3 Social Media Lessons From The Latest United Disaster

You'd think United Airlines would have learned from the "United Breaks Guitars" kerfuffle. Or from the backlash they received by not allowing several women to board their flights because they were wearing 'uncovered' leggings.

You'd be wrong. United Airlines still does not understand social media.

Here's the essential truth for brands: you don't control the message. That era ended more than a decade ago. The epoch of top-down brand communication is over.

Yet on a sunny Monday morning in April 2017, United is once again the top trending topic on Twitter, for all the wrong reasons.

On an overbooked Chicago-to-Louisville flight on Sunday, April 9, United asked for volunteers to give up their seats in exchange for travel vouchers, a hotel stay and a rescheduled flight the following afternoon. Needing four seats to accommodate a United crew needing to get to Louisville to staff a different flight, United was only able to garner two volunteers to take up this offer. So, they went the involuntary route...to disastrous results.

First, the video of the doctor being forcibly removed from his seat, lifted by his armpits by a security officer so violently his face bounced off the armrest of the seat in the row opposite that left his mouth bloody, is horrifying. This man was dragged like a piece of luggage down the aisle and off of the plane, stripped of his dignity. You can plainly hear other passengers crying and screaming "this isn't right!"

Secondly: OF COURSE THERE'S VIDEO. It's 2017. Virtually everyone has a smartphone capable of shooting video and uploading it to the social web in an instant. When United decided to involuntarily remove passengers from their overbooked flight--an issue of their own making--and didn't consider the potential negative consequences of this decision, they made a critical faux pas in the social media era:

EVERYTHING IS ON VIDEO.

Compounding this terrible error in judgment, United's initial response to the outcry of disgust was to hide behind a press release in empty corporate blather, taking no responsibility for their actions:

As the deluge of negative social media responses and traditional media coverage wore on, United issued another carefully worded statement, this time from CEO Oscar Munoz, that still comes across as tone-deaf in light of the widely-viewed footage (note to United: apologizing to the other passengers on the plane for having to "re-accommodate them" is a bit, um, off):

3 Social Media Life Lessons From This Shameful Episode:

• EVERYONE HAS A SMARTPHONE. Inevitably, the footage will show up on social media. Act accordingly.
• Traditional Corporate PR is useless on social media. Consumers see through these smoke screens instantly. Don't post your press release on Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn and expect a blind acceptance of your explanation.
• You need a social crisis response protocol. Offer apologies. Take responsibility. Promise to improve your procedures (and do so). Accountability starts at the top and applies to everyone in the organization.
• BONUS: Treat people with respect. Before they're customers or consumers or passengers or revenue sources, they're PEOPLE. There's your starting point.

Social Media Myopia

"Why would we engage with anyone? We just want them to read our blogs."

This was the feedback I received on a comprehensive social marketing strategy I'd created for a potential client. In 2017.

"I understand the goal," I said. "You want to broaden awareness of [your organization], become the top thought-leaders in your domain. Increase the volume of readers of your blog posts and become a go-to resource for trade publications. Your content is strong, but without building relationships with your members and potential members and existing social followers, you're publishing into the wind."

Silence. And then:

"We put up our blog posts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn every week. Why would we engage with anyone? And we definitely shouldn't follow anyone."

Ever been on a conference call that's gone so poorly you can feel the antipathy coming through your headphones? This was one of them.

This myopic view of how social media should work--post content once per week, never engage in conversations surrounding that piece of content, never develop relationships within the industry by investing time into participatory dialogue--is still present. Simply posting the same piece of content on multiple channels simultaneously, not customized for each specific channel, not formatted with eye-catching images, not updating the preview box to tantalize a potential reader, is not social media marketing. Yet this lame approach is still the de facto execution of too many brands, small businesses and organizations.

If you're going to achieve any measurable results from your social media marketing, you have to invest time and money. There is no escaping this reality; the Wild West days of social media ended years ago.

