With social networking on the rise, it is no surprise that companies are investing time, energy, and money to be up-to-date with sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Among the companies making these efforts are Ford Motor Co., PepsiCo Inc., and Southwest Airlines. Social networking has vastly increased the importance of a timely response to crises and consumer communication. It is no longer the case that companies have a couple of hours to respond to incidents and consumer’s concerns, but that they should be responding instantly with tweets and posts.

Companies are creating corporate Twitter profiles to monitor what is being said in cyberspace, a time consuming task to say the least, and listening to consumers’ tweets, posts, and blogs to influence company decisions. Along with launching tracking software, companies are also training their employees on how to use Twitter by teaching them how to represent their company online and interact with consumers. In our constantly technologically advancing society, it is going to be crucial for companies to be connected to the information superhighway.

I officially have a serious case of blog envy.

Murphy-Goode, a winery based in Northern California, is seeking to hire an internet-savvy wine-lover to blog and tweet about their experiences in wine country for six months. The pay? $10,000 per month — that’s $60,000 total — plus free lodging in a private home nestled in the picturesque Sonoma County Wine Country. And did I mention tasting hundreds of wines every day for free?

Talk about a buzz. Already, the social media job search has generated a significant amount of promotion for the winery: 2,000 applicants, 900 posted videos, national media attention and a major jump in traffic to the company website. What’s more, these are just the preliminary results– the official launch of the actual campaign begins August 15.

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We are all becoming more and more aware every day of how social media, viral marketing and user generated media/content are revolutionizing the advertising world. Unfortunately for some brands like United Airlines and Pizza Hut, they are finding out the hard way. The Dave Carroll/Taylor guitar fiasco has spread like wildfire, thanks to the opportunity given to anyone anywhere to share their voice. This incident should teach brands a valuable lesson with regard to how they handle customer service inquiries. Brands need to be very attentive and sensitive to the fact that everyone is now considered a “marketer,” given this newfound freedom to communicate their experiences and opinions, whether it be good or bad.

According to Ad Week, over three million people in one week viewed the video that Dave Carroll uploaded to YouTube regarding the mishandling of his Taylor guitar. For United Airlines, this translates into a dreadful number of people worldwide that now identify United Airlines as the airline that doesn’t care about the management or handling of your luggage. Considering the latest attitude toward airline companies and the new and increased baggage fees, this is a serious hit to United’s reputation and will demand serious recovery efforts. Terribly news for the airline that the video is now the third search result for the query “United Airlines” on Google.

United has already made a genuine attempt to reconcile with Carroll, and announced via Twitter that they had made a $3,000 donation to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. Good start, but this will need to be followed by further earnest efforts to mend this damaging reputation they’ve acquired.

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/strategy/e3icf26a0dad6f1001638196a9b842c61d2?pn=1

I recently read a great article that reminded companies how they need to get creative and think outside their “marketing” boxes when it comes to social media.  Companies like JetBlue and Zappos are successful examples of how to interact with your customers.  JetBlue recently tweeted “Interesting bit of trivia learned today: the collective noun for turtles would be ‘a bale of turtles.’  This is obviously not something you would automatically expect to come from a major airliner, but it was in response to a customer complaining of a “turtle-related delay” at JFK airport.  JetBlue has led a good example by actively participating with their followers responses and staying true to their corporate voice. They have also managed to find a balance and use the Twitter space as a form of marketing by recently launching the account @JetBlueCheeps, which offers followers links to last-minute flight deals.  But it’s a very fine line between being too overtly self-promoting and being engaged with customers – and that line is what many companies are still trying to find.  Zappos uses Twitter to help customers get a sense of what their culture is like, rather than market themselves directly.  Their CEO tweets messages like “Learned today Poland Spring water comes from Maine, not Poland. Also, Sarah Palin resigned. Not sure which was more shocking.”  Zappos currently has an impressive 1 million followers.  Having a conversation means being able to relate to customers while still advocating a brand.  I think it’s difficult for many companies and agencies to take off their traditional marketing hats and wrap their arms around this new medium. But if a company can find that right balance of how to position themselves in this online space, it can be extremely powerful for their brand.

My personal Twitter account was hacked last week. For three days, I was tweeting about my supposed 182 IQ and $500 shopping sprees. And of course I found out my account had been hacked via a wall post from a friend on Facebook: “Your Twitter account has been hacked. siiigh. Oh yeah, and call me.”

The concept of privacy has been a reoccurring train of thought for me recently. Technology has enabled our world to become more connected than ever before, but it has also presented us with the unprecedented capability to know more about people than we could ever dream. We have access to the private lives of celebrities (31 million U.S. viewers of Michael Jackson’s memorial service, anyone?). We can find old friends/acquaintances/enemies by simply typing a name into the search engine of any major social network. And we can even discover things like who was recently booked in jail by checking the arrest reports of any jail or prison website online. 

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