February 13 was like every other day at Southwest Airlines. That is, until they refused to seat Kevin Smith on his flight from Oakland to Burbank. The reason was because his extra large size would hamper the ‘comfort and safety’ of other passengers. He was of the opinion that he offered no ‘safety risk’ as he fit between the armrests of the seat. He blew off steam by tweeting about the inconvenience and embarrassment he felt at having been removed from the plane.

Turns out Kevin Smith was no ordinary passenger. An award winning Director of movies like ‘Dogma’, ‘Chasing Amy’, & ‘Cop Out’, he has over a million followers on Twitter. Tweet tweet!

What ensued was a potential PR nightmare for Southwest (Toyota anybody?).

The Story Spread Like Wildfire Online

The intensity of this incident was evident from the fact that in a span of 6 days it had 3,043 blog mentions, 5,133 forum posts and 15,528 tweets. Online media had the majority of the coverage of this event. Fortunately, for Southwest, their swift and continuous response (that too on a Saturday), ensured that the nightmare was short-lived. In fact the time before Kevin Smith’s first tweet and Southwest’s response was 16 minutes. The maximum impact of this story was 2 days before it petered out a few days later.

View the complete timeline of the tweets between Kevin Smith and Southwest Airlines.

Overall Sentiment On Twitter

36% supported Southwest Airlines’ move. They believed the airline handled the event well. 26% were of the opinion that it was poor customer service/response on the airline’s part. In other words, they expected the airline to handle the situation better. 38% said that they won’t fly Southwest Airlines.

The Response

Southwest Airlines’ response was planned and well executed. As mentioned before, Southwest responded in 16 minutes after the initial complaint with an apology. After additional rants, Southwest responded again 14 minutes later. In the morning Southwest tweeted over an hour later trying to let Kevin Smith know they were listening and trying to engage with their Customer Relations VP. The next morning they tried to call as well. The blog post on the incident was posted the next day and tweeted. Because of the response, even though Smith’s version got the lion’s share of mainstream press reports, Southwest’s response was noted (see LA Times story Incident #1 and Fatgate #2).

Southwest’s response was textbook real time marketing and customer service. They responded quickly and in a friendly way. As a result, many of the customer responses on the Southwest blog were very sympathetic, especially after Smith continued to pound away. Southwest did not block any negative comments on their blog. They apologized to Kevin Smith and offered a refund, but restated their longstanding policy of charging 2 tickets for larger people on full flights. Social influence played an important role here as Southwest Airlines admitted that it had to more carefully implement their ‘delicate’ seating policy.

Popularity Chart: Mentions Of Southwest Airlines & Kevin Smith

The popularity of discussions around the incident took a major leap on February 14th, owing to numerous mentions on blogs, forums, news and Twitter. On February 15th, the popularity fell drastically and has been heading downhill ever since. The reason is because issues between Kevin Smith and Southwest Airlines have been discussed at length in a completely transparent manner.

Overall Sentiment On Blogs

Comments on the blogosphere were remarkably neutral to the incident. About 31% reacted negatively to the incident and 17% reacted positively.

Conclusion

What this story highlights is the fact that influencers need to be listened to and engaged with as they have the power to potentially cause serious harm to your brand. Kevin Smith has over a million followers on Twitter and he is a celebrity. This makes him an influencer and opinion leader. Southwest Airlines’ prompt response to Kevin Smith’s tweet was its best move. Around 8 tweets were exchanged between both parties after which the airline wrote a blog post narrating the events and offering an apology. This led to rapid fall-off in interest with many taking Southwest’s side in the dispute.

“Companies can choose to not factor in the social influence of customers, but will be putting themselves at risk. It’s just a matter of time before a company has a social blowup, and by not trying to handle priority customers, could cause a small issue to quickly escalate into a larger one.” – Jeremiah Owyang, Partner, Customer Strategy Altimeter Group.

Methodology: We analyzed tweets posted between 13th February and 16th February. We initially analyzed the list of positive keywords associated with the Kevin smith incident. These users supported Southwest airlines & they felt that Southwest handled this issue well. We also analyzed the data from Twitter using the following keywords and assigned categories as depicted in the graph above.

Support SW airlines keywords: (”Southwest”) AND (”Kevin smith”) AND (”like” OR “love” OR “win” OR “awesome” OR “great” OR “best” OR “rocks” OR “support”)

We followed the same methodology for negative and neutral sentiment too. Here are keywords associated with negative sentiment, These users felt that the SW airlines service has poor service.

