J I B B E R - J A B B E R

So I'm not one to call up companies or big corporations and give them a piece of my mind.

1. I really cannot be bothered waiting and being put on hold.

And yeah, that's mainly it.

So when my Optus bill was sent to me where the figures didn't add up, I though 'Oh hell!'

But alas, modern technology has saved me a few hours of my life with the use of IM!

I had always seen this before when on the Optus site, but never bothered REALLY looking into it as I never saw the need.

So after I sent them an enquiry, a little IM box popped up asking whether I wanted to speak to a customer service representative, so I did and got it all worked out.


***********UPDATE***************

Never got to finish my post, but I am soooooooooo pissed off with Optus!!

Thought I got my problem resolved, NOOOO!

Instead I have been locked off my account, can't use my freaking phone cause these idiots haven't transferred my money over! Now I have to wake up at 9AM tomorrow to probably get put on hold for God knows how long over something that I thought was resolved.

Guess I was wrong hey?

I've always wanted something that was personalised. But darn my crazy parents for attempting to "Australianise" of my Vietnamese name and not going far enough meant that NO ONE will ever have Lynh inscribed on any key chain or water bottle.

But not anymore.

That's right, I can get my name on a virtual Coke can. Or a real one if I'm willing to travel out to one of the Westfield locations that personalise them.

In Coca-Cola's recent integrated marketing campaign they ask their consumers to 'Share a Coke'. On cans instore, they have 150 common names replacing the Coca-Cola logo and also on their famous billboards much like the one at Kings Cross in Sydney.

Smart? Maybe. But what I don't get is the point of the virtual Coke.

But who would want to do it? I mean I do. Purely because the chances of my name occurring on an actual can is 0, like fo sho. But I am not allowed to send one to myself.

Therefore hacking onto boyfriend's account gave me this.

And I am satisfied!

But really, who would want to send a virtual Coke. To be quite honest, I am not too sure I understand the concept in the real world. Who would want to buy a Coke can with someone else's name on it? I would think that Coke's are bought for the individual and only in rare cases are the Cokes bought for another. And then again, one would be biased towards the names that are on the cans. I know people say that they won't care and will just grab a Coke, but seriously, if I saw a name of someone I disliked on my can, I would not have positive feelings associated with the brand.

So yeah, I like how there are different mediums being integrated into this campaign, but I question the virtual one. Other than for the novelty of it, and I guess it would spread the brand name.

So here's my question. Would you send someone a virtual Coke can? And who to and why?




So this is my last blog post for the semester.

Special thanks to Wags - best lecturer ever! For making me want to come to these 9AM lectures and even if they were to be at 8AM, I'm sure I would've still rocked up!

And as for this blog...I might continue it in the future, if something comes up. I think I will actually, so stay tuned.



But for now, leave a comment answering the questions above. Or just writing random stuff. This is the last blog post, so help me get a HD!!!!

I love the Amazing Race! And one day I hope to be one of those teams dashing across the world in the quest to win $1 million.

Maybe.

One day.

But how is this related to e-marketing?

The CBS has just created a FourSquare page for the show where followers can be updated when teams arrive at different destinations!

Click on this link to view the FourSquare page: Amazing Race Foursquare page

Ingenious! It's like the two were made for eachother! But I'm not too sure whether its the teams checking in while they are actually travelling in real time, or whether they are checking in with the show while its being shown on television.

I think the first option would be better as this would generate interest leading up to the actual television show. It will keep loyal viewers interested throughout the week, instead of the two hours once a week.

Also, whilst watching the show last night, I saw use of social media actually in the show.

So what happened was one of the contestants dropped their passport at a servo and was frantically running around trying to find it.

An earlier team had driven passed the servo and asked some randoms for directions to the airport. In what was a possible total coincidence, the randoms picked up the passport and Tweeted:

"So #TheLife gets crazier so after being randomly filmed for the amazing race I see that one of them dropped there passport!!"

Obviously someone from the social media team picked up on this Tweet and asked the kind gentleman to bring the passport to the airport if he could.

Which he did. What luck!

Amazing what one Tweet can do!

So here's my question for you this week.
Are there any other shows or anything of the sort that, like the Amazing Race, has a social media forum that was meant to be with one another?
And do you think that the Amazing Race has enhanced their brand by adding this function?

Here's my Instructional Video for my MKF3881 class.

How Cupcake Central uses social media to create value!

This is my friend's business, and its super inspiring to see where she once came from to where she is now.

Originally an online store, Sheryl (owner of Cupcake Central) relied heavily on social media to generate interest, awareness and as a result work (by directing them to her website to make orders).

What started off as a girl who was laid off due to the GFC baking cupcakes in her kitchen for family and friends has grown into two store locations in Melbourne!

I don't think that they would have been this huge without the use of social media. I remember when they first started out on Facebook, I was sending their page to everyone I knew telling them about the awesomeness of these cupcakes!

The many that did 'like' the page, soon became super 'fans' as Sheryl kept posting up mouth-watering photos of her delicious creations!

It is quite amazing what social media is capable of.

Do you know of any companies/brands/small businesses that have seen huge success fro social media?

Check out this Facebook page: Qantas

Yes, it does not look bad now, but about a week ago it was a lot worst.

A shrine of hatred, close to 95,000 fans and person after person writing comments regarding how horrible the service is, the problems they are having relating to tickets and relating to the latest advertising campaign 'New Spirit'.

And no reply from Qantas.

This was a little surprising seeing as I have them seen them as a an active Twitter user.

So what should be done?

To be quite honest, I am stumped. I posted this on the MKF3881 forum to which Wags asked me:

And I never replied.

Because I had no idea.

But I figured now I will put it out to the audience, what would you do if you were in Qantas' position?

Here is what I think they could do:

Option 1

Cut your losses. Delete the page and start fresh. Like Wags said in the lecture, brands should enter this domain with great caution. I don't think they listened or experimented with it. Social media is a long term commitment. Once you've joined up you can't just abandon ship, and leave things to manifest. As much as a brand has no control over what the customer says, they still have the opportunity to defend themselves in the public sphere.

The only problem I see with this is that Qantas is then abandoning close to 95,000 fans. Those people aren't going to go seek the Qantas fan page again because they have assumed they were already a fan.

So this is probably not a viable option.

Option 2

They can just ignore everything that has occurred in the past and just concentrate on any new comments. So engaging with the 'fans'starting from this point. I think that at this point, all those who have not heard back from Qantas can be treated as a lost cause.

Option 3
Go back to the beginning of Qantas Facebook time and reply to everyone.


Of the three options, I think the second is the most realistic.

I don't think that Qantas really knew what they were getting themselves into. They probably just jumped on the bandwagon purely for the sake of remaining current.

Social media is not something that can be checked once a day. It needs constant 24/7 monitoring to ensure that all customers have their queries or complaints tended to. Most of the answers I saw on this fan page were quick, automated responses telling the customer to send their complaint to an address and that it may take a couple of weeks to reply.

No. These people are venting via Facebook as it is the easiest means to get their point across. If they wanted to place their complaint via that other forum then they would have. They want a response then and there and to be told to go somewhere else and leave it at that is not it.

Conversations need to be held with these people and that is not happening. Maybe the more serious complaints regarding refunds or lost baggage should be referred to other people, but yeah.

I tried to Google how one would fix something like this, but could not find anything.

So what do you think? Let me know!!