You must:

• Have a content archive to draw upon plus an ongoing pipeline of new content.
• Repurpose content into multiple formats to distribute across your active channels, customized for each channel. One size does NOT fit all!
• Have a strategic supply of 3rd party content to supplement your own and aid in relationship-building.
• Have a budget to promote your content and calls to action to your target audiences (and understand segmentation).
• Have measurable goals! This doesn't mean vanity metrics like fans or followers; this is click-thru rates to landing pages; email list opt-ins; requests for a follow-up phone call, and conference registrations.
• Have the resources available to invest the time necessary to make your social marketing efforts work for you! There are plenty of great dashboard management systems that can automate SOME of your social efforts, such as Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Buffer and Spredfast, but in order to truly scale your efforts into positive results, you must have resources that can participate in real-time Twitter chats, monitor and respond to hashtag and keyword searches relevant to your business, host Facebook Live sessions and engage your target influencers when those influencers are active on each channel.

Fortunately, social marketing myopia is curable. Adaptation is the key to survival, no matter how difficult that adaptation in mindset may be. Adapt, and you'll replace myopia with a clear-sighted roadmap to gaining measurable results from your social marketing efforts!

The #1 Mistake You're Making On LinkedIn

"Hi David. I'd like to connect with you on LinkedIn."

WHY? WHO ARE YOU?

As strong a platform as LinkedIn has become--and it's fast becoming a preeminent content publisher in addition to everyone's online resume--there are some limitations in LinkedIn's basic structure. Chief among them is the default "I'd like to connect with you/I'd like to add you to my professional network" message that populates the invitation message user's send to one another. You get them. You've sent them. I get them every day.

It takes 30 seconds to write a brief, personalized invitation. When your goal is to connect to someone whom you've never met, and perhaps with a larger goal of developing a business relationship with them, take the time to articulate why it would be beneficial for the recipient to accept your invitation. First impressions matter just as much online as they offline! You wouldn't go to a networking event and walk up to each person and say "Hi ______, I'd like to add you to my network of professional contacts," hand them a business card and then walk away, would you? (Actually, if you would, you have deeper issues).

The same holds true on LinkedIn. How will I benefit from accepting your invitation to connect? How will you benefit from connecting with me? Personalize the invitations you send to address these questions. It need not be a paragraph; one or two sentences works well.

This morning, I received a generic invitation from a woman I've never met before, online or off. Her profile is virtually empty, and there's no profile pic, just the generic silhouette LinkedIn assigns to fill that space. I wrote back, asking what the purpose was of her invitation. Her response: "the reason i was trying to connect was to know [if] you or members of your team [would] be interested in attending the upcoming world's largest Social Media Marketing conference. The event takes place in San Diego, California on March 25, 26 and 27, 2015."

OK, so you're attempting to recruit attendees to a conference by conducting a LinkedIn search for "social media marketing professionals" and then sending generic invitations to connect, which if accepted will then trigger a follow-up message pitching the conference. This is very poor form. This is the social media cold call. I hate cold calls.

A more effective approach would be the following:

"Hi David,

My name is ____ and I'd like to connect with you here on LinkedIn, as we're both social media marketing professionals. I'm working with ____ on the world's largest Social Media Marketing Conference, taking place in San Diego March 25-27. The lineup includes X, Y and Z as featured speakers, as well as seminars on A, B, and C. We'd love for you to attend! Here's a link to our website for more details, and I'd be happy to speak with you to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you,

Your new LinkedIn contact."

Please, personalize your invitations to connect. As the old saying goes, you only have one chance to make a first impression. Don't blow it!

Gins

Auto DM=Auto Unfollow

Here's a scenario for you:

You're at a cocktail party. A stranger approaches; you've never seen nor heard of this person before in your life. The stranger sidles up close to you, offers a limp handshake and says "My name is Bloated Self-Importance. Please take my business card and AMAZING new eBook, and be sure to check out my blog right away for even more buzzword-driven nonsense that I'd like you to start sharing ASAP. Don't forget to watch my videos too. Have you watched them yet? What did you think? You're welcome!"

