Learning From Poor Facebook PR To Get More Visitors For Your Page
Despite the years that Facebook has been around, there is still a lot to learn about the site, especially when it comes to Facebook PR. Over the last several months, three major brands (Nestle, Domino’s, and Unites Air Lines) committed some Facebook PR snafus, along with attempts to repair the damage. Here is a break down of what happened, along with what to learn in order to get more visitors to your page and stay there for good reasons.
Back in March of 2010, Greenpeace posted a video on Nestle’s Facebook page, complaining about a non eco-friendly supplier that they used. The company’s response was to censor the video, inciting a Facebook PR whirlwind that brought lots of negative attention to the company. While their number of mentions spiked tremendously, the majority of the posts were incredibly negative. Instead of attempting to rectify the situation, Nestle continued to censor their visitors. Not only did this not help them get more visitors, but their fan’s posts remained rather nasty for a while. For your own company, if someone posts something negative, the worst thing to do is ignore the post. Instead, address that person’s complaints in order to placate them and learn from your fans what they like and don’t like about your business.
April 2010 spelled Facebook PR doom for Domino’s when two bored employees posted a crude video of them tainting food in gross ways, such as putting cheese in their noses. While videos like this are posted all of the time, this particular one spread like fire as viewers began to question their faith in Domino’s quality and care of food. After all, nobody wants to eat food that might have been tampered with. In response, Domino’s posted a video to apologize to their fans and pressed charges against their now former employees. This was a great step on their part, as they addressed their fans while helping them get more visitors in a more positive way. Publicly reaching out to your fans, through posts or video, is a great Facebook PR tool that any company can use.
Finally, United Airlines, in July 2010, received complaints from a flier whose guitars were destroyed by United handlers. When ignored by the company, the complainer went to Youtube, recording a song about his negative experience with the airline. Over 3 millions views later, a 10% drop in stock price, and $180 millions dollars lost for shareholders, United learned the difficult way that Facebook PR really does matter. Their response was to reimburse the musician, along with passing out Starbucks gift cards on all domestic flights following the incident. This method was rather passive in approach, yet effective, as United was able to get more visitors back to their page while calming down their irate fans. Everyone loves free stuff, but keep in mind that free stuff only goes so far before a real apology is needed.
These three companies are all powerful businesses, yet we see that one bad case of Facebook PR is enough to knock them down a few bars. In order to get more visitors to your Facebook page for the reasons you want to bring them in, keep three things in mind. 1 – Don’t ignore your fans if they have complaints. Realize that any post made by anyone with any affiliation to your page can still affect your reputation. A swift apology, through personal declarations and free gifts, can very easily deflate a potential storm of bad PR. Keep these helpful tips in mind and your page will do well.
Would you like to find out more about how to get more visitors to your website? Do you think you would like to find out more about Facebook PR? Check us out at fishbat.com to find out more!
Tags: advertising, article marketing, Facebook Marketing, facebook pr, get more visitors, marketing, marketing with facebook, networking, online marketing firm, public relations, social media agency, why social media
