Twitter is alight with #bloggerblackmail tweets today as @angesdesucre, a bakery in the UK, goes toe to toe with a food blogger following a poor review.
After reading both sides of the story, it’s clear that there were different expectations on both sides about what to expect from the review experience.
It’s an issue which has now exploded, causing the hashtag to become one of the top trending topics in the UK.
Twitter is a notoriously unforgiving landscape for mistakes, errors of judgement, or downright stupidity – those 140 character or less faux pas we’ve come to know as the #TwitterFail. You tweet at your own risk, and when you get it wrong you better hope nobody’s watching, because when the masses latch on to a Twitter gaffe, you could be in for a bumpy ride.
It’s not just the retaliation you may face on Twitter itself; every news organisation from the BBC to CNN, the Guardian to the New York Times have run stories featuring Twitter fails, so what happens on Twitter certainly doesn’t stay on Twitter.
2014 has given us a plethora of Twitter fails to laugh at, cringe over and vent our Twitter rage. From celebrities to big brands, law enforcers to charities, small businesses to the media… here’s a look back at the best (or is that the worst?) Twitter fails of 2014.
Manchester United’s on-field woes are not the only problems they’re having at the minute. They’ve been subject to a torrent of abuse on Twitter this week, and most of it seems to be from their own fans.
The source of the abuse was a tweet comparing the United Manager, Louis Van Gaal, with the Chelsea boss, José Mourinho. Sounds like a reasonable subject to tweet about given that the teams are due to clash on the pitch this weekend. The problem was the comparison itself. It wasn’t about the pair’s managerial excellence, stats or achievements, nor about their management style, their history or even their preferred on-pitch formation. The chosen subject for comparison was Google searches. Yes, who was the most searched for of the two managers on Google?
Blogging for business is still met with quite a bit of scepticism in some circles. It can be a challenge to convince the hardline disbelievers that blogging can be a very worthwhile part of their marketing and it shouldn’t be ignored. The fact is, as with so many sceptics, people want proof. Rather than giving a few examples of individual businesses that have achieved great success from their blogging, I’ve collected data and statistics about business blogging from a host of sources, studies and research.
I’ve kept the sceptics in mind and weeded out a lot of the more generic blogging stats you find online. This post is focusing solely on the ‘money stats’. The ones I believe should convince the doubters that blogging really can work for your business. Continue reading
Dealing with criticism online can be a minefield, and it can quickly escalate into a PR nightmare if mishandled as many big brands have discovered, such as this example of a poorly handled Twitter experience by RTE.
But I recently came across an example of one business owner who took a seemingly very high risk approach to a negative review on TripAdvisor. Of course, TripAdvisor reviews can do serious damage to businesses in the hospitality industry, and many struggle to deal with negativity – whether that’s on TripAdvisor, Facebook, Twitter or anywhere else online.
Belmore Court & Motel have an excellent rating on TripAdvisor, so when they received a negative review they could have dealt with it in a number of ways – let it go and hope it’ll be buried quickly, respond at source, try to take it offline and offer a resolution…
Instead, they took action in a way you wouldn’t expect.
Twitter brings with it a wealth of opportunities for businesses to connect with their customers and potential customers, generate sales leads, network, build relationships, create awareness and ultimately drive sales. If used correctly, Twitter can be one of the most valuable additions to your business marketing armoury. Use it wrong though, and you could have the reverse effect. You can alienate the very people you want to woo, lose credibility, gain enemies rather than brand advocates, and those potential customers could be lost as prospects forever, all in 140 characters.
There’s a host of Twitter tips and advice we could cover, some of which you can find in this previous list of Twitter dos and don’ts, but this time I want to focus on just one thing. My greatest pet hate about Twitter. It’s automated, spammy tweets.
For the record, I’m not necessarily opposed to using tools to automate some of your social media updates. It can be a useful time saving method of updating your accounts when used well. My problem is quite simple. I don’t want to receive DMs and tweets which are clearly only coming my way based on the fact that I’ve followed you, or I’ve tweeted using a particular keyword. Tweets and messages that are not tailored to me, that show me you haven’t even looked at my profile or know anything about me or my business. Tweets that are just spam. And I’d bet my house that your potential customers don’t either. Continue reading
I’ve long been a silent admirer of the marketing antics of Paddy Power, the Irish bookmaker, but I feel it’s time to come out of the closet and openly declare my huge Twitter crush on @PaddyPower.
