#hmvxfactorfirings – a Social Media lesson

The Twitterverse was treated to a great cautionary tale yesterday when HMV employees ‘hijacked’ the firm’s Twitter account and ‘live tweeted’ from the HR department where 60 staff were being relieved of their jobs.  It’s easy to think that this was simply irresponsible behaviour, hitting out at administrators for personal reasons, but the lessons go deeper and there are many companies of all sizes who can learn from the incident.

The marketing staff member concerned (@poppy_powers) later explained herself in a series of tweets.

She said, “I would apologise for the #hmvXFactorFiring tweets but I felt like someone had to speak. As someone without a family to support/no mortgage, I felt that I was the safest person to do so. Not to mention, I wanted to show the power of Social Media to those who refused to be educated. Just to set something straight, I did not ‘hijack’ the hmv twitter account. I actually assumed sole responsibility of Twitter & Facebook  over two years ago, as an intern.  When asked (this afternoon), I gladly provided the password to head office. I also set another member of staff up as a manager on Facebook, and removed myself from the admin list. I didn’t resist any requests to cooperate.  Since my internship started, I worked tirelessly to educate the business of the importance of Social Media – not as a short-term commercial tool, but as a tool to build and strengthen the customer relationship, and to gain invaluable real-time feedback from the consumers that have kept us going for over 91 years. While many colleagues understood and supported this, it was the more senior members of staff who never seemed to grasp its importance.   I hoped that today’s actions would finally show them the true power and importance of Social Media, and I hope they’re finally listening.”

There are two points to pick out:

Social media is not a short-term commercial tool, but something to build and strengthen relationships.

This is something that is at the heart of all the work we do with social media.  The key to successful social media marketing is interaction with people who have shown an interest in your business.  Yes, it is a commercial tool – but one which works at its best when the relationships come first.  Think about any face to face marketing you do – do you prefer to do business with the people who interact with you and build a rapport, or those who push their product or service in your face?  The online space is no different.

Senior members of staff never seemed to grasp its importance.

One of the biggest errors that large companies have made over the years is to hand social media to ‘the intern’ as if it is a closed box, something that the company should be seen to be doing, but not the preserve of senior management.  There are reams of studies and blogs that address this, such as this one which makes the point well: social media is part and parcel of a wider marketing strategy, and needs buy-in and direction from the top.  Of course we have worked with larger businesses where the social media training starts with one person in the marketing department – it has to start somewhere – but so far, we’ve been lucky to encounter boards who looked carefully at what was being done, and staff who carefully cascaded knowledge and delegated where appropriate.

It’s interesting that @poppy_powers is still tweeting this morning to tell @hmvtweets how to remove her as an administrator on their social media accounts!

What should your business do?

• Take responsibility for social media as part of your overall marketing strategy.
• Understand the value of interaction and building relationships.
• Always have at least two administrators on your social media accounts.
• Keep a record of social media profiles and passwords (yes, you can write them down but keep them secure).

Enjoy your social media journey – and we are here to help when you need us.