KLM Surprise - A straw poll

KLM spent some of last year giving small gifts to flyers who revealed their whereabouts via Twitter or Facebook. Customer stalking, publicity stunt or genuine act of kindness, what do you think?

Rentokil taps Twitter to track UK wasp invasion

The buzz from Brand Republic is that one of our customers, pest control experts Rentokil, have launched a website to record wasp sightings, or rather stingings, around the UK. The site,  #ukwaspwatch, will display a map generated from posts including the Twitter hashtag of the same name. Here's how to play:

To take part, simply login to your Twitter account and tweet the hashtag #ukwaspwatch, your postcode and how serious the sighting is on a scale of 1-10 using the key below. Your tweet will then be marked on the map.

Twitter is a very simple tool, yet its cross-platform nature (you can use your phone and the web to view and post), geek vocabulary (@ replies and # hashtags) and dozens of applications make it seem confusing to the newcomer. Yet its potential for automation make it an incredibly useful tool for users and those collecting data alike. And it's more open and transparent than quasi-rivals like Facebook, which makes everyone a winner. What I'm saying is, it's here to stay and, although it will take time, the doubters will be won over - and so will the big corporations like Rentokil. 

Former Twitter employee joins "bank that doesn't suck"

This is the home page of BankSimple a bank soon to be launched with Web 2.0 ideas of customer service. I heard about it from geeksite TechCrunch, who profiled Alex Payne's successful if slightly controversial track record at Twitter and his recent decision to join BankSimple as  co-founder and Chief Product and Technology Officer.

As this excellent post entitled "How not to suck at bank marketing" on the soon-to-be bank's blog says, American banks are hopeless at customer service. Here's an extract:

You'd figure with over eight-thousand banks, America would be awash with competing strong brands. It isn't. People aren't passionate about their banks. Nor do they have any reason to be. Why bother switching to Bank of America when you could get the same thing from Citigroup?

To counter this apathy, banks take one of two main marketing approaches. They either try to sway you with rewards or position the bank as a lifestyle brand. We think this is absurd.

Their strategy? "By not sucking, we will win."

Greenpeace builds "Twitwall" outside Nestlé offices

Right NOW, you can write a tweet containing the word "Nestlé" and it will appear on the Twitwall outside Nestlé headquarters where the company's shareholders are meeting. To see the messages as they come in, click here.

For more on why Nestlé is bad, read our previous post. And click this link to see why Nestlé's real problem is customer relations.

What people thought about Twitter, before Twitter

The clip above was made in 2006, before anyone had ever heard of Twitter and mySpace was all the rage. Amazing, really.

The lesson: Even if you are web user but not a believer in Twitter, there will almost certainly be a web-based service suitable for you and beneficial to your business. That's a fact.

As ubiquitous social media site Mashable summarises, these services are genuinely useful:

Although previously unfamiliar with the service, the people in the video accurately describe nearly all the important aspects of Twitter – it’s web based (and therefore not spamming your phone), it’s a great way to scan your friends’ lifestream (i.e. what they’ve been up to all day), it’s a great way to share your location with everyone, it’s very much like a group SMS, and adding videos and pictures into the mix could improve the experience tremendously.

These might seem obvious today, but back in 2006. smartphones weren’t very popular, and Twitter has started seriously integrating location-based features in the last year or so. So, there you have it: sometimes you just need to ask people what they want, and they’ll give you great answers on how to evolve your service.

Greenpeace fires up Nestlé "twitstorm", but where will it end?

As I was idly checking the Premier League table this morning on the Guardian website, I couldn't help but notice an ad from Greenpeace encouraging people to read up on, and then boycott Nestlé products. Clicking on the image takes you through to a "Nestlé Killer" branded site featuring the following not-safe-for-TV video:

There is also a whole lot of stuff about why Nestlé really is as bad as they say, particularly on their "alleged" use of unethical suppliers in the rainforests of Sumatra.

Parallel to all this, there has been a whole lot of buzz on Twitter and Facebook about Nestlé's social media "fail". Essentially, Nestlé is being attacked from all sides, but particularly via its Facebook fan page. Find the best round-up of the social media furore at Econsultancy - and learn how Greenpeace is behind it all via this Prezi.

There is nothing new about this kind of "Twitstorm", they happen all the time. What is new, however, is that an organisation like Greenpeace can drive online protest via a viral video advertised for hard pounds and pennies on a leading website like the Guardian's. And you can be sure that the clickthrough rates on an image like that above are higher than the usual online branding of offline products, such as cars and insurance.

Also interesting is that the above video is pretty gruesome and will put enough people off eating a KitKat - regardless of their knowledge or stance on the palm oil issue. Greenpeace's claims better be well founded (I personally think they are), or the NGO could end up on the wrong end of a "Twitstorm" itself. 

Of course, most people are more likely to trust Greenpeace over Nestlé, but both sides need to be aware that playing with social media is like playing with fire.

Domino's Pizza Turnaround - a half-baked experiment

As the company admits itself above, Domino's Pizza, once the golden boy of U.S. delivery franchises, has been crowded out of the market. The cynic in me says that is only natural, pizza is, after all, only cheese and tomatoes on quick-fired bread - and there are thousands of companies at it across the USA. But now the folks at Domino's are throwing everything at Pizza Turnaround a new media drive designed to revive the company's fortunes. The site is part blog, website and Twitter aggregator, but like the company's products, fails to get the pulse racing.

Sadly, watching the above ad, which starts off honest and self-critical, but turns into the barf-inducing PR mess you would expect from a company like Domino's, you can't help but think they have got it badly wrong. There is only one thing that can save them, a pizza that knocks the salami off the competition. But a glance at the site's Twitter feed on the site makes depressing reading for Domino's execs. This from @realshawnbrandt:

I think Domino's #newpizza is a downgrade

And he was one of the nicer ones.

However the calzone unfolds (do Domino's do calzone?), it makes for an interesting case study for those companies looking to dip their feet into the new media water. And given that the use of new media extends to using "paid media units" on YouTube, which blog Paid Media says ain't cheap. I can't help thinking Domino's have missed the point of reaching out to customers via new/social media. But in the end, it will probably be the pizza that does the talking.