He promised us ‘more’… sell more products, to more customers, more frequently, for more profits. Of these 4 promises, he assisted us in all areas. We have seen our customer database grow and our sales increase in line with this. We continue to work with him, and whole heartedly recommended him and the4mores team”

When bad feedback is expressed online, whether it’s on a forum, a company website or worse yet a social media account, you’re in tricky territory and fast, effective and honorable action is absolutely essential. You could be in a quick sand scenario pretty fast depending on how bad the comments are and where they’re getting posted, which of course translates to, how many people are reading them?

Nestle are a fine example of very quickly being swallowed up by the quicksand.  Greenpeace made a brutal viral video highlighting the unethical use of palm oil that goes into Kit Kat bars, and killing off the endangered orangutans in the process. If Nestle had admitted to hiring a miscreant Cadbury employee to do the honours of responding to the video, I would have believed them.  They didn’t. They just dealt with it in an incredibly bad way.

First they removed the video from YouTube and then after struggling with the myriad of appalled customer remarks on Facebook and twitter they resorted to responding rudely.  Customers said that they wouldn’t have probably noticed had Nestle not removed the video, which of course became a story in itself. And the rude responses from Nestle staff? Well, I’m sure you can imagine how people felt about that.

Another recent story to hit the online tech press is that of plastic surgeon Dr. Kimberly Henry who is now suing people who left derogatory comments on a doctors’ forum about her work. That’s right suing the online critics. And it’s not just a little ‘I want you to pay me some small damages’ slap on the wrist. She is suing the reviewers for ‘libel and defamation, invasion of privacy and interference with prospective economic advantage and is seeking $1 million in general damages and $1 million in special damages’. She doesn’t sugar coat it does she?

Now there are a few things to consider here. First how realistic is this lawsuit? Well, if it is found to be libelous-which is unlikely due to the pretty well established set of guidelines in favour of anti-SLAPP laws in America- then it could have some legs. But considering that a number of other patients have spoken up and said similar things it’s likely that it could be true, especially in light of their horrific post-op problems.

Legality aside though, where is this doctor’s head if she thinks she can get away with not responding to comments about her business, especially bad ones? And when it comes to negative comments on the web once they’re out, they’re out.

She clearly doesn’t have a clue about how to treat her patients properly-all accused malpractice put to the side for the moment-and instead she has got a “colleague”, or a “friend” or maybe even herself masquerading as an employee of her practice known on the forum as ‘Blogger’ (which then strangely changed to ‘Blogger 2’) to respond on her behalf. It’s all very suspicious and down right bizarre.

Why would you not, as an individual brand, or better yet a doctor, respond directly? If I received comments like that about a service I had provided, I’d be on that forum faster than you can say lawsuit. Which is probably the time it took her to decide to actually start one.

Granted, she was victim to a massive onslaught of very distraught customers, some of whom said they were ‘disgusted with her’, and that she had ‘no morals’ and is ‘greedy and unprofessional’. But unfortunately there were just too many people sharing too many bad experiences. Had Henry herself got online and dealt with it there and then, things could have been different.

Surely that by standing up and being accountable for whatever poor service you may have provided simply demonstrates your motivation to resolve the problem immediately, as well as your integrity and resilience. And I would have thought that in the medical profession that was absolutely critical.

But instead Henry choked. She only really considered herself in this big mess and quickly turned to legal action. What a super example of customer care.  There categorically must be some truth in those comments and unfortunately Henry has only portrayed herself as a coward and someone who is probably ashamed of something, and not to mention a very questionable figure in her profession.

On a final note, she clearly doesn’t understand the Internet much either. Perhaps she needs to get up to speed with how forums work and, how about, get to grips with the fact that EVERYONE is online now and forums are a hive of customer and patient activity.  Or maybe her staff or whoever is ‘representing’ her online needs to swat up on how customer service works in this century. Just a thought.

From Roderick Low's blog-http://expeditusmedia.com/

Jerry founded the Social Media Addicts Association in 2009. He started it so he could rehabilitate people that have come to live through their social media and networking habits. He wanted to help people, teach them the value of real, face-to-face, anti-digital, anti-avatar existences and relationships. He wanted to prove to them that there was more to a name than Mermaidlady29 and that Mermaidlady29 is in fact a real human with a real beating heart and not a steady series of digitally enhanced bird chirps tweeting at varying intervals.

But there are others. Others who haven’t made it as far as the SMAA. Below is a few examples (some true, some not so true) of interesting reactions, ideas and stats that help to ratify the obsessive, compulsive power social media has had over people once they let it creep into their personal lives. Of course I think it’s great, but I know when to stop and just about manage to be away from my laptop/phone without getting the shakes.

