Amber discusses the case of Tanner’s New York experience following up on our previous post
Power Friending: Demystifying Social Media to Grow Your Business
I think it is worth noting here that with this Air Canada twitter issue we have a new real-time case study that you can add to the many already contained in Amber Mac’s Power Friending book on Social Media. Wisely she writes the article below in her Trending Tech column in the Toronto Globe and Mail.
“Friday, August 6, 2010 10:54 AM
Amber MacArthur
Many Canadians followed the saga of Tanner Bawn’s broken wheelchair yesterday in no small part because the proverbial bad guy in the picture was our oft-derided national airline, Air Canada.
A recap: The 10-year-old boy, who is fighting a terminal illness, travelled to New York City Wednesday to live out one of his final wishes, but his motorized wheelchair was damaged during transit. While Air Canada was, in fact, in the process of fixing the damage, it still took them 24 hours to communicate that to the public.
That was about 23 hours too late. The Wednesday night after Tanner and his aunt, Catherine Connors, tweeted the following message, directed at Air Canada:
So. @aircanada killed Tanner’s wheelchair. We’re now stuck at La Guardia. #tutusfortanner
What followed Wednesday night and all day Thursday, were thousands of Twitter comments from Connors’ community, many of whom were horrified that hours were passing by without any assurance from Canada’s biggest airline that the boy’s broken wheelchair would be fixed or replaced.
As for how @AirCanada reacted during this time, well, it appears that what looks like the airline’s official Twitter page is in fact an abandoned destination. There is one odd message on the page, a reply to a Microsoft user, making me think someone is squatting on their account.
Globe & Mail Photo
While Air Canada can lobby Twitter to get their company name back (as they should), the one big lesson here for the airline is that it’s time for them to embrace social media.
With that in mind, here are five tips that may hopefully push them (and, for that matter, any other business that deals with the public) in that direction:
Listen well, and often
The first step to any good social media strategy is to keep an ear to the digital ground. If Air Canada was on the lookout for online conversations about their company, they could have intercepted many of these messages and mitigated the damage. There are plenty of listening tools on the web, but a great free service that will e-mail regular updates about a specific topic or company name is Google Alerts (helping a business track relevant blog posts, etc.). Moreover, there are plenty of social media dashboards, such as HootSuite, that make it easy to monitor Internet buzz about topic or brand conversations on Twitter.
Reach out to the individual
When a customer or client posts positive or negative feedback on the web, it’s important for a business to connect with that person. This can be as simply as a quick thank you message or a note acknowledging the problem and offering next steps. This one-on-one relationship is critical in the web world. When I spoke to Connors she said she had limited conversations with Air Canada, and none of those interactions took place online.
Reach out to everyone
If a situation explodes, such as this Air Canada web fiasco, it’s important for a business to respond to the flurry of comments and criticisms. If there are too many people flooding your feed with messages, then Twitter, Facebook, and other online tools make it easy to simply post an update saying that you’re aware of the situation and you’re working on a solution. Although Air Canada was apparently in the loop Wednesday night insofar as what was happening with the wheelchair, from the web perspective, they were a black hole.
Aside from posting an online message, another helpful strategy is to shoot a short video. Last year Dominos Pizza faced a PR nightmare on the web when some employees did some pretty unsavoury things to some pizzas and put the evidence online. Instead of hiding under a rock, Dominos CEO Patrick Doyle posted a video update apologizing to customers. However, even Dominos was a little slow to react. It took them almost two full days to post the video, much too long for the online social community that mobilizes quickly and expects reactions in hours not days.
Keep posting updates
Based on Air Canada’s press release, the company sent the damaged wheelchair to an open-all-night repair shop, but that information was not shared with anyone, not even Tanner’s family. A good idea during a crisis like this is to post status updates on a regular basis. If Air Canada sent out a tweet on Twitter, a note on Facebook, or blog post revealing updated details about the wheelchair fix, the online buzz would have turned increasingly positive (versus heating up as it did, prompting web users to drag Air Canada’s name through the mud).
Tanner’s wheelchair saga did have a happy ending. The airline fixed the boy’s chair, personally delivered it to his hotel and is planning to fly him and his cousins to Disney World (another wish of his). However, the story has not finished online. I suspect this case will be an example, within social media circles, of how a huge company dropped the digital ball. Over the next few days, and weeks to come, it’s critical that the airline stays on top of this story and updates the public on what happened and how the company has made it right.
Furthermore, it’s high time that Air Canada invested in a social media presence, just like many of their competitors (such as WestJet). As of right now, the @AirCanada account is still static, there is no mention of this incident on the company’s website and the last update on their Facebook page — a self-serving post about Avis returning to the Kelowna Airport — is from July 25th.”
Hopefully the national airline, Air Canada, will take Amber Mac’s advice.
was the topic on today’s edition of Six Pixels of Separation Podcast by Montreal’s master of all things digital and one of the thought leaders in Digital Media, Mitch Joel. Joel is also a published author with Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone.
and founder of Montreal based TwistImage.
