Media in the New Millennium

We’re pleased to have a guest poster today, Marie Rotter. Marie is a communications consultant working with companies to utilize online communities that add value to their brand. You can follow her on Twitter here.

The hype was everywhere. Retailers on Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving) took their deals online trying to get skittish customers to spend. They offered discounts up to 60 percent and free shipping. The National Retail Federation did as much as they could to promote the heck out of the day.

Despite the fanfare, the day was not without its problems. Amazon.com users complained loudly about the seemingly exorbitant toy prices. There were even problems with getting on to sites. Among those that had availability problems or crashed all together were: Wal-Mart, Old Navy, The Gap, Banana Republic, Victoria’s Secret, Staples, Dell and others.

So far, the only company to comment on their lack of availability was Dell – who’s spokesperson said they hadn’t detected any problems.

Sites are more complex than they used to be and keeping them available during heavy traffic makes it even harder. This doesn’t stop customers from demanding more convenience. It’s much easier to click on another site that’s working than it is to wait for the Old Navy site to come back up. This costs retailers money at a time when our economy is failing and they can’t afford to lose any more money from customers.

These problems can also cost their brand reputation. The problems Monday set off a Twitter storm. Comments were streaming in all day about who’s site was down or who got all the way to the shopping cart and couldn’t get through the online checkout.

I’ve talked to many executives who have told me they have begun monitoring Twitter in the past year, but most don’t respond to tweets. Why? Because crisis communications takes time. Statements have to be vetted by lawyers, product directors, c-level executives and the list goes on. The Internet moves in real time. By the time they have something they feel comfortable with, it’s a moot point.

Just like PR teams develop crisis communications response plans for disaster scenarios, appropriate online responses should be considered as well. You can use Twilerts.com to set up email alerts about tweets concerning your company and products. The service works similar to Google Alerts. When you receive tweets about your company, take the following response (stolen from Guy Kawasaki):

•    People are pissed: help them out.
•    People are confused: help them out.
•    People who have questions: help them out.
•    People are happy: ask them to spread the word.

As Guy also points out, you will find that people are delighted to be contacted by someone with the company, and no matter how mad they were to start with, they usually become fans. By simply monitoring Twitter and responding, you’ll be doing more than most companies out there.

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