1.)  I can only speak in 140 characters

I can only write a CV summary in 140-characters

I can only propose in 140-characters

I can only apologise in 140-characters

I will just stop talking as if my plug has been ripped coarsely from my brain just like what happens in Avatar to Jake Sully after 140-cha—-

Worrying…

2.) A group of Jewish artists got together one day and decided to start a blog sanctifying the Sabbath-the one day of pure rest that has been swallowed up and forgotten by modern society.

Dan Rollman, President/Co-Founder of Universal Record Database finds it harder focusing on regular in-the-flesh conversations than online conversations. He also finds it harder to concentrate on books than online literature.

Michelle Collins, Managing Editor at BestWeekEver.tv said that she can’t even unplug on an aeroplane.

3) National Day of Unplugging

A no-technology day project was conducted at the University of Maryland, U.S.A and the majority of feedback from students who couldn’t text or tweet or update their Facebook statuses were similar to that of drug addicts or alcoholics.  They used words and sentences like ‘anxious’, ‘isolated’, ‘lonely’ ‘felt like a person on a desert island’, ‘almost unbearable’, ‘moody’, ‘flustered’ and ‘annoyed’. They felt ‘disconnected’ and concerned that they were ‘missing out on something’.

One student said that their brain ‘periodically went crazy’, and one even admitted to doing some push-ups then popping some Dramamine (an over-the-counter medicine to prevent nausea and motion sickness) before going to sleep to ‘put me out of my misery’.

Is there something a bit dark about that? Well, certainly a little grey. Taking an anti-vomit pill because you can’t tweet? To be honest, I can’t decide whether that’s funny or sad. In the bigger scheme of things, it’s probably the latter and a fine example of taking it too far and Generation Y are the unlucky victims of this terrible technological taint. They must be saved.

From http://blog.thoughtpick.com by Beirut

4.) What will happen to my blog when I die?

Now the fact that someone has a) pondered such an eventuality and then b) put it down into a blog post and then worse still-that would be c-published it on a well-established blog platform, is just plain weird.

Unless your blog is making you significant dosh-and there are only a small number of professional bloggers who are making good money out of it-then, seriously, don’t even bother clicking on this link. Even if you are-and not to say that it isn’t possible, because it is- your blog is blog, a personal enterprise that by the time you’ve kicked it, I would suggest letting go. And I don’t think you’re body will put up much of a fight over hanging on to ‘the legacy’.

5.) Checking in, updating statuses, posting tweets and blogs are all the new webby, techie, social networking/gossiping/stalking habits taken on by the younger generation as well as the older one. And now from bed, according to a survey run by Retrevo. A staggering 48% admitted to checking Facebook or twitter during the night or first thing in the morning. Half of the under 25 year olds surveyed said they were happy being interrupted with an IM or text during a meal and 11% said they didn’t mind being interrupted during sex. I think enough said really.

6.) I lost my job from FPing-ing too much. (front page posting addiction)

‘I know it’s a problem, but you can’t understand how FPing (front paging) a story makes me feel. Nobody can.’ This is the submission of an out of control unemployed, homeless front-page story grabbing Digg addict. And now his marriage is on the rocks. Ok, ok so it’s a parody but it’s a wonderfully gratifying one, rather like the Social Media Addicts Association’s efforts and talent at taking the piss so beautifully.

In the late 80’s and into the dot.com era the boys with glasses hunched over their computers were the geeks, the ‘computer club’ attendees who the cool kids always enjoyed chastising. But now regular people… that’s right, ordinary people that don’t wear thick rimmed specs but slick, square D&G frames, with iPod’s dangling from their designer jeans and a knack for using cool videos online are the new kind of geek.

And then you have the ‘extreme’ geeks with a penchant for outdoorsy sports, where they can take their phone and tweet while hurling themselves off a bridge attached to a piece of string. But do they take it too far? Does it start to play a significant, life-intruding role in their personal time? How does it affect their families? Seriously. We may laugh at this jolly parody but spending a day with someone glued to his or her phone or ipad can take its toll. Find a balance people.

Mike Masnick at Techdirt-a technology news and blog site- says that it’s not really about the technology but it’s another issue. He says that by focusing on the symptom you are not pinpointing the real issue. Wise words. But it’s probably more fun to blame it on technology, in particular the all encompassing and infectious nature of social media.

Maybe it will literally take over the world one day. Maybe a social media robot will evolve, one that is capable of knowing what everyone is saying in real-time from downloading the data from its mind. Ok, I’m going to stop writing this post now. I think it’s probably important that I do.

P.S.

Take the quiz-how much of a social media addict are you?

I got 46%, which I didn’t think was too obsessed. Well it’s less than half obsessed so I’m pleased with that, but not so low that I’m completely missing valuable info from valuable bloggers and tweeters and hopefully offering something too. Good. Yes, I think I’ll tweet this.  And so it starts…

Retailers have had a phenomenally impressive run at twitter, with such examples of Dell and Coco-Cola, where the former made a total of $6.5million over two years through published links on twitter.

