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When it comes to social media, best practice communications strategy is to ‘listen first’ before inviting your customers to ‘ask questions later’.
Earlier this month, BlueChip investigated a Twitter campaign launched by JP Morgan that was comprehensively branded a #socialmediafail. The #AskJPM ‘student-focused’ Twitter campaign resulted in more than two thirds of the 8,000 tweets published under the #AskJPM hashtag being negative. The New York Times published many of the tweets in its recent in-depth article.
So what are some simple guidelines that could save your company from similar embarrassment?
Be self-aware: Given that much of the press surrounding JP Morgan over the last few months has been extremely negative, the decision to open the social floodgates is even more unfathomable. This includes a $300 million settlement relating to alleged irregular practices and an agreement to pay the US Government a record $13 billion in fines – including some in “consumer relief” – by way of restitution for actions that played a pivotal role in triggering the GFC. So, yes, many people were at the ready with burning questions to #AskJPM. Just not the type of questions the architects of this ‘strategy’ had envisaged.
Understand your audience: If it had conducted appropriate research, JP Morgan would have soon found that the favoured social media channel for its student target audience is not Twitter. It has never been a popular channel for students and younger demographics. But who does favour Twitter? An older demographic, including upper socio-economic groups and a strong media contingent (among others). In other words, precisely the slice of the population with the biggest beef with the bank.
Know your message: What was the JPM message? It is open to feedback? It is accessible through social media? Or that it has something worthy to offer in the way of career and leadership advice at a time when it is paying record fines and settlements relating to behaviour that continues to negatively affect the lives of ordinary people years down the track? Frankly, any decent consideration of the message and the campaign would have been deemed a #badidea by the JPM spokesperson before it had even launched.
Listen: Before you decide on your strategy and channel, best practice is to ‘listen first’ to confirm your beliefs and choice of channel. This will tell you what people are saying about your brand. Where are the pain points and strengths, your detractors and promoters? If JPM had simply searched its own hashtag #JPM, it would have seen tweets alleging negligence and even “robbery”. This may have mitigated against using an open forum to seek feedback from this audience.
Risk manage: As with all forms of communication, you need a strong strategy in place; to devise an execution plan that mirrors it; and to overlay the whole with scenario planning and risk management. An issues management kit and scenario planning enables you to foresee and plan for potential negative outcomes – before they happen.
The upshot? Social media can be a highly effective platform for two-way communication between brands and consumers or other businesses. A number of brands have done this very well. But, rather than trying to ‘tick the social media box’, brands need to more fully understand the role of social media – its pros, cons and possibilities – before they venture into the water.
