Forgive me for returning to social media, as there was a wealth of interesting comments from visitors, following Friday’s post on the subject. Do check them out.
I was pleased to see a comment from Coach & Bus Week’s editor, Andy Sutcliffe. It was his editorial this week, after all, that started this particular ball rolling. Apart from some rather nice comments about this blog (always welcome!), he is concerned that compared to printed media, there is a lack of policing on the net and were some of the comments to appear in the traditional print media, it would result in a one way ticket to court.
The plausible looking Southern Vectis Facebook page looks official but in fact turns out to be is anything but. While it might look harmless at the moment, who knows what future problems it may cause. At the least, it needs the word “Unofficial” writ large on it
Another commenter had a different perspective on this. It came from social-media-in-the-bus-industry pioneer, Kirsty, late of the Bath Bus Station blog. That blog was one of the first of its kind but succumbed to a centralisation of First’s customer services. Ironically, First social media have reappeared elsewhere, not least with director Leon Daniels himself.Her point was that it isn’t just on social media sites that employees diss their employers. It happens in pubs, on the street corner, from behind the cab and at the bus terminus. Managers don’t usually get to hear about it and probably can’t do much to stop it. When negativity appears online, provided there’s an honest and mature response, the employer has a means of tackling the issue, something impossible in other situations. There’s a chance to straighten the record.
What I might add to Kirsty’s comments is that a moan over a pint in the pub is perhaps damaging enough, but at least it’s in front of a limited audience. They may regard the teller as either legitimate or just a complainer. But when it gets online not only is it very public, not only does it assume a legitimacy it may not otherwise have or deserve, it’s probably immortalised forever. Managers using social media need to be vigilant and respond accordingly.
8 comments:
Do we really need all these additional social networking phenomena. Perhaps they do more harm than good when anyone can set up a pseudo-site like the SV one you mention. In the "real world" (the one in which I live anyway) wouldn't this breach legislation of some sort if it purports to be something it is not?
I think I agree more with Kirsty than with Busing on the weight carried by comments on social media sites.
One only has to look at the comments posted on most regional newspaper sites following bus related stories to know that all the moaners and groaners will immediately latch on to any story remotely related to their particular gripe, as a excuse to air their grievance in public. I don't believe most readers are taken in by these (mostly anonymous) moans, and don't for a minute believe that they damage the reputation of the bus/operator concerned.
Kirsty is correct to state that a prompt and helpful response on a social media site shows the bus operator to be listening and willing to face criticism, rather than appearing to be faceless and uncaring. How many complainants only resort to public forums after receiving standard 'brush off' replies to earlier letters of complaint I wonder?
No one will be able to stop the advance of social media, nor should they want to in my view. Of course, like all PR, it needs careful monitoring, and I acknowledge all of the risks, but there has also never been a richer and more undiluted source by which you can gauge customer perception of your product. The industry must both embrace it, and be ready to adapt to influence it to be a source of positive promotional collateral.
Dennis, didn’t think my views were markedly different from Kirsty’s!
Having re-read the post, perhaps they're not.
My main point was that just because a comment is made on the WWW, I don't feel that it necessarily has any more credibility than those drunken pub encounters. . .
How many of us can honestly, hand on heart, say that they have never moaned about their employer or boss? It's a normal and natural thing to do. And just because we complain about certain issues, this doesn't mean that by and large we aren't happy about other things. But we tend to take the good for granted and moan about the bad. There is a certain social aspect to sharing bad news and sympathising with one another of this. This isn't going to change, and it is not eally negative as such.
So I don't have a problem with this type of moaning. The social media are in a way the cyberspace equivalents of pubs and pints. If people moan, it just shows they are human. It's when people don't moan that we maybe have reason to ask what's going on.
Dennis Dash said...
"My main point was that just because a comment is made on the WWW, I don't feel that it necessarily has any more credibility than those drunken pub encounters. . ."
I agree with that - it isn't the credibility that is greater on the WWW, it's the size of the audience. Indeed, the credibility may be less on the WWW - you cannot be so anonymous in a pub!
The point that Kirsty and Busing make about engaging with critics (and being seen to be engaging with such criticism) is valid, and it can no doubt be used to generate positive PR for the company. My point would be that, while Facebook et al may provide an ideal platform to do that, social networking sites are not the only place where such interaction can take place, and indeed a bus operator could also provide such facilities on their own website, and have a greater degree of control over it than they would on Facebook. Whatever your opinions of corporate culture generally or specific instances, it is a fact of life, and corporate organisations go to a lot of trouble and expense to present their image, and it is understandable that they should want to exercise as much control of it as possible.
One other point that is worth bearing in mind is that many employers attempt to restrict access to social networking sites from workplace computers. Whether this works entirely satisfactorily, or will prove to be a passing fad, remains to be seen; but it would probably not be advisable for a bus operator to place too much emphasis on social networking sites as a means of relaying up-to-the-minute information about how its services are running. It would obviously be very frustrating for an employee to be unable to check if their bus home was running normally if the only source of information was on Facebook that they cannot access. On the other hand, I suspect it is highly unlikely that an employer would restrict access to their local bus operator's own website.
So, use social networking sites with care, and do your best to use them to encourage people to go to your own website!
Thanks for this busing :-)
I have to say though that it is worth noting that making a negative comment on Facebook (or any other networking site) is not necessarily damaging or out there for the whole world to see forever.... The level of damage has just as much to do with searchability as with the size of the audience.
For instance, if a driver makes a comment in his or her FB status, depending on their privacy settings, only their friends will see it. Whilst they will have more credibility due to the personal connection, their friends will be able to add context and humour etc to their interpretation of the comment. For reasonably active FB members, the comment will quickly drop down their news stream and then be no more damaging than a memory of a conversation down the pub, because although the data of the comment is still technically there, it is not easily discoverable. Likewise with a comment on someone else's wall really, although this might reach a slightly wider audience - again, depending on the privacy settings.
In terms of searchability, the most damaging place a driver can make a comment is in a public group. Their credibility is less, but when others join a group they generally do read all the previous comments and discussions, so comments have a longer lifespan in terms of relevance. However, as I commented before, in a group you can do positive things to respond and mitigate any damage (without disciplining the driver).
Obviously the subtlties and distinctions vary depending on the network (negative comments on Twitter are MUCH more searchable, but drop out of the search very quickly, as Twitter do not keep all tweets). It is worth bring aware of the realities of the situation and ant potential damage it could cause before panicking!
That said, I am firmly of the opinion that if you fear negative comments on social media sites, you are looking at them on entirely the wrong way. Negative comments are good! You can fix things for your customers and staff only if you know there is a problem. Even if you can't fix their problem, you can improve you relationship with customers and staff by listening and engaging. Some of the most committed supporters of @bathcsc started out as some of First Bath's most verbose online critics - and I didn't even manage to solve all their problems!
I think social media offers a fantastic opportunity to the public transport industry to rethink how they do customer services and how they build staff and customer loyalty so bus travel is a convenient and viable option. I probably should have started with that disclaimer... I am a bit of an evangelist!
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