Poor Customer Service: (”Southwest”) AND (”Kevin smith”) AND (”poor service” OR “fail” OR “bad” OR “Inferior” OR “hate” OR “insane” OR “sad” OR “dislike” OR “disaster”)

We discovered there was another trend associated with this incident. Some users felt that they won’t fly SW airlines again.
I won’t fly with Southwest: “southwest” AND “Kevin smith” AND ( “never travel” OR ” don’t fly ” OR “never fly” OR “won’t fly ” OR ” never try” OR “don’t try” OR “don’t travel” OR “never going” )

Contributed by Nallai Wickreman and Jade Agnet D’costa, Social Media Marketing, Position²

• Tracking The Buzz On Apple’s iPad (0)
• Impact of Google’s Real-time search on social media marketing (1)
• Why Social Media Marketing is Essential (0)

The Internet was abuzz with the launch of Apple’s iPad. While the world was busy reacting to the iPad, our team set out monitoring social networks to track iPad buzz. We tracked activity from January 27 through February 28. The results are here to see!

Priced modestly at $499 for the 16GB base version, the iPad packs in quite a punch. Compared to e-readers, this sleek unit has a stunning screen, wireless broadband connectivity, a touchscreen and the ability to run over 100,000 iPhone apps. However, the iPad has received mixed reactions online. Critics have written about missing features like a camera, flash and the fact that it cannot multitask. You cannot listen to your favorite Pandora station while writing an email. At the same time, with winners like the iPod, iPhone and iMac, it’s hard to count Apple out.

Below is a summary of the tracking study.

Number Of Mentions – Apple iPad

Among social networks, there was an explosion of Tweets with over 5.2 million posts. There were 70,796 news articles, 199,979 forum posts and 246,886 blog entries. Rarely would you see so many articles about a product launch, even an Apple one.

Overall Popularity



After a burst of posts on January 27, iPad social media mentions had its normal drop in popularity. What is more interesting is how there is a steady stream of posts even over a month afterwards. There are still around 50,000 mentions per day for a product that has not shipped or advertised on TV. That is, until the Oscars on March 7th. The ad is worth watching.

Sentiment Analysis Of Blogs

In the blogosphere,

• The overall sentiment was split into neutral at 47%, positive at 41% and negative at 12%.
• After an initial burst of positive sentiment, it turned more negative as critics commented on missing features.
• Towards the end of February, positive sentiment has been rising as negative sentiment is dropping. More people are making decisions about the device. It will be interesting to observe sentiment once advertising picks up.
• Among countries, U.S. blogs commented most about the iPad followed by U.K. and Germany.

Features

• It’s a light-weight device with a 9.7 inch display
• iPad’s multi-touch screen makes gaming and navigation an experience like no other
• The new iBook app transforms the iPad into a digital reader
• For a modestly priced gadget, the iPad has a long battery life of 10 hours
• The app store with 140,000 apps make the iPad a real steal

The Verdict – Lines At The Apple Store?

With lines at the store for upgrades of the iPhone, the answer is… definitely. The Apple iPad launch demonstrates the power of consistently strong marketing and product development. Loyal and vocal followers drive the mix as well. The initial buzz has translated to consistent mentions over a 30 day period. Sentiment has varied with time because experts were expecting more features and functionality than what was announced. At the same time, positive sentiment has risen consistently as people are digesting a new product category distinct from the Kindle or Tablet PC. The power of Apple’s positive brand equity is clear when news stories are reporting on TV ads released during the Oscars. It’s clear that Steve Job’s company is a master at marketing. While we do not know whether the iPad will be a high-flyer like the iPhone or a relative dud like Apple TV, we’ll continue to track the buzz.

Methodology: We compiled results from Sysomos as well as the Google AdWords keywords tool, to arrive at a keywords set for the Apple iPad.

Keywords: “Apple iPad”, “iPad”

Contributed by Sanjeev Dhanaraj, Social Media Marketing, Position²

• Impact of Google’s Real-time search on social media marketing (1)
• Engagement – The cornerstone for social media marketing success (2)
• Leveraging Facebook for better Business Branding (1)

Google’s real time search marks the beginning of delivering a new search result for the future. In a way it has changed the way people find information on the internet.

The real-time search allows users to view live updates from social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook which impacts the search engine result page (SERP). Headlines from blogs and news websites can be viewed just seconds after they are published. For businesses real-time search can increase the efficiency of both big and small online companies.

