Conflicting social messages
The whirlwind of conflicting social media activity in 2012 buffeted marketers from one extreme to the next, leaving us all reeling with differing opinions from credible sources. On the one hand, The McKinsey Global Institute stated that 1/3rd of all purchases are subject to social influence and Gartner predicted that half of all web sales will come from social and mobile by 2015. On the other hand, Forrester painted a bleak picture that only 1% of all purchases are influenced by social, while IBM claimed that social media only influenced .68% of brand referral traffic on the highly anticipated Black Friday.
To make sense of these predictions, we’ve been analyzing social marketing success and failure stories to see what was impactful, what needs improvement, and what to plan for in 2013. Read on for the first of two key lessons from social marketing misses in 2012, and download our white paper Top Social Engagement Lessons from JetBlue, Zappos, Fab.com, and Kirkland’s for in depth reviews and takeaways from 4 of your favorite brands.
Failure to manage customer service: Ryanair
If JetBlue represents the perfect example of turning potential PR disasters into positive experiences using social customer relations, Ryanair completely missed the memo.
Image 1: Ryanair has never placed a priority on customer comfort or service 
Unlike JetBlue’s rapid and responsible social media updates when one of their pilots had an inflight mental breakdown – which subsequently earned them the Simpliflying Heroes award – Ryanair handled their potential crisis a little differently.
When customer Suzy McLeod turned to Facebook in August to complain about a 200+ Euro charge to print her family’s boarding passes, her complaint quickly earned massive social support, with 350,000 ‘Likes’ and over 18,000 comments. Instead of an immediate apology, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary took another route, publicly stating “We think Mrs. McLeod should pay 60 euros for being so stupid.” Unsurprisingly, the comment didn’t go over well with their customers; the company is still dealing with negative customer sentiment on social even now, as SocialSentiment reports a 1:1 ratio of positive to negative comments.
Image 2: A snapshot of Ryanair’s Facebook page highlights poor social customer service 
The lesson: The customer is (still) always right
In this social media-centric day and age, the customer is always right. Especially when that customer has support from over 500,000 ‘Likes’, compared with Ryanair’s total Facebook presence of 30,000 fans (many of whom sided with Suzy anyway). At the time of his comment, O’Leary went up against over 350,000 angry fans – 11x his company’s fan base.
Ryanair is a budget airline that puts little importance on customer service; however, customers continue to place more importance on customer service. The American Express Global Customer Service Barometer found that 55% of survey participants walked away from a sale this past year as a result of poor customer service. With consumers continuing to gain power and influence over each other, I hope Ryanair recognizes this paradigm shift and alters their strategy before it’s too late.
Social marketing: The time is now
Social isn’t going anywhere. Companies who have figured out how to benefit from social, both on the platforms themselves and on the company websites – companies like Zappos and Fab.com – will lead the pack in 2013 and beyond. As the memories of 2012 fade, take the time to rethink your company’s social plan: where can you improve? How can you better integrate social into various aspects of your business? What goals can social help you achieve?
Check in later this week for American Apparel’s social marketing miss, and download our white paper, Top Social Engagement Lessons from JetBlue, Zappos, Fab.com, and Kirkland’s, for in depth analysis of top performing social marketers.
Do you have any particularly worthy success or failure stories from 2012? Feel free to share them in the comments below, or connect with me on Twitter.