This is how the automated direct message (DM) feature on Twitter is too often used (or abused, as it were). How many times have you followed someone on Twitter either out of reciprocity--they followed you--or seem interesting, and as soon as you've clicked that "Follow" button, you receive a Direct Message with "Click here and learn why I have the fastest growing profile on LinkedIn" or "We need your help sharing our articles--click here to get started!" and similar non-calls to action.

Here's the thing: relationship-building in social media is no different than relationship-building offline. It takes time to build trust. Would you walk up to a stranger and ask them to do you a serious favor? Would you immediately begin trying to sell a product as soon as you've met someone in real life? Because that's what too many marketers are doing on Twitter via the auto-DM. Personally, I immediately unfollow anyone sending me an auto-DM. 2009 was over 7 years ago.

The direct message feature is a utility. It's intended for two (and now larger private groups) to communicate outside the public Twitter stream. It's intended to share phone numbers and email addresses. It's intended to allow a private channel for a dialogue too sensitive for public viewing. It's NOT intended to be another device for marketing spam.

If you have an automated direct messaging system set up, take it down. It's doing you more harm than good.

Originally published 2/27/2015 on LinkedIn. 

#CecilTheLion, Walt Palmer & The Instant Power of Social Media

Originally published 7/30/2015 on LinkedIn

"Murderer." "Poacher." "Coward." The awful story of Minnesota dentist/recreational big game trophy hunter Dr. Walter Palmer and the killing of Cecil The Lion has dominated the news cycle the past 24 hours, and nowhere as fervently as on Facebook, Twitter and Yelp. Enraged animal slacktivists (ahem) have virulently condemned the doctor and his practice, brought down his website, launched petition drives for his prosecution and greater protection for Zimbabwe's lions, brought a late-night host to the brink of tears, and mocked his manhood with glee. (Guilty as charged on that one)... 

Beyond the horror of killing a beautiful animal (and national icon in Zimbabwe) for nothing more than bragging rights in his man cave, Dr. Palmer has provided a cautionary tale for businesses large and small in our real-time, always-on social media age.

 To wit:  

A) The People Have An Infinite And Immediate Voice: 

The evisceration of Dr. Palmer was swift and brutal. His Yelp page was overrun with "reviews" from outraged consumers posting takedowns ranging from the deadly serious to the viciously mocking. His business' Facebook Page was removed after being overrun with comments ranging from the righteously indignant to baldly threatening. #CecilTheLion has been trending on Twitter for two days, and the level of vitriol has reached a fever pitch befitting the capture of a war criminal. Ghastly images are being shared across Facebook. Petitions have been launched and shared on these channels and peer-to-peer via dark social. 

(Yelp has been removing these reviews in near real-time, as they violate their terms of service. But the damage has been done. Screenshots last forever.) 

B) Your Private Life Isn't So Private: 

Everyone has hobbies. Most of them run the mundane gamut and wouldn't inflame anyone's ire. Some of them will. If your personal proclivities have the potential to negatively impact your business--albeit at a much lower scale than this--be wary. And be ready. Have a crisis plan on standby, just in case. Dr. Palmer's practice is closed for the foreseeable future. Photos of his previous trophy hunts have surfaced, along with convictions for illegal hunting and sexual harassment suits settled out of court. It doesn't take long for Hacktivist Nation to dig up more dirt than the Big Dig. How long could you afford to shutter your business, waiting for the social media storm to blow over? 

This story will fade from the headlines soon enough. The perpetual fury of Internet Everywhere will move on to focus its wrath on another outrageous tale of human malfeasance. But the damage, deserved as it may seem, is permanently done to Dr. Walt Palmer, his family, and his practice. This is the detritus left behind by the ever-chewing maw of omnipresent social media. Dr. Palmer has become another cautionary tale. Pay attention to the overarching lessons here (and don't pay $55,000 to kill a so-called trophy animal, either, please. That's just sick.).