With the launch of real-time search corporate websites need to be more active on social media sites since any conversations on social networks will consequently have an ongoing effect on search results.

Now companies and organizations need to care for sites like Twitter or other forms of user-generated content that are published in real-time. Companies that were previously involved in Twitter focusing on engagement for customers and leads, now have to also optimize keywords that are used in each tweet. What it also means to a company is that if your brand doesn’t tweet, it is going to lose on some search traffic.

Real-time search by Google has been one of the most important social media announcements for 2009. In a nutshell, it means businesses cannot ignore social media as it is an indispensable marketing tool.

For companies that want to jump into the social media bandwagon, there isn’t much time to lose.

Contributed by Shantanu Barman

• Tracking The Buzz On Apple’s iPad (0)
• Social Media is fun (0)
• Engagement – The cornerstone for social media marketing success (2)

Social media is the most potent tool to influence people on the web nowadays. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, etc. allow you to get directly in touch with potential customers. There is no limit to the number of ways you can promote your site or business through some of the social media channels mentioned above. Only social media has the reach that can get online attention and huge traffic to your site at virtually no extra cost.

Why you need social media:

1. Your competitors are using it

Most of your competition, some of whom you were not even aware of, are using social media to promote themselves. You might notice them on search engine results. The reason they show up there is because they leverage social media to build awareness of their brand and popularity that gets traffic to their website.

2. Your customers are using it

Your customers and target audience use social media almost every day. This is as true for organizations as it is for individuals. The freedom of expressing your thoughts online for the world to read, sharing experiences on products they have used is a powerful make or break situation for any business. On sites like Facebook and Twitter, you can find users expressing their views and experiences through status updates on their profiles.

3. More Social = More Search = More Customers = More Business

Where would a person nowadays go when he or she searches for information for a particular product? They “Google” it. As a result, it is essential for you to show up in those searches if you want to be ahead of the competition. As a brand, if you have a presence in the first few pages of the search result, the target audience will come to your website. This will yield more traffic for your site and possibly more customers.

4. It is an engagement point

Companies are now becoming aware of the fact that they need to have conversations with their customers to get their feedback and suggestions. This can help build a relationship with clients or address negative comments that some customers could share on social networking sites.

Contributed by Pooja Giri

• Tracking The Buzz On Apple’s iPad (0)
• Is your business Social Media ready? (2)
• Impact of Google’s Real-time search on social media marketing (1)

Author and technologist Nicholas Carr says, “Twitter is the telegraph system of Web 2.0.” The New York Times has mentioned that Twitter is one of the fastest-growing phenomena on the Internet. Only a few brands skimmed off profits from Twitter and others just tweeted about some direct marketing stuff. However, there are numerous ways you can leverage Twitter for your business and improve your bottom line. Here is the one-stop Twitter guide for business.

Get started

1. Create a Twitter account

2. Make sure, that you have selected a unique vanity URL for your Twitter account

3.  Upload an image and customize your profile image using this tool: http://walterhiggins.net/projects/twixenate.html

4. Include a link to your corporate website

5. Promote your Twitter presence on your corporate website, client emails, etc.

SEO juice – Recently, Google started indexing tweets; these tips could help you optimize your Twitter account.

6. Include your brand name as the title of your profile

7. Use the Google keywords tool and shortlist important keywords relevant to your products

8. Include those keywords in your bio

9. Use keywords in the first 30 characters of your tweets in order to be optimized by Google

10. Get re-tweeted and increase backlinks for your content

A “following” strategy – This will help you to connect with your target audience.

11. Identify your target audience based on their interests

12. Use hashtags “#” (Hashtags are a community-driven convention to add additional context and metadata to your tweets) to search for your target audience using this tool: http://wefollow.com/

13. Use more directories for search such as: http://www.twellow.com/, http://justtweetit.com/ etc.

14. Follow the influencers in your industry using this tool: http://www.twitalyzer.com/

Identify local Twitter users, or tweeple – If you are a company that serves only a particular location, networking with local tweeple will add more value to your business.

15. Follow influencers in your location using this tool: http://twitterholic.com/. This tool lists all the influencers on Twitter, based on the number of followers and location.

