Calm MediacentreCalm, constructive conversations.
Thursday, July 16th, 2009Something interesting happened today at Calm. We were able to practice what we preach about how brands should use social networks to engage with not only their friends, but their critics as well. Social networking via Twitter etc, is all about engaging in conversations, both positive and negative, that the wider network is having about you and your work. This can’t be a bad thing and it can only improve performance all round.
We posted a link to a 3 year old website of an e-commerce client in the interest of goodwill to help drive traffic to the site. Unbeknown to me, the site owner had recently uploaded some images of new stock, but put a £0.00 amount against them.
The comments that this invited ranged from constructive advice to very harsh criticism of the developer. (One kindly Twitizen mentioned that this was a tad “ungentlemanly” of said critic). Some said it made the site look broken, and others said that we should have validated amount field so it doesn’t allow a £0 against a product. I have put solutions to these issues to the client and will see whether we can take this forward. The comments, although hard to hear, will (we hope) serve to make the user experience a lot smoother and ultimately increase sales through the site.
If brands are given a chance to explain their position and are humble enough to acknowledge where they can improve, clients will benefit from a better result. Who wants a brand that thinks it already knows everything and there is nothing left to be learned?