Amber wants to help the average person get up and running in the online world, and use social media as part of their business. She comments on the use of YouTube and other mass media channels and describes the shift to New Media and the new podcast modalities. In a discussion about the new Lady Gaga 8:43 min video both Mitch and Amber described how the new on-demand “I want it now” allows for opportunities that old media could not provide and new media content is providing today; content
that is unique and draws a sense of community around it.
As a new media consultant she encourages business people to use new methods that consumers would not expect to set themselves as unique in the webspace.
You can find it at Six Pixels of Separation Episode 212- Power Friending with Amber Mac
If you want to listen to this interview you can also find it on on Itunes where you can subscribe to the SixPixels Podcast If you want to buy PowerFriending now click on any of the cover images to your right.
Here are just a few places that Amber Mac has visited and links to the various podcasts are supplied as her book PowerFriending is discovered by more and more people.
Addicted to Social Media Podcast
Amber is interviewed on Podcast Episode 19- Amber is a Power Friender by the ASM Podcast presented by Seth Goldstein, NealWiser and Jody Raines. This weekly podcast concentrates on Social Media and its luminaries.
Rise to the Top Podcast
Podcaster David Siteman Garland interviews Amber on Episode 18 of Rise to the Top Podcast which is described as the #1 Non-Boring Resource For Building Your Business Faster,Smarter and Easier.
For Immediate Release Podcast
Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz FIR Podcast offers an interview by Kris Gallagher of Amber on their Podcast Episode FIR Interview with New Media Author and Speaker Amber Mac.
POWER FRIENDING author AmberMac is a Web 2.0 thought leader and you can find her at ambermac.com or at MGI Media.ca where she provides clients with sage advice.
Power Friending is available at Amazon,Barnes & Noble,Indigo,Borders,Books a Million and many other fine book stores
segment today talking about social media reputation management and her new book. You can watch it here:CanadaAM with Amber Mac and Bev Thomson
RAP@RICHARDPACHTER.COM
Many of us now live virtual second lives through social media and within the online space of the Internet. We have “friends” we’ve never seen — or haven’t seen since junior high school.
In addition to providing a mostly pleasant way to interact with these acquaintances without actually being in the same physical space, it’s also a fertile ground for business, and unfortunately, mischief, too.
Here are two recent books that look at ways one can make friends and money through social networking, and strategies for protection if and when things get too nasty.
Power Friending: Demystifying Social Media to Grow Your Business. Amber Mac. Portfolio. 256 pages.
Amber Mac is a virtual Swiss Army Knife of networking; she displays an endless amount of enthusiasm and energy that nearly crackles off the page.
More importantly, she demonstrates a deep and practical understanding of the necessity of extending one’s personal and professional presence online.
It’s equally mandatory, she argues, for companies even if they’re B-to-B operations and don’t necessarily require recognition or interaction with consumers.
For the uninitiated, Mac does a very good job of explaining how the online world works in a mostly jargon-free and comprehensible manner. Her prose is clear and upbeat, and though she explains things in detail, with examples and asides, she doesn’t get bogged down in minutia or any overly technical stuff.
Much of her material goes beyond the promise of the title; the friending extends to blogs, forums, podcasts, vodcasts and more.
She also offers critiques of failed endeavors by big companies seeking to simulate and stimulate online virility, a dicey proposition, at best, and one that usually achieves the opposite of what was intended.
Overall, she packs quite a bit into this little book, so if you’re trying to figure out if using Twitter or being on Facebook is worth your while (it probably is), Ms. Mac will gladly be your guru.
Amazon Review
“5.0 out of 5 stars Just what I needed for my business!, June 28, 2010
By GuruJ “GuruJ” (Des Moines, WA United States) – See all my reviews
This review is from: Power Friending: Demystifying Social Media to Grow Your Business (Hardcover)
I own a small business that relies on referral & word of mouth. I’m a geek but personally have stayed away from all social networking sites. About 4 months ago I gave in & decided the biz needs to be on the social sites, problem is I have no clue what I’m doing there. My Facebook Fan page has had no hits in 3 months but my mom.
This book is not only my new bible for my business social stuff but explains the bigger picture in a way that allows you to easily grasp the smaller details & be able to make connections for yourself. So many books just give the directions with no oversight of how it works on the inside both technically & personally.
I also appreciate the writing. It’s fun & doesn’t bog down seeing that this subject could be a snore. I like seeing her examples and the fact that they really worked for her makes me more willing to drink the coolaid. She’s great at telling you an entertaining story about her that actually explains what she just talked about.
The other thing I appreciated was the undertone of ethics & etiquette throughout. It was very clear on do’s & don’ts so I don’t look like a tool to my customers.
The best thing I got out of this book was how to view “my friends” & how to treat them. Made me realize that my social pages are not webpages but something much deeper that demands a different attitude to be successful.
Thanks Amber! (if you haven’t seen her promo video for the book, do it. Parody on Dexter & its great!”
Find more reviews on Amazon beside this one.
Want your copy now, don’t hesitate get Power Friending: Demystifying Social Media to Grow Your Business
Amber was interviewed by ABC News’ Tory Johnson on PowerFriending recently. Here is the video of that interview:
To start on your plan and follow Amber Mac’s direction for effective Social Media action click on the book links to the right to get your copy.