16. Enter keywords relevant to your product and use the “near this place” option in Twitter’s advanced search to identify tweeple who are interested in your product

17. Search for tweeple near your location using this tool: http://www.tweepz.com/

18. Network with local tweeple by searching for them with hashtags, using this tool: http://localtweeps.com/

How to make your tweets effective

19. If you prefer Web tweeting, use this tool: http://twitzap.com/ for advanced features

20. Download Tweetdeck for more power tweeting from your desktop

21. You can add additional Twitter accounts in Tweetdeck and control them using a single application

22. Schedule important tweets in advance using this tool: http://www.tweetlater.com/

23. Use: http://cotweet.com/ for collaborative tweeting

What to tweet on – Starting and joining the right conversation(s) will give you more exposure.

24. Post tweets based on the interests of your followers

25. Search for topics relevant to your product(s) and talk to influencers

26. Use hashtags to power the conversation

27. Post tweets about useful links and articles

28. Use: http://happn.in/ to talk about the trends in your locality.

Twit research – Twitter is a good source for market data as prospective customers are present there.

29. Finalize the sample size of the search.

30. List hashtags relevant to your research objective

31. Get secondary data for your research based on hashtags by using this tool: http://twubs.com/

32. Analyze hashtags  relevant to your research using this tool: http://www.trendrr.com/

Get feedback –As Twitter is a real-time medium, organizations use Twitter to get direct feedback from customers.

33. Get feedback from customers and other tweeple by replying and directly messaging them

34. Use hashtags to organize the feedback

35. Get feedback from local tweeple using this tool: http://nearbytweets.com/

36. Use: http://twtpoll.com/ to conduct a simple survey in Twitter to get real-time feedback

37. Post new product screenshots in http://twitpic.com/ and get instant feedback from your followers

Twit hiring – If you are looking to hire people for your organization, Twitter is another source to find the right talent.

38. Search for job seekers near your location using advanced search features in Twitter public search

39. Use hashtags in your tweets to reach active job seekers

40. Post tweets to announce benefits such as perks, allowances, etc. for the job(s) you offer

41. Use: http://twitpic.com/ to share corporate events to show job seekers your organization’s work culture

42. You can also use Twitter to conduct background checks on employees by using the Twitter advanced public search.

Tweetup – “Is an organized or impromptu gathering of people that use Twitter.” Tweetup is an excellent platform to promote products among local Tweeple.

43. Search for a Tweetup near your location using: http://nearbytweets.com/

44. Organize a Tweetup in your locality using  this tool: http://www.twtvite.com/

45. Pitch for influencers in your location by attending Tweetups.

46. Give away promo codes to attendees in the Tweetup to spread your product virally.

Follow your competition – This can give you insights on what your competitors are working on.

47. Follow your competitors on Twitter.

48. Use Twitter public search to get more insights on competitors’ activities

49. Analyze their Twitter account and follower patterns using: http://tweetstats.com/

50.  Compare your network statistics with competitors using: http://twitter-friends.com/

• 100 tips on how to use Twitter for business – Part 2 (0)
• Long Tail Keywords and SEO – What is the SEO Value of Long Tail Keywords? (0)
• Flying Tweets: Kevin Smith vs. Southwest Airlines (0)

Social Media has evolved into a powerful online tool in today’s world. Companies now specially employ people to handle various aspects of their social media campaigns. However, we still see many companies that have still not leveraged the efficiencies of social media.

The ones that are successful in this regard are sure about whom they want to target, how they should react to online conversation and how they can measure their online presence. These initiatives have helped them further strengthen their brand presence, both online and offline.

So, for companies that are still contemplating entering Social Media, here are a few things that could help you decide.

Are you aware of your current online reputation?

Your customers could be using different forums to talk about your product and these conversations could be positive or negative. Here are some things to think about:

•    Do you know where on the web they are talking about your brand?
•    Are these conversations affecting your brand?
•    Do you have a plan to defend your brand in case their opinions are negative?

If your answer is “NO” to any of these questions, then you are “Social Media challenged”. You need help to get yourself Social Media protected. Moreover, your action now can pave the way for your future growth, as Social Media is here to stay. Twitter, Facebook and MySpace are going to be your new playground. Your customers are already there, and they are waiting for you to talk to them.

Companies that have taken steps in this regard are already way ahead of you, and are reaping the fruit of their labor.  They know what their customers want and can change their products accordingly.  Their products are sure to be a success as they provide what their customers want. Their customers are ready to evangelize for them.

By entering this arena, no matter what you do, you will lay the foundation for your Social Media activities.

