile in social media and the shifting sands of online strategies. The conversation has been global and the focus has been Facebook.
In the UK, brands running TV campaigns have been using their Facebook details instead of traditional web addresses. Deloitte Digital CEO Peter Williams has predicted companies will increasingly shift websites to the networking giant: “We are even seeing organisations like ASB Bank in New Zealand, Best Buy and 1800 Flowers put their whole website into Facebook … Facebook is the most important website in the world these days. It is just cutting a swathe through everything.”
Edelman Australia’s Matthew Gain has predicted the end of microsites to support specific campaigns and explained: “With Facebook, you have an opportunity for an ongoing engagement, because to enter a competition they have to ‘like’ the page.”
Research from advertising agency Omnicom has found that social media users that like a brand’s Facebook Page were more likely to buy the product.
Talking of advertising, Yeo Valley has just created an overnight sensation with a cool TV ad featuring rappers shown during the X-Factor on Saturday. It set up a cross-channel campaign to invite people to feel good about the brand and included Facebook, a ‘Yeo Tube’ page and Twitter in its strategy.
The sentiment expressed towards Yeo Valley in social media since Saturday has been 37.5% positive and it has created a real buzz, especially on Facebook:
‘….. move over ikea and yeo valley there’s a new ad in town!!!’
‘Yeo valley adverts – best part of the x factor!’
‘How many breaks does x factor have?! At least put the yeo valley one on again!!!’
And from Yeo Valley on the networking site:
‘For those of you who have enjoyed watching the advert, we thought you might like to see the ‘Making of’ video. Check it out on our blog page ’
A solid example of how to use Facebook as part of an integrated multi-channel strategy.
Apple’s foray into social has been one of the biggest discussions in the past week. But, the launch of iTunes social network, Ping, which Steve Jobs described as Facebook meets Twitter for music, has had a lukewarm response. So, what’s been going on?
Figure 1: Topic cloud for Ping – 1/9 to 7/9
There was an initial buzz around the launch of Ping and one million users signed up in the first two days. Facebook users also drove chatter with invites to join them on the Apple network.
But, many in the online tech community were critical of Apple’s move and while commentators acknowledged the potential of the music network, they highlighted many problems. Ping Problems even made it into the discussion topic cloud in the past week.
Erick Schonfeld on Tech Crunch (3/9) commented: ‘Ping is very promising if only because of Apple’s reach through iTunes to 160 million music consumers. And it will no doubt get better over time’. However, Schonfeld felt that Apple was out of its comfort zone by developing social software and the biggest issue was it was only available on iTunes ‘which is not social’.
There was also comment that Ping pretty much ignored independent artists and Mashable’s Pete Cashmore on CNN.com (3/9) outlined why it was only geared up to promote non-mainstream acts.
Milo Yiannopoulos on Telegraph Blogs (7/9) wondered what all the fuss was about and was also critical of the Apple focus on major labels. Yiannopolus preferred Spotify and ShareMyPlaylist.com. The writer explained that to go back to ‘clunky’ iTunes: ‘It’s going to take a lot more than a perfunctory nod toward networking – one that doesn’t even allow me to use Facebook connect to find my friends’.
And the problems haven’t stopped there. John Leyden on The Register (3/9) explained how spammers have been quick off the mark to target Ping users with bogus surveys and false promises of an iPhone.
Apple has promised an enriched social networking experience as more artists and people join Ping. So it’s early days, but it has arrived in social networking for the long-haul and there will no doubt be improvements. Facebook integration will probably be very high on the to-do list.
A couple of months ago we had a quick look at the impact of the Unite strike on BA. In the past month, the airline has made a couple of key announcements including news on its proposed merger with Iberia and forecasts it would break even by the end of the year, despite posting a Q1 loss. There have also been several comments on, and about, Twitter. So it’s been a good time to revisit the UK’s leading airline to gauge the mood in social media.
A bit of social media monitoring using Sentiment Metric’s system helped us to make sense of, and measure, the key drivers of the BA discussion during July. We monitored thousands of mentions in real-time.
The research was tailored to buzz volumes, the BA discussion, trending topics and the key drivers of positive and negative sentiment. We also added a human touch to our research to interpret and assess the valuable information generated by our system.
Figure 1: Buzz volumes for the BA discussion – 1/7 to 31/7
Figure 2: Sentiment expressed towards BA in social media – 1/7 to 31/7
So, what’s the mood been like in social media?
In terms of sentiment, there were a couple of stand-out peaks during the month, which generally mirrored the significant spikes in buzz volumes. These included positive comment on news-driven topics such as EU approval of BA’s merger with Iberia (14/7) and excitement that passengers could for the first time check in using an iPhone app (19/7).
On the merger, BA CEO Willie Walsh said: “We await the DOT’s final decision, but welcome this important and vital step forward.” (CNN 14/7)
airnewz (19/7) tweeted: ‘Wow… blogger gets all excited because british airways passengers can use iPhone to board’.
Figure 3: Topic cloud for the BA discussion – 1/7 to 31/7
Looking at the topic cloud, we noticed Twitter was a trending topic in itself. BA’s move to add details of its micro-blog account on boarding passes was one of the key drivers of mentions (20/7).
But, there were also negative mentions, reflected in a spike on 5 July. These included furious tweets from cricketer Shane Warne.
Warne said: “I hate British airways, way to arrogant and rude towards people!! Will not be flying with them again after my return from Vegas.” (Sky News 6/7)
The failed strike negotiations (20/7) and prospects of passenger disruption also generated less favourable mentions.
The airline’s quarterly loss (30/7) sparked a mixed response. The negative sentiment score by our system was high regarding its £122m Q1 loss. However, this was countered by a positive message from BA that it was in recovery and forecast to break even by the end of the year.
Alistair Osborne on Telegraph.co.uk (30/7) pointed out the strike action had cost the airline £150m during the quarter: ‘No business can carry on like that’ and talked of recent ‘carnage’.
On the flipside, Osborne acknowledged that striking staff might eventually pick up on the fact ‘… they are working for a business finally going somewhere’. BA posted a ’surprisingly strong’ hike in revenues from seats at 13.5% and the outlook remained positive buoyed by its merger with Iberia, a deal with American Airlines and its non-reliance on a cyclical recovery. There could well be blue skies ahead for BA.
