Social Media & Digital Marketing in Singapore

The GennY Podcast #4 – What Does Gen Y Expect Of Brands In The Social Media Space?

The GennY Podcast

The show notes

Total running time: 29:49

• 00:00 – Yin starts us off – introductions all round
• 00:36 – The tumbleweed crosses the alamo
• 01:17 – What do we expect of brands if they are involved in social media?
• 01:28 – Brian’s expectations are low, he just wants someone to talk to him
• 03:06 – If brands decide to be online, then they owe it to the customer to interact with them
• 04:10 – The minimum expectation is at least and acknowledgement or a reply, even if the concern or question isn’t immediately answered.
• 05:23 – Maybe sometimes brands shouldn’t be on social media?
• 06:12 – Yin suggests there’s a difference between big brands and smaller brands in terms of the scale of reaching out and interacting with customers
• 07:01 – Yinqi says with the resources that big brands have, she feels they should experiment more
• 07:29 – Brian mentions the flip side, which is that big brands have more to lose in terms of reputation online, despite the relative ease to get involved
• 09:17 – Brian clanks his beer bottle against the table leg for effect, before saying that brands don’t own brands, customers own brands
• 10:53 – Daryl brings up the local example of Starhub on Twitter and whether it opens up the opportunity to solve minor issues
• 11:54 – Brian brings up the reverse of that to announce anticipation of minor issues in advance so that at least consumers know
• 13:08 – Kris says one to one relationships aren’t always possible, especially with many consumers
• 16:13 – The issue really is about being painfully aware that your actions online (if you choose to be online) is broadcast to everyone
• 16:54 – The customer is now empowered to keep brands in check
• 20:59 – Yin wonders why brands still repeat mistakes, despite many opportunities for them to learn
• 22:04 – The tools are of equal access to everyone, it’s how your choose to wield the tools
• 22:24 – Brian says “nerfed”
• 22:56 – Daryl has the expectation (realistic or not) that brands should know the general “rules” of the platform they choose to engage consumers in
• 23:58 – What about companes’ expectations of consumers?
• 26:41 – Maybe companies need to make it clear what to expect from their online engagements
• 27:00 – Brian tells his Zappos story as an example of positive engagement
• 29:20 – Yin calls for feedback and questions and more interaction!

Click play to listen, or download the file here, or subscribe to us on iTunes!

If you’d like us to talk about anything and hear Gen Y’s perspective, leave a comment and we’ll definitely record it if it’s within our collective sphere of knowledge.

Tags: brands in social media space, customer interaction, Gen Y, genny podcast, nerfed, reputation online, starhub on twitter, tumbleweed alamo, zappos

Posted in Gen Y, Podcasts | No Comments »

Who Should Engage In Social Media For Your Company?

Responses to my posts over the last couple of weeks have really got me thinking about this issue. I’d think it’s always nicer to have someone from the company who can react quickly without having to check back with the client about details, but this isn’t always possible, especially with large organisations.

From the Starhub post, it seemed like most people felt like their Twitter efforts were still a small, isolated part of customer service, poised to be properly established when the timing is right, and perhaps when more training is done.

The possible problem with leaving things to agencies, is that, as Jonathan points out, for better or worse, they are now representing your company. So when bad PR happens, your brand is automatically tainted as well. Arguably this can happen even if the person engaging is in-house, but if the communication plan is discussed properly internally and placed in the hands of someone who knows how to engage, the risk might be slightly reduced.

Finally, there’s the issue of the agency taking advantage of clients. At this moment while social media is the shiny new object, clients are going to need training for everything from monitoring to engagement, which is fine and good. But again there’s the extra unnecessary step of back and forth between agency and client, and as Liana points out in the comments, when someone from the organisation itself is responding, it’s easier to maintain the “feel” and “culture” of the organisation compared to if someone was responding on the organisation’s behalf.

To close, I guess at this point while everyone is still finding their footing in social media, it doesn’t really matter because mistakes are going to be made anyway. The important thing is to really bring those learning experiences into the DNA of the company, and begin to empower people in-house who will truly understand the organisation to be your spokespersons, rather than the agency professional who may be better at it, but ultimately is probably juggling three different accounts.

And one way to get this moving a little faster, is to get someone with some rudimentary knowledge of social media on board now, so that when your organisation is finally ready to take on the responsibility fully, you’ll at least have someone ready.

Tags: agency, bad pr, client, company dna, company representatives, culture of company, dna of the organisation, feel of company, rudimentary knowledge of social media, shiny new object, starhub on twitter, who should engage in social media

Posted in social media | 5 Comments »