Contributed by Sherin Jacob

• Tracking The Buzz On Apple’s iPad (0)
• Why Social Media Marketing is Essential (0)
• Impact of Google’s Real-time search on social media marketing (1)

The March 26th edition of The New York Times carried a story about Twitter and how celebrities have turned to ghost writers to put out the 140 character text messages. The article cited examples, and quoted celebrities and consultants (i.e., ghost Twitterers) who explain and defend the “ghosts” in Twitter as acceptable. Basketball star, Shaq and cycling great, Armstrong, were the standouts in their opinion that it is pitiful if someone, even a busy celebrity, couldn’t regularly string together 140 characters conveying their own thoughts and opinions to their fans and followers.

So, what should we make of this? Does it even matter?

It definitely matters. In this age of information overload when messages are being created, re-transmitted, amplified and often spun out of control, full disclosure about the true source of messages from influential role models and decision makers is very important. Decisions to agree, endorse, or re-transmit (ReTweeting)—or not—any original message are predicated on knowing the true source of that original message. That’s why we have elaborate conventions for written and verbal forms of communications: attributing, quoting, citing, official spokespersons, declared official biographers, and speechwriters to name a few. Once we know the true origins of a message we apply our own filter and a different standard in judging what to make of the message.

So, we’re comfortable with President Obama’s declared use of a social media team that also Twitters for him, or Guy Kawaski’s hand-off to his Twitter team. It’s like all the other help that people at the top of their respective ‘games’ use to get and stay there: image consultants, speech writers, fitness trainers, or mental sports coaches. The critical delineation is that all these consultants, are generally just that—consultants—providers of input for the final product that their clients absorb but then personally deliver.

Obviously, we all sit up and pay very different attention when The President himself hosts a session with the press corps, though we’ll also listen with interest when it’s his White House Spokesperson delivering a message.

The NY Times article and its examples just indisputably demonstrate that people are using firms to manage their personality and image. But it’s some of the holier than thou opinions about keeping social media “pure and personal” that are naive. And the strong, implicit stance The NY Times takes by stuffing its article with examples of ghost-writing may belie their irritation about Twitter emerging as yet another distracting digital medium stealing precious time and mind share–putting them, even if only temporarily, in the slow lane for real time news sharing and engagement.

However, for marketers, microblogging presents a good opportunity to leverage services like Twitter in an up-front manner as many already do: a real-time, hip way to engage with your fans, followers and prospects.

Marketing on Twitter and some other social media is inherently risky today if marketers seek traditional “control” over messaging. But bold, innovative brands like Skittles are doing it. Their willingness to expose themselves online and take the good with the bad is actually pure, more authentic, and even “human”–part of being mature, secure, learning adults is to become comfortable with mixed messages of praise and criticism directed at us. The same holds true for a brand’s online persona.

So, as marketers, we should quickly leverage the phenomenon that is Twitter, get clients’ messages out there in an open and transparent manner, build momentum, and see where it takes us. Twitter is a very effective way of engaging with people who are undoubtedly opinion leaders and often the early adopters every new product or service craves. As a general practice it’s best to make clear the original source of messaging. It’s easier to sort through any downstream negative spin or malicious messaging and create an effective Social Media Marketing led brand defence, or reputation monitoring.

A sign of the maturing of Twitter and its readiness for planned marketing campaigns is the very agenda based, business-like turn it is taking. The same maturation process that led email, blogging, or mobile/cell phone messaging, and the Web, in general, to become rich media for marketers is happening with Twitter. As the targets of marketers, we didn’t turn away from email—we just constructed mechanisms to filter what we choose to receive.

Our desire to invoke filters for Twitter isn’t strong just yet. Twitter is a growing phenomenon, and it’s going to be cool for some time to come. The majority of Twitter users love it, and stories of Twitter junkies are growing. The proof is in the pudding—Twitter has grown 1300+% from Feb 2008!

While it’s still cool and hip, marketers need to quickly warm up to Twitter, hatch a ghost or self-generated Twittering plan, and grow that plan till Twitter and micro-blogging become deeply entrenched mainstream marketing media. Rest assured some new digital product or service will come along to serve those with a strong need for exclusively personal, “pure” communication–maybe those folks should just pick up the phone!

• Tracking The Buzz On Apple’s iPad (0)
• Impact of Google’s Real-time search on social media marketing (1)
• Flying Tweets: Kevin Smith vs. Southwest Airlines (0)