Social media, friend or foe?

Hello fellow course mates!

While I am on the topic of social media, I would like to highlight 2 companies and how social media has impacted them:

Recently, the cabin crew of British Airways (BA) have gone on 2 rounds of strikes, as their negotiation rounds with the management regarding their pay package could not be resolved. Other than the usual interviews and media reports which saw the CEO of BA being interviewed and quoted in major traditional media, BA has also utilized their official YouTube account to broadcast their CEO’s messages and interviews. You can view the site here: http://www.youtube.com/user/FlyBritishAirways

His responses and updates aims to give travellers and public the much needed information and assurance, that while the cabin crew are on strike, they are doing everything possible to make arrangements for affected travellers and resolve the situation. One point for the engagement!

On this site, you will also find links to the other corporate campaigns that they had run, and some of the TVCs that were once on TV. Another point for being integrated and interactive!

With the positive PR efforts that they have taken, I have noticed that there has been an increase in members and followings during the past few days.

The other company that has been under the limelight for social media recently is Nestle. Greenpeace has highlighted that Nestle has bought palm oil from suppliers who are destroying the natural habitat of orang-utans in Indonesia. This has prompted many fans to post negative comments on Nestle’s Facebook page.

What was surprising and uncalled for was the rude and ‘less than PR’ replies that came from Nestle. These lead us to wonder if these official social networking sites were being moderated by junior officers who were un-trained in PR? Will companies invest in a senior position to monitor and moderate its social networking site 24 hours of the day? Unlikely so.

While social networking site is supposed to reach out to the public, considerable care should be taken to ensure that a well-trained personnel is being used to reach out and reply on the company’s behalf, just like a well-trained PR professional in a PR department.

Or else, it could risk losing customers (both current and prospective), as fast as the rate that Nestle is losing its fans on Facebook by the minute!