When promoted tweets take another turn
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The key to social media is to remember that everyone can see it and that companies cannot hide from it. Social media can literally take on a life of its own, as British Airways found out this week when a disgruntled customer took to Twitter…
For those of you familiar with using Twitter, you will know that once you have put something out there, it is difficult to take it down. This is the case in any social media really, but with Twitter known as a place to vent opinion and to get noticed quickly, it is often the go-to place for a moan.
When people want to issue a complaint to a company, most will tweet them directly or perhaps find a chief executive or senior management profile to contact. But businessman Hasan Syed took it a step further this week when he paid for a promoted tweet that complained about British Airways losing his father’s luggage on a flight.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Twitter, a promoted tweet is usually flagged up on user accounts as a means to advertise that company. It acts like a normal tweet but has more prominence and visibility.
So we wouldn’t have liked to have been the social media handler at BA who woke up to Syed’s promoted tweet earlier this week which read ‘Don’t fly @BritishAirways. Their customer service is horrendous.” It had been pushed out to New York and UK audiences and by the time BA picked it up four hours later had been seen by thousands.
In another update, Syed revealed the tweet had cost him US$1000, had 76, 800 impressions and 14, 600 engagement.
The story, which we spotted on the technology pages of the BBC, will naturally raise concerns amongst marketers and advertisers. But the price to promote a tweet isn’t thought to be one any Twitter user is able to do, although perhaps those with the spending power to do so will have more of an impact.
The tweet below is typical of what Syed was saying after and an example of how social media use influences a customer opinion.
7 Hours & counting with no response from @British_Airways. Guess they don't care about customer service or Twitter, LOL
— º¿º (@HVSVN) September 3, 2013
What was also flagged, and has been discussed in Spark before, is that of the customer service offered. BA did not see the tweet until 9am when its Twitter feed was ‘open’, so this had already been going around for four hours. BA would not have had much control over the tweet anyway, but a faster reaction through any means may have buffered any wider impact.
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