What an interesting week it has been. To say it has been busy would be an understatement… But that’s not just from my perspective. It’s been exactly one week since the VodafoneUK twitter posting issue where a worker – not involved with the web team that manages Vodafone’s customer service twitter account – posted a tweet that was ‘unsavoury’ from @VodafoneUK; thinking it was a friends personal account…(!) to the extent that it was trending on Twitter from 5pm-7pm last Friday evening (5th February 2010). @VodafoneUK replied to everyone individually with an apology and clarification that their account hadn’t been hijacked, as some twitter users had speculated, and that the individual responsible had been suspended pending an investigation.
The incident was picked up by Econsultancy on Monday who then posted an article, with a ‘tabloid-esque’ style headline (somemight say ‘sensational journalism?’) that resulted in the post being re-tweeted again.
… But by Monday everything was quiet and then Tuesday saw Vodafone releasing a statement to why it had occurred – although if I’m being picky – this statement was published a day late…
Normally, an incident like this involving such a high profile brand would still be talked about now. But the story died because of how well the team responded to it and because they acted with transparency and integrity.
So last Tuesday night I decided to check out why the ‘story’ didn’t gather momentum, so that we can all add it to our toolbox proactively as a model example of ‘what to do’ just in case something like this ever happens.
Digging Deeper
In order to identify why the Vodafone incident didn’t have the typical Groundswell something of this magnitude would normally have, I looked a little deeper into it. Now you might think it’s a bit geeky or that I’ve too much time on my hands in the evening – but there is always something to be learnt and I thought it would be a good excercise to complete.
Firstly, 2 public apologies were published, and 19 invidual ones followed the first and 28 individual ones followed the second. This immediate ‘hands up’ and acknowledgement from Vodafone that it was someone on the inside as opposed to a hacker, in my opinion, was why the issue only trended for a couple of hours on the Friday.
What I wanted to ultimately do was map out who the key twitter influencers were. So, for this exercise I focused on the Econsultancy twitter network. I identified that from the number of people re-tweeting the original Econsultancy blog post, there were only a small % of key influencers (those people that either have a large reach online, with respect to the number of followers they have and/or the amount of times that persons twitter post was re-tweeted). This along with a speedy comment reply to the Econsultancy post on the 8th by Dan Bowsher from Vodafone, plus how they dealt with the incident on the Friday before, was, in my opinion, why the issue wasn’t an issue any more to the ‘social ecosphere’.
The following images show how I mapped out what happened each day – from the 5th Feb to 12th Feb – along with who tweeted and re-tweeted. I entered all the 309 twitter users – over the 7 day period – who either tweeted the original post or retweeted it. Then I identified all the twitter users per account that had people retweeting them. I’m not showing the indivdual user accounts for obvious reasons!
(This mindmap was generated using FreeMind and then I exported it to HTML).
Comment observations
I don’t know about you but a blog/article post is a subjective opinion (which everyone is entitled to). However, I think that the real information ‘the juicy stuff’ lies is in the comments. Underneath the Econsultancy article there were 21 comments that included 2 from Dan Bowsher (Web Relations Consultant at Vodafone). The comments raised by the participants praised VodafoneUK for:
- taking part in the conversation on the post
- issuing such a quick response to the article in question
- their use of Twitter as a customer support tool
- demonstrating that there are ‘real people’ behind the profile
There were also a couple of people that pointed out that they shouldn’t have responded to everyone individually and that they should have just posted one apology and then let others use that posting as a point of reference. I don’t agree. It is clearly visible from how Vodafone use the @VodafoneUK account that part of their strategy is to respond to everyone that contacts them… individually. To only post one ‘generic’ response would not only have been missed within the individuals twitter stream (depending on how many people they follow) but it wouldn’t have been consistent with how they engage on a day-to-day basis with their followers.
Model example for everyone to follow
Some of you might think that in replying to everyone publicly created more attention to the incident in question, but what it actually meant was that it ensured a transparent direct response that would be immediately visible to the people and supports/upholds their use of social media as an engagement tool rather than as a traditional broadcast medium.
This is why the topic didn’t continue to grow. I truly believe that this is a fantastic example of how to use social media effectively not just on a day-to-day basis but also in crisis management – and the web team that take care of the customers using tools like Twitter are to be congratulated on how they responded to this.
There are some lessons here:
If Vodafone released the statement on the Monday it could have:
a) prevented the Econsultancy article being written as it was
b) in turn, have reduced the volume of tweets/retweets on the the Monday
However, hindsight is a wonderful thing, and it was good for people to witness Vodafone taking part in the conversation that subsequently took place in the comments section.
If only other organisations, like Paperchase who by all accounts deserve a SMASBO (Social Media Anti-Social Behaviour Order), could adopt a similar attitude…
As always, happy to be challenged and educated… 
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Wowee, you have been busy! must have taken an age to research that lot! You are absolutely correct about the synopsis. That was the best way possible to handle it and Im sure at the end of the day, more people will praise than condemn them.
At the end of the day, holding your hands up is the best way to deal with it.
I believe the more you hide, the worse you look, and, the more folks will summise rather than know the facts.
Hi Robbie. Thanks for commenting. I think all told about 9 hours to map timelines / post / day / user / silos – but it was a really useful exercise to do.
I agree with you totally that it's better to hold your hands up than to hide away. Something that Paperchase need to address?
