When Social Media Just Isn't Enough

My girlfriend has recently been having problems with Vodafone.

She upgraded her contract with them to an iPhone 3gS and has since had no end of troubles trying to get any signal/cellular network.

The obvious outlet for her frustration was via her Twitter feed, where her tweets were picked up by @VodafoneUK who replied to her straight away offering help by means of an email.  The email led to a reply stating they could not help her and she would need to phone.

Fast forward to today where in total there have been 9 phone calls, 1 store visit, 2 new sim cards...and still no working phone.

But every time she or I tweet about Vodafone, we receive a reply saying "Sorry to hear you're still having problems, drop us an email or contact us via the eForum".


It must be frustrating working the Twitter account for Vodafone because they seem keen to help, but they're being let down by the Customer Service call centres...there's nothing else someone on Twitter can do, they have to rely on the one-on-one contact of a phone call or store visit.

Monitoring Twitter for mentions is a fantastic Customer Service aid and really helps customers feel they are being listened to, but make sure the rest of the Customer Service department can match it for use

Rant over.

Footballers Tweet No More...

I know I'm making more of an effort to blog this year, but even I still can't believe Iv'e reached as low as tweeting about Football...oh well!

Companies ban their employees from using social networking sites, we all know it happens…You get into work one day and suddenly realise can’t get on Facebook, but you don’t want to ask anyone about it because you know you shouldn’t be using it in the first place, so quiet rumours go around the office until somebody confirms that Facebook has definitely been blocked.
   

So there’s nothing unusual about Manchester United blocking social networking site for their players either.  Except that they’ve completely blocked the players from using social media in their own time (which, let’s be honest makes up most of their time!).

There is a definite logic behind this, looking back over the last year or so there’s been a couple of incidents with players venting their frustration at managers through the powers of Twitter, first there was Darren Bent prior to his move to Sunderland who went on a complete tirade, really showing his feelings.  More recently, Liverpool player Ryan Babel let his frustration show when Benitez didn’t play him.

The issue I see is, where in a player’s contract does it say they are not allowed to use social media?

It is completely understandable that there should be a clause saying something along the lines of “you must not slag off the club or any of its employees”, and that’s fine, but Man U are saying that their players can’t use social media under any circumstances.

In my opinion this is a big mistake.  With the correct restrictions in place (see above) Twitter can be a great way for fans to relate to their football idols, improving the relationship between player and fan.  It’s not different to a company using Twitter.  It’s about the relationship, the conversation, and footballers are a brand in their own rights.  That’s why sponsors pump so much money into them.

If I was a sponsor, I would want the footballer to be talking about our brand through any means possible, not just in pre-arranged press conferences.

So ultimately, although Man U have good reason to restrict what players say, I really don’t think it’s right to ban them completely. 

Red Card.