Firefox Upgrade: Does Social Media Help Get the Word Out?

According to a recent Mashable blog entry, Firefox will no longer crash when I view sites that use Flash.  This is great news for me because my team visits hundreds or thousands of websites each week at work!  Firefox is our browser of choice because of the many add-ons that aid in productivity.

I've been resisting an upgrade to the latest version of Firefox because one of my favorite add-ons, IE Tab, was not upgraded to work at the same time.  Some sites simply don't work in Firefox; our company Intranet is one of them.

Back in March, Mozilla (creator of Firefox) did an analysis of how quickly people convert to the newest version of the software.  According to their chart about 43% of the users upgraded within the first week or so.

How and why do users upgrade quickly?

• "Upgrade offer" - pop-up window alerting all users that a new version of the software is available
• Blog - probably only true "fans" of the organization and tech people read the blog
• Facebook Page - again, probably only true fans get info here
• Twitter - same deal

I know I ignore the upgrade offer until I'm sure that my add-ons are also updated and compatible with the new version.  The Firefox blog contained a list of common reasons why people are slow to upgrade and what they'll do about it.  It's great that the organization is aware of the problems and working on solutions!                    

image credit:  Mozilla Firefox blog

Don't Let Social Media Send You to the Slammer

It's so easy to break offline laws online... just think about these scenarios:

• How many Facebook accounts does each celebrity have?  Lindsay Lohan returns 454 results.  Is this identity theft?  (I once heard a story about a guy who created an account for a guy who was running for mayor.  He kept "poking" the candidate's opponent and invited him to political debates.)
• Remember the fake Exxon Mobil employee on Twitter?
• Potential defamation and libel cases abound on celebrity blogs and gossip sites that are similar to their magazine counterparts.  Real-time publishing may limit fact checking.
• Corporations often try to squash "anti" websites like WakeUpWalmart.com and People of Walmart.

As of yet there are no uniformed Internet cops that track down offenders' IP addresses, show up at their doorsteps, and demand such content be removed.  There is no book of Internet laws.  The keyword is "yet".  As web 2.0 becomes the norm, what's acceptable becomes more clearly defined.  Obviously, this makes things challenging - especially in an environment like the Internet where content appears to live forever.

For now, ethical companies, bloggers, and social media users rely on the SEC, FTC, and EU to provide guidance.  The SEC deals with financial rules, the FTC handles commerce, and the EU is for international trade (Postman 117). 

Marketing Pilgrim had a good blog about FTC regulations related to social media marketing.  Most notable is that you must disclose the fact that you're being paid to discuss something.  Although this sounds obvious, it's a detail that many forget to mention.  (I am not being paid to discuss this topic.  It is, however, a grad school assignment!)


Without concrete laws most of us try to rely on ethics while using social media online - but that is definitely enough material for another blog entry.  Actually, another blog could be devoted to ethics entirely!


Resources:

McCollum, Jordan. "Are You Breaking the Law with Social Media Marketing?." Marketing Pilgrim. N.p., 6 May 2009. Web. 4 June 2010. http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2009/05/are-you-breaking-the-law-with-social-media-marketing.html

Postman, Joel. SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate. Berkeley, CA: New Riders, 2009. 113-132 Print.

PR = Social Media = Customer Service

It's no surprise that PR, social media, and customer service become closer every day.  (If you don't believe me, think back to Kevin Smith's public complaint to Southwest via Twitter and Twitter's subsequent public apology.)  It's a real-time way to assist the customers where they already are.  No need for them to scour a corporate website looking for an obscure "Contact us" box - wondering if and when they'll ever receive a response.

According to the PR Squared blog, this method should begin with monitoring your company's online social media presence.  Is this beginning to sound familiar yet?  I have yet to write a blog entry entirely devoted to social media performance evaluation, but I have touched on it in many of them.

After the discovery of an issue, the authors of the PR Squared blog recommend a few different approaches.  For example, all complaints should be flagged and logged.  Minor customer service issues can easily be responded to at the same social media venue they were found.  Bigger issues can be directed to the actual customer service team for follow-up.

Mashable also has a great guide for using Twitter as a customer service vehicle. It emphasizes the importance of tracking the entire conversation around a brand.  (And, as I mentioned in a previous entry, establish your corporate identity so you can be engaged in the conversation and people know you who are.)  Check out the Starbucks Twitter page for an example.

This type of evaluation can be useful for keeping an eye on future brand strategies and implementations.

Who knows, perhaps one day all of these departments will be wrapped into one. 


Resources:

2010. Generate Leads. Web. 31 May 2010. http://www.leadgenerateonline.com/generate-sales-leads-using-twitter/

Defren, Todd. "PR + Customer Service Merger Accelerating." PR Squared. N.p., 13 May 2010. Web. 31 May 2010. http://www.pr-squared.com/index.php/2010/05/pr-customer-service-merger-accelerating


Parr, Ben. "HOW TO: Use Twitter for Customer Service." Mashable. N.p., 2009. Web. 31 May 2010. http://mashable.com/2009/05/09/twitter-customer-service/

Putting it All Out There

As I hinted in my last post, I'm working on a work-related project that also ties into my master's thesis.  It has to do with social media branching off from a corporate site.  Things like comment moderation are a hot topic for me right now!

When I started reading the fourth chapter of Joel Postman's book "SocialCorp" I knew I'd learn a thing or two.  The chapter is called "Can You Control Your Brand, or Just Share It?".

Most of us want to "put it out there" (it being our brand) to gain exposure.  Of course, that comes at a cost, and online that cost can spread like wildfire - or go "viral".

For me and my projects, the two biggest things I'm concerned with are:

1. Whether or not comments should be moderated
2. Establishing corporate identity

I touched on whether comments should be moderated - that is, posted to a blog or forum without being reviewed first - in a previous blog entry.  So here we'll also take a look at  unauthorized use of a brand via social media.

Establishing a Social Media Identity

I moderate a forum and blog site.  Most of the regular users know that I'm a moderator.  There is not, however, any designation next to my user name or profile that points out my moderator status - or the fact that I work for the site's parent company.

Postman uses examples of corporations like Zappos and Dell to show how corporate employees identify themselves.  Many employees do so by appending the company name to the end of the user name (Postman 86).  There are pros and cons to this system:

• Pro - Easy to determine who is an employee (for advertising/customer service from a customer's point of view; for brand management from a corporation's point of view)
• Pro - Can aggregate employee tweets or posts to have a comprehensive feed about company happenings
• Con - May need to monitor employees closely or else train them and ask them to sign agreements for use
• Con - Customers may disregard employee material as propaganda

Unauthorized Use of a Brand in Social Media

Postman uses the example of the popular Facebook application Scrabulous.  It was a game that copied Scrabble, the popular board game, but did not have permission to use the original's content or rules.  Ultimately Scrabble forced Scrabulous to pull its application.  It lost two million potential users in the process (Postman 84).  It could have simply bought the game and changed the name, right?  Did that many people really know or care that Scrabulous was a "knock-off"?



Resources:

Pierson, Garrett. Social Media Marketing Breaks Barriers in Conversations. 2008. Social Media Vision. Web. 31 May 2010. http://www.socialmediavision.com/social-media-marketing-breaks-barriers-in-conversations/ (image)

Postman, Joel. SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate. Berkeley, CA: New Riders, 2009. 77-90. Print.