Our MD Angie has a wealth of experience in the hospitality and leisure industry. She spent 14 years running her own hotel with her partner Steve, before setting up apt marketing in 2000 when she decided she needed a change. apt initially specialised in the tourism and leisure industry but has since developed into a promoter and advocate for local and national businesses across a variety of sectors; Angie’s vision was a full-service agency to deliver integrated campaigns that she had been unable to get herself when running a hotel.

Angie has now been approached by Hotel Owner magazine (formerly Hotel magazine), to write a monthly insight column which provides hospitality businesses with strategic and practical marketing help. You can read her first column in the January magazine, or alternatively you can read her page here...

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So this week is apparently a bad week for brands on Twitter! First, there was the Katie Price/Jordan Snickers disaster (although some are saying this is good PR), then came the #McDStories from Macdonalds, then finally, LA Fitness got a battering ! I'm not going to bore you with a run-down of the stories... you know the ones I'm talking about! What I am going to do is provide a list of tips that we can learn from disasters like this...

Jordan and Snickers:

So, in a PR stunt that arguably backfired, the main sentiment taken from this campaign was that "Snickers makes you a moron"! Not exactly what Snickers were going for when they signed up Katie Price! People are questioning a) why the company thought this a good idea and b) why Jordan's PR people let her do it? Whilst I can answer neither of these questions, I can provide an important tip for managing your online reputation... THINK! I know, how patronising do I sound?! It's simple though; if people spent more time considering the consequences, even just 5 or 10 seconds, there wouldn't be so many silly mistakes. Twitter only grants you 140 characters, so people often miss out words, but take a second to check if that changes the emphasis of your tweet. Also make sure you're saying what you mean; there's nothing worse than seeing a tweet, only for it to be deleted seconds later, then tweeted again correctly. Minor I know, but get it wrong and don't realise and it could have serious consequences.

There are a few important things to remember here too...

1. Writing has no tone of voice; whether you are tweeting, updating statuses or writing an email, it is often hard to convey the emotion you're feeling or intending. What you mean in one way, others might read completely the opposite. Try to think of all the angles and taking those few extra seconds might just help you catch that potentially awful mistake before it happens.
2. 140 characters is not a lot but it can do a lot of damage! Take a moment to consider the wide-reaching impact of your tweet because it is really hard to take something back! Are you being controversial? Is it necessary? If so, do you have the argument prepared to support it?
3. Twitter is much more instant than other sites like Facebook; it is much quicker to build momentum because people can share, search and update rapidly! This is particularly important to remember as a brand on twitter; unlike personal accounts where you update a small minority of people who quite frankly are often slightly indifferent to you, for a brand, people have a different sort of connection and they are much more likely to react, particularly if it is negative. Reputations are difficult to build and easy to break!


#McDStories

Next this week, McDonalds switched from their original hashtag #meetthefarmers, where they told stories about the people who grow their food, to a new hashtag #McDStories. Despite only using the new hashtag twice, it was quickly hijacked and turned into a brand battering for the company. Unlike the first hashtag, which was unambiguous and has no other major connotations, the second was a little 'self-righteous' to many and provided the opportunity for anyone to tell a 'story' regardless of the spin. Unfortunately, McDonalds were unable to get hold of the hashtag and so have had to wait this disaster out. Not only should they 'think' as mentioned previously, but they should also have a contingency plan should the worst happen!

People love to engage with brands, particularly on Twitter, regardless of whether they are big or small. They love to share their good experiences as it helps give an insight into their lives, HOWEVER, they are often even more eager to share the bad! You cannot predict exactly what, how or when a disaster might happen, but put steps in place now to ensure you know how to deal with them when they arise. This wouldn't necessarily have helped MacDonalds, but it can be really succuessful for a smaller issue. For example, if someone complains, don't fire back a haphazard response when you're a little peeved, take the time to consider what they have said as well as what you would expect from a brand if you complained, then give a really diplomatic response with a plausible solution and leave it for the world to see. Dealing with a complaint well, rather than deleting, ignoring or even arguing with someone will grant you a greater amount of respect and enable you to turn many people's opinions around!

LA Fitness

FInally this week, LA Fitness got a bashing, not because of their own social media management, but actually because of their offline management in an increasingly connected world. They handled a specific situation badly, standing by a demand for fees outstanding; rather than dealing with the issue as an isolated event, they continued to push the case and word got out. Once people had heard about the issue, members and non-members alike began to call for a boycott of the chain and for people to cancel memberships! Not ideal!

Our society is becoming increasingly mobile and social online, meaning that new connections are constantly being made and existing ones are changing. Remember, it is not just your online reputation you need to manage, but your offline approach as well. It takes seconds for a negative comment to be posted and it's important to remember that! It works the other way too though; do something excellent and you're just as likely to benefit from that online too!

There are plenty of lessons to be learnt from brands that are bigger than you and who have bigger budgets and more resource; take the time and learn from them. Monitor those you think do a good job, as well as the ones you don't and see what you can learn from them both...

As I'm sure you can probably imagine, I spend a lot of time watching adverts, studying marketing campaigns and generally keeping up to date with all the big name brands that are important in the UK. That means I'm aware of new adverts that come out and I'm always eager to comment on good creativity and innovative concepts. That's why I was a little puzzled by the new Dyson print and TV ads that have just launched (see end for YouTube video).

The key message that Dyson focuses on is the high number of patents they have worldwide and therefore the uniqueness of their products. Fine, I get that, great USP! The problem is they don't stop there... The final phrase in the ad is: 'If you want something that works like a Dyson vacuum, it needs to be a Dyson'.

Compare that to the VW Golf advert that came out almost two years earlier and you realise that they'd managed to do this first! They too list all the benefits of the golf, albeit it in a much quirkier, more interesting advert and finish theirs off with the slogan 'Why drive something like a Golf when you can drive a Golf?' Spot the difference...?

To be fair, there isn't actually anything wrong with the Dyson advert; it's just that VW got there first and did a better job. If you're going to do something second, you need to do it better and be that much more creative! I guess I'm just disappointed that given the excellence, innovation and creativity of their products, Dyson didn't come up with a more innovative ad campaign!

Watch the videos...