A flurry of incentivizing deals and discounts located in one comprehensive twitter stream should be a no brainer for most companies. Sector specific streams, like EarlyBirdMusic or EarlyBirdBooks are also due to evolve from this new revenue generator.

But will this be a hit with twitter users? I can’t imagine why not. Being able to follow specific brands of interest, with a myriad of offers and incentives, should stimulate hordes of people right to their websites. And the more twitter’s membership grows the more of a governing and crucial platform it will be for brands.

This will only swell when more people start to use the web on their mobile phones, which is already a ‘been and done that’ kind of model, but a lot of people haven’t quite ‘been there and done that’ yet. Give them time. If people tweet as they go about their shopping antics, and offers are popping up for the store they’re in, the online to offline bridge will start to close and the consumer will have a much more engaged relationship with the brand. Simple.

EarlyBird is another progressive advertising model introduced by twitter, but it contradicts the purpose of social media, yet indicates a real sense of customer centricity, which in essence is indicative of social media. Advertising is obviously something that cannot be excluded from the likes of twitter or any other social platform for that matter, but it’s how it’s executed that’s important.

If it is truly serving the users first and foremost and making their purchasing experience more convenient then that’s what really matters, and not what sum the company is making from it. Although that’s quite nice too, and certainly a potential outcome that they probably won’t turn their noses up at.

Savvy B2B marketing agency Base One has come up with a clever ploy to secure a somewhat modest 1,000 downloads from everyone and anyone to prove a point. And social media is lending them a hand.

The point is that before the conference today the agency went around and asked top marketing professionals what they deemed the highs and lows of social media were. The agency then compiled their thoughts into a white paper named Opportunities & Threats (yes, the pivotal download), ready for the eagerly awaiting masses to download. Well, ‘eager’ is certainly a response they are hoping to receive. Or maybe just curious would suffice.

It’s all about content marketing, you see, and the online wielding effect it has on many, many people today. Throughout the conference John Bottom, his team and other senior marketers have been giving presentations on the theories behind content marketing and social media and videoing different marketers’ attitudes towards this modern kind of technologically enhanced marketing. Social media is at the forefront of today’s content and hopefully by the end of the day Base One’s experiment may have been a success.

The downloads will be from anyone who is interested in the experiment, people from the industry, people who are helping out or who are just curious. I would imagine the latter to be a common encouragement for people to click on the link while perusing their tweets. But that in itself is a smart foresight of Base One: to realise what engages people, whether they are online or offline. It’s essentially the same so therefore it should be marketed in the same way.  This offbeat, kind of seemingly self-promoting experiment has caught people’s attentions, and if proven right it will be a great success for how content marketing and social media is regarded.

The last update said they’re now up to 391 downloads. And the actual content is pretty engaging too. Good thing, that is.

You can follow the day through twitter by searching on this hashtag #GCME or check out the videos on YouTube (if you don’t mind all the noise!)

We just wanted to chime in and say something about the tips brands need to have ticked off should they want to nail their mobile shopping experiences for their customers. Providing you have a phone with a lightening speed Wi-Fi connection (a 3G connection could cause an apparent head-banking-against-the-wall incident, or in a less violent way, just giving up with the purchase), and a limited number of information requests, abandoning registration and letting the mobile shopper know where they’re up to in the process, then it should be pretty plain sailing.  So, if you don’t have an iPhone or one of those annoyingly slick Android HTC Incredibles from Verizon (Wired.com got all gooey over it), then you may find you’re already stumbling at the first hurdle.

Lets face it; if you want to shop on your mobile you need a decent phone. And in return brands have got to get their act together when it comes to their mobile commerce checkouts. The experience shouldn’t be any different to that of what customers experience sitting at their laptop, desktop or iPad.

And on a personal note, why are numbers always absent at the most critical point of the purchasing journey? Connections fail, checkout details are too lengthy, postcodes aren’t recognised, and while all those things are happening, sales are being lost. If there was a number present (and a human being at the end of it), brands could save some of those sales.

The sooner more brands integrate mobile commerce into their business strategies and in a thorough, accessible way, the better. Or should we say, the speedier, the prettier and the less-information-required for everyone. An all in all happier, satisfied consumer experience, which you will come back to, and with the added convenience of while you’re on the move.

Credit: Volker

Unlike the internet and the hyperactive surge of social media, mobile marketing and the oh-so accessible mobile apps seems to have slipped through into our (mass consumers) networks (and our subconscious) in a slightly more modest way.

Yes we all know that it exists and has done for the best part of ten years and we’ve all been prey to those annoying texts from gyms and clubs and various brands ramming their products into our SMS inboxes. Of course, the technology has been in place for sometime now, but how much does the average consumer really pay attention to it, and more importantly how effective is it? But that’s just SMS mobile marketing; a mere scratch on the surface of what else the technology offers, irrelevant as to how long it’s taking to become the norm.