The seemingly ‘don’t give a shit’ approach is proving to be a powerful marketing strategy, but the truth is, their strategy is to give their customers and potential customers what they want – and that means they do give a shit!
They know their market, and rather than trying the hard sell approach, they have earned their fans’ loyalty. Through banter, controversy, engagement, humour, and originality, they have won the hearts of the Twitter masses. Not for the prudish or easily offended, Paddy’s tweets have pushed the boundaries and at times have received a negative backlash. Is that bad? Hell no! It’s just what they want! More attention, more controversy, more Twitter Power!
From horsemeat to Pistorius, the World Cup to the Pope – nothing is sacred.
“To be or not to be..” – classic one liners are nothing new – they’ve been around for as long as stories could be told, and the most memorable have become part of our every day language. What makes them memorable is that they’re draped in emotion – sorrow, pain, joy, laughter, inspiration, shock, horror, fear, or just plain nostalgia. The classics may last forever.
Who doesn’t love a good one liner? Hollywood in all its story telling grandeur has become the place to conjure up those classic moments of cinema that will be remembered and repeated for years to come. We’ve had some epic deliveries from true Hollywood legends over the years. Script writers’ hearts must dance with glee when they realise they’ve come up with a magic bullet which will live on far beyond the box office takings.
I don’t claim to be a movie buff by any stretch, but a modest love of films mixed with a passion for using social media in the right way for business has led me to come up with a few ‘lessons to be learned’ from some of Hollywood’s great one liners. And if the lessons can help along the way, even better! Enjoy…
1. “Go the distance” – Field of Dreams
One of my favourite movies!
The fact is, social media is not a fad. It’s not something that will work overnight either. If you expect to get a return on social media for your business, you’ve got to commit the time and energy. As Kevin Costner sat in that Iowa ballpark with the wonderful James Earl Jones, he realised there was more to this than first appeared. As is the same with social media – you mustn’t quit after a week when you don’t see the results. Perseverance is essential – keep plugging away and you’ll eventually crack the code. Don’t sell the farm prematurely – you may never know what you’ll be missing..this is for the long haul!
Employers use social media to have a look at the public profiles of employees and potential employees. Fact. It’s not a new discovery. And yet, it appears it is actually a stunning revelation to so many. Why? With so many businesses, brands and professionals on social media, why would it come as such a surprise that it is used as a research tool to vet potential employees?
It’s used as a research tool to find prospective employees, so why not to find out more about them? In fact, 69% of recruiters have already rejected candidates based on the content found on their social networking profiles.
I recently watched a Twitter exchange on this very subject with amazement. The discussion involved switched on individuals, established tweeters, social media savvy people…or so I thought.
One tweeter simply asked the question “How do you feel about your employer looking at your social media activities?” It’s a fair enough question – bound to be mixed feelings about it I suspected. The responses quite simply stunned me.
Some questioned whether this actually happened – in reality? – surely not! – was it real?! Their disbelief was palpable – as was mine at their sheer naivety.
Others were appalled at the thought. They felt it inappropriate, intrusive, a downright infringement on their rights in some cases.
Unbelievable! We live in a digital era. The ubiquitous nature of social media has seen it influence every area of our lives. If you have public social media profiles, this makes everything you publish there, well…public! It’s fair game. This is not an invasion of privacy or an infringement on your rights – you’ve chosen what you’ve published and you’ve selected your privacy settings.
Anyone who blogs will understand the time and effort that goes into it. It’s got to be a labour of love if you’re to have a really good blog. It can be challenging to keep up, and sometimes we’d like some recognition for the work that goes into our blogs.
It’s great to see the views, likes, shares, etc. growing, and even better for business bloggers to see their efforts translating into real customers. What about recognition from the experts? Imagine if your blog was nominated for, shortlisted for, or even won a national award? Now that would be satisfying recognition!
There aren’t many national awards dedicated to blogging. The Social Media Awards have a category for blogging, and the BOPs (Blog and Online Publishing Awards), whilst dedicated to blogging and online publishing, have only 8 categories, so it’s difficult for many businesses and bloggers to stand out in their niche. This is why the Blog Awards Ireland have become the top awards for Irish bloggers.
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