Social media strategy in organisation

Michaela Tuomenoksa
Assignment 14.7 - 14.8.2015 / WEEK 11 - 15



CASE STUDY

For this last blog assignment I have chosen a company named Mainossatama. I chose this company because I think they are a good example on how to use the social media to build up the company.

Mainossatama is an advertising company located in Forssa, Finland. They currently have seven people working in the company and they use the social media actively for marketing. I have been following them on Facebook since 2013 when I completed my first internship there during vocational school.

Currently Mainossatama uses Facebook and Instagram (or as they call it themselfs "Mainosgram"). I think a Facebook page is a must these days for a company and they post works, news and happenings there also as on their homepage. They joined Instagram some months back and in the beginning I thought it was too much. Or not that they joined Instagram, but the amount of posts and pictures made me question the point of doing that. But I actually enjoy their Instagram these days and they have a good sense of humor in their pictures. I think Mainossatama is a very professional advertisment company with some seriously skilled graphic designers. It's really important to share the  work they do, because that's the biggest way to advert your company. It's also very nice to see what a great team they are and it also shows the potential customers that these are really great people to work with. They take pride in what they do and also add a bit of fun to it.

Mainosgram

Mainossatama gets a lot of feedback on their Facebook page and also directly from their customers. That's the way they evaluate their success, and also the likes on their social media sites are a way to count their success. Their objective is obviously to get their company out there and advert their services. It's a though time to have an advertising company today and the competition is hard. The company that takes time in marketing itself the most, also succeeds the most.

In Mainossatamas case and I believe in most of the companies it's really important to represent the company at all times, especially in the social media. Everything can be found via Google and it's really important to think about how your actions can effect the company you work in/own. Mainossatama is a company where the word "team" really means something, as I said before. They all take part in using their company social media, and no one is left out. And the fact that they do all this togheter so they can build the company and set goals togheter makes this an good example. If I could give any advice to other companies, I would ask them to check out Mainossatama's social media sites. Ofcourse it depends on the company, but in general.


SOCIAL MEDIA CRISIS

I absolutely love this topic! 

The first example that came to my mind is the Midhill water glass disaster. You guys remember this? So... This guy went to the Midhill resturant for dinner, ordered a meal etc. He also asked for a small glass of water. Later he found out that the water glass actually cost 1,5€. Everything else had it's price on the menu except for the water. He then commented on their Facebook-page that the burgers we're okay, but in Finland you shouldn't ask for 1,5€ for a water glass without even saying it costs. Then the shitstorm (excuse my french) started.... Midhill replied:

" Yeah and the staff that brings you the water don't cost? Come on. You can always complain and you should, but you have to have an argument. It's (water) free at home. Not in resturants."

In this case the customer wasn't rude. He just simply said what he thought and I get the point that the resturant should mention that the water costs, even if it's about 1,5€ or less. But the way Midhill responded was childish, unprofessional and stupid.

One thing that makes situations worse like this are when a company then deletes the post. No.. What did you just do. By ignoring the feedback you just dig a deeper hole. And that's exactly what Midhill did. But fortunately many people had already seen the post and then things just got way out of hand. Someone even commented Midhill's reply by saying that it was a very unprofessional and stupid reply, like saying "stay at home if our prices don't suite you.", and I agree.

People started spamming their Facebook-page with sarcastic commens... Once it goes on the internet, it won't be forgotten:

"If you order a glass of water, do you get ice as well? Or do you have to pay for them? Per icecube?"
"I was the 1000 liker, do I get a free glass of water?" <-- Someone else replied:
"No, they still have to bring it to your table. 1,5€ please, come on."
"Vesi sihisi Midhillissä" 

It was hilarious reading the comments! Hans Välimäki who owns the Midhill resturants did give a statement about the case. But I just feel like he thought th customer was an idiot and that the resturant didn't have anything to apologize for. How did the case affect Midhill? Well... Bad publicity is publicity after all? This is just not the way to handle things...

The second case that also came to my mind was the Turku Energia disaster. An 80 year old man got his electricity cut off during christmas holidays. Turun Sanomat wrote about the incident that the man had his electricity cut off because he had two unpaid bills (aprox. 90€ worth). He had asked them if he could have paid them in January when he was supposed to get his pensionmoney, but Turku Energia refused. Unfortunately the social welfare office couldn't process his application to get help in time.

Fortunately his apartment kept a steady heat during winter, but he had to get his food from his neighbours fridge and there was no way he could listen to the radio or watch tv. A friend of the old man commented how absurd it was and aggravating. For the article Turku Energia had nothing to say... This really angered people and they started commenting on their Facebook.

People offered to pay the bills but Turku Energia did not agree to this. For some reason you couldn't pay for anyone else and I don't understand why? It's not like you have to give a persons private information to pay a bill? In the spirit of christmas this was a really sad case. Things just got ugly and Turku Energia kept deleting comments.

After the shitstorm someone had donated money so the man got his bills payed and finally got his electricity back on. Turku Energia posted on their Facebook that things had gotten out of hand and they thank everyone for the help. They informed that they will (once again) delete all the comments regarding the incident and in the future hope that people will give them feedback trough mail.

Companies should learn that wat once gets on the internet will stay there, forever. You can't just hide from a issue and delete comments. It will only make things worse and the company will be seen as an ignorant and unprofessional copmany that isn't ready to take responsibility.


SOCIAL MEDIA FUTURE

The social media is growing really fast. It's kind of scary in certain ways, how obsessive we've become of it? Everything evolves around the social media and it's a constant competition for companies and also private persons. I believe companies will be using the social media more and more in the future and there will come new sites that will be as popular as Facebook (etc.) today. It's about keeping up all the time.

But I kind of hope people wouldn't be so obsessive about it in the future and rather focus on living the real life and not the virtual life (me included). It's okay to use Facebook and all the other sites from time to time, but it shouldn't be the only thing you think about (how many likes did you get and so on). But then again I hope the social media can be a place to raise awareness of things, share and educate people around the world. As long as it is used right it can be really powerfull. But by using it wrongly, it can also have a negative impact.

This was my last blog assignment and I thank you guys for keeping up with my posts. I really enjoyed this course! Did you?