The web team at VodafoneUK turned this around because of how they are personally. They clearly believe in what they do and it's great to see the people behind the brand.
Good research, most salient point for me is that by responding individually Vodafone achieved much more in quelling the debate than by issuing a generic statement.
Undoubtedly there will be a learned book someday looking back at how a business was completely destroyed by its mismanagement of the social media conversation – like the books on Gerald Ratner and how he wiped £500m off his business value by a single comment
Thanks. About 9 hours (approx) from start to finish
And you're right, was much better for them to put their hands up than to be quiet …
@robbertaward cc @VodafoneUK
Hi Bob. You only need to have a few 'active' people that you follow on twitter to have a stream that constantly updates… one posting would have been a) completely missed b) people would have accused them of using SM as a broadcast medium
It would make an interesting book, maybe you should compile it !
@bobpinkett cc @vodafoneUK
Great blog chap!
To build on the comments of our other friends what stands out for me is that by being yourself, being personal and up front about things you come out of mistakes bigger and wiser.
It is very easy option to “carpet bomb email / apologise” think things have moved on, by going door to door people feel special and will talk about you (like this).
(Jane Moor 9/11?)
There is a good example of trust in a brand by Jim Collins in 'Good to Great' where Johnson & Johnson kept the brand trust high and another competitor did not in public problem.
Top darts to Vodafone & their social media team
Lee thanks for posting about this and bringing you unique focus to play.
Strikes me that the effort to communicate with each person who had been contacted by vodaphone employee and the short lag time from incident to contact made a difference.
I have to say that I didn't expect an organisation the size of Vodaphone to react and treat each customer as an individual, really pleased to hear that they did.
Great piece, wonderful thought process Lee.
Did you send their Press office a copy?
Hi Bernie – thanks for posting…
I think the great thing about what @VodafoneUK do everyday is to answer everyone personally, which I would suspect be a monumental effort to do – especially with 8k + followers. The J&J example was another great model.
@berniejmitchell
Thanks for posting Dan and for your great feedback! Really appreciated. Some organisations that I speak with ponder if it's possible to communicate with clients on a 1-2-1 basis? I use what @VodafonUK do as an answer!
Thanks again Dan
@danielesparraguera
What an excellent post and really demonstrates the power of taking responsibility to tackle an issue. By reacting, as they did, they nipped a potential damaging incident in the bud. We have all seen instances where illicit emails etc have gone global in a very short time – that was avoided in this case by monitoring and responding to the conversation. An example to others. We must not loose site of the fact that social media should be about engagement, conversation not push marketing. By reacting the way the have Vodafone will have built credibility, similar to the way they have reacted to my tweets in recent weeks.
Great piece Lee
Hi Rob. Thank you for taking the time to post. You mentioned a very valid point, that social media is about engagement not about push marketing. I see so many organisations adopting a traditional 'push' approach because they see it a broadcasting medium – which it clearly is not.
The online communities are driven by people, and their thoughts and the validity of their opinions are what makes interacting at this level very exciting.
Content maybe viewed as king, but 'credibility, transparency and authenticity bring the personality of the brand to the forefront – and those are what people are basing their decisions on.
@robjcameron @vodafoneUK
What a geeky number you did with this research Lee, love it!
To reiterate on what has been mentioned, this is exactly the type of reputation management that I think companies of all sizes will need to (and inevitably will) take heed of. Social media is a mass movement of individuals taking control of the market place. A technologically savvy fourteen-year -old has just as much power as a multimillion pound company to build up or tarnish the reputation of a brand so long as we, the people, support it. A meaningful homemade video gone viral can determine the fate of most businesses. Broadcasting doesn’t work anymore because people would much rather be involved in the promotion or demotion of a product or service. The intensity of our interconnectedness allows us to share and contribute. The everyday person has far more reach nowadays, this evident in the success of vehicles of self expression such as blogging and you tube. It is important for companies to interact with people on an individual basis, because traditional forms of marketing are becoming less effective. We are becoming a culture of participation and it is my (very humble) opinion that the business that do not evolve will find that people will switch to the companies that do.
Thanks Amanda. I think I'm a closet geek as opposed to a full blown geek like my Borther in Law @MikeCamel is
I love it when people really 'get it'! And clearly … you do…! You're 'very humble' opinion, in my 'even more humble opinion' is spot on.
People are already making purchasing choices based on level of engagement/interaction. Traditional forms of marketing are no longer as effective as they used to be – because they toe the 'this is how we've always done it' line, and marketers that don't understand that broadcasting is not the way forward tend to show a hint of resistance in evolving their position.
Where as, if traditional forms and digital comms really got their heads together to review how they both can increase the effectiveness level of engagement, you wonder what could actually be achieved!
Thanks for posting Amanda
@amanda_blum cc @VodafoneUK
Hello Lee,
What a great post, or should I say observation.
You know I had problems with Vodafone's customer service as well, but finally they sorted it. I pushed them a bit, in all honesty, to use social media. Any credits
You find my final post here: http://www.volkerballueder.com/vodafone-got-thi… – and I was very happy for myself but also for Vodafone when they got things right. And, as you show in your post, they continue to embrace social media, get down to the one on one conversations with their clients and make use of various channels.
So well done everyone involved, and I think they are setting a good example for other brands!