Last year the Mobile Marketing Association updated its definition of mobile marketing to this:

‘Mobile Marketing is a set of practices that enables organisations to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network.’

Two important words there: engage and interactive, and communicate. So three in total, actually. This is also where permission marketing plays a part in the overall success of mobile marketing.  But how much are brands abiding by this? Since social networking sites have taken our communicative and interactive world by storm, mobile marketing has muscled in on the action.

Mobile marketing takes on quite a few different personas, including SMS, MMS, in-game mobile marketing, web mobile marketing, mobile marketing via Bluetooth or infrared and location-based mobile marketing.

With recent developments in the mobile marketing arena, from TweetDeck’s browser-based mobile application and the increase of mobile shopping apps, particularly with women, to new apps for Android and Facebook recently announcing that they’ve now hit the 100 million mark with mobile users, it is certainly spreading at a faster speed than it has ever done before.

But is that to do with technology or popularity? As mobile phones are becoming increasingly sexier and capable of being your sole form of communication, they’ll get there in the end. As more people switch their laptops for these hi-tech super phones when on the move, the ability and scope to reach consumers will get massive and the mobile industry should start to swell-it’s just about how brands decide to use the existing and emerging apps correctly to suit their audience.

How much do you allow brands to reach you through your mobile phone?

New kid on the social networking block Foursquare has managed to connect coolly and not to mention quickly with the dusty pink web pages of The FT.  A new shiny partnership between the newspaper giant and the location-based social networking site has arisen, shifting The FT’s strategy and broadening their demographic target to attract a younger readership.

The facts: The idea is that if you are signed up to Foursquare you will also get a free subscription to The FT, who have partnered with cafes in financial districts within cities that provide the subscribers with a ”check in” point where they can see where they’re friends are, start chatting with them and read their recommendations.

Only users who have “checked-in” the most times at one location will receive a free subscription to The FT, which will only run for a limited amount of time.

Ok, fine. But doesn’t it all seem a little too hasty and somewhat out of character for the economical news churner partnering up with a (so-far) non-commercial, brand new social media tool? Sure, it has the potential to encourage a younger demographic but one that is used to receiving free news, so will therefore expect to keep on receiving free news.

Will The FT roll out this service after the first few months? How else will they engage with Generation Y once they’ve successfully landed on their site? What kind of strategy is actually in place? Are they trying to scoop up the next new, exciting social media toy just because that’s what it is? And finally, are they bypassing the strategy part and just leaping headlong into the youthful pools of Foursquare?

In theory it’s a smart move to encourage more of a younger participant in their growing Web 2.0 presence. If it works The FT will have to be consistent and integrate and share with their younger readers, just like any good social media tool does.

It might seem kind of exciting and energizing. It might also give you a little buzz of self-confessed modernisation, of waking up your inner geek and feeling pretty darn pleased with yourself about it. And besides, all the kids are doing it these days, and their parents and even some of their parents.  So why not jump in on the action and see what it’s all about?

Or you might feel differently. You might feel that it’s of no real interest whatsoever but you’re friend who works at that edgy media company says you simply have to integrate it into your business. So you give it a stab.

But before you do that think about why you’re doing it. Really think and question your reasons. Ask yourself this simple question: What do you want to achieve from it?

Like all projects, business ventures and new ideas this question needs to be asked and considered deeply.  Using social media in your business is a marketing extension but with a new twist that hasn’t been exercised before, and that twist totally aligns itself with a customer centric attitude. The twist is sharing content and starting discussions.  Sounds simple enough, right? Well, yes and no. It can be straight-forward and very enjoyable, but providing you have a clear, defined strategy in place with realistic objectives that work with the live interactions of social networking. This, of course, must be assessed along with time, which is your most precious resource. And we all know that time can cost money. If you simply do not have the time, hire someone who does.

You might want to ask yourself what will be your ROI. But it then might be worthwhile figuring out what ROI means to your organisation and how you measure it. By making sure you have these questions answered thoroughly you can then formulate a comprehensive strategy for how you would like to see your business develop over the next six months, 12 months or however long you wish to measure it by.

Social media needs attention, and whether people wish to engage with it or not, it’s very much a part of our cultural existence today and is accelerating at an awesome speed one tweet, profile, connection, lens et al at a time.

the4mores are simple: SELL MORE PRODUCTS & SERVICES TO MORE PEOPLE MORE FREQUENTLY FOR MORE MONEY

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We create sales and marketing strategies that are straightforward, focused and profitable. Our vision is to establish quality long term  relationships with our clients that follow a customer centric approach.

If you want more then email us at info@the4mores.com, or continue to browse our site full of good ideas to get you started.