Qantas to close PR Twitter account

I think this may be an upcoming trend with big brands. People are using social media more and more to bitch to companies and complain about every little thing. The bad press is far more viral than the good and the cost and man power to monitor social media is becoming greater. I’m sure many of these big brands will be taking a long look at social media over the next few years and realise it’s just not worth it.

Try @FakeQantasPR

@Bem – You are on the money.

That is a good point Bem… bad press does travel great distances on social media.

Hopefully the social media bubble bursting and brands no longer have to hire staff just to appease professional trolls.

I still never got my 1st class pyjamas. Sad face.

I just complained about the quality of my burrito and got a free one today, so I hope they don’t ALL shut down.

Seriously though, it would be a mistake for big brands to stop engaging like this, but I think social media has to figure out a better way of dealing with those who want to talk direct to the brands. What if Qantas had their own regulated forum for feedback? Or even their own regulated social media channels for feedback. Rather than open up to the general public and the rest of the trolls.

Part of marketing is wading through the nonsensical gibberish to find some true insights that can help you develop your business further. If you cut off that stream of feedback totally, you do yourself a disservice.

Simon Dell
http://www.TwoCentsGroup.com.au

It may be that it’s increasingly seen more as a marketing role, rather than a PR function.

social media has always been a whingefest as most good PR people will tell you and has been net damaging for the majority of corporates since its inception

the only people who thought differently were social media acolytes and inexperienced marketers

it’s good that you guys are finally catching on now, after advising so many companies to waste their own money trashing their brands

well done.

@Bem
How lazy would that be?! Let’s just quit engaging because its too hard. Brands like Qantas need social media, it keeps them honest. So they’ve had a few PR disasters? It only goes to teach them that they can’t arrogantly make decisions in their little bubble and expect the world (ie. their customers) to yield accordingly. I say take on the challenge and start creating a real, meaningful relationship instead of fluffing about on the surface. End rant. 🙂

Bec i dont think you understand – you can call it whatever function you like but it has a greater PR relevance than marketing

all most companies are doing is handing their whinging customers a stick to beat them with

anyone with a PR sensibility has seen this coming for ages, but dumb marketers and self-important social media gurus hypnotised corporate execs with big numbers, with the result that most companies didnt do rigorous analysis nor proper due diligence on the threat and minimal opportunity offered by social

it has ALWAYS been the provence of bottom feeding trolls, professional complainers and lowest value customers.

no company would be worse off without it

I call BS on your comment Bem. The fact is they’re running two social media accounts (or more) and need to condense so consumers are directed to the one space with little or no confusion. Modern communications that is all.

The majority of people aren’t going to go to your page / handle and talk about the good things a company does. They’ll go there to whinge, which is why they’re a crap idea. And when most of them are asking you to count how many cats are in this photo, they get even worse.

I want my corporations to be big and faceless, but the staff to be down-to-earth and friendly, not posting stupid internet memes made by 12 year olds in an effort to ‘engage’ me.

The amount of knuckle-heads that will find your facebook / twitter account faster than the customer service phone number and whinge in public about your brand is reason enough to kill it – screw what agencies think.

One key point not being addressed here by applauding Qantas’ ‘genius’ in consolidating their social media, and predicting more corporates bowing out in the future: if you don’t make it relatively accessible and easy for your customers (should they wish) to complain via official social media channels, they will simply go away and create their own. In the current model brands can exhibit some control and are judged by how they deal with complaints on social media. Brands that choose to bow out altogether will be locked out of the conversation leaving themselves with no opportunity to at least present their side, if not potentially turning the situation around to a positive outcome. It seems this is really a case of them not liking what they’re hearing, and preferring the good ole days when they could claim wonderful, lofty corporate values, with absolutely no litmus test or accountability in the public eye.

Elisha there’s only one problem with the worn argument that if you dont make it easy for customers to complain on social, they’ll create their own FB pages, fake twitter accounts etc.

It pretends that whingers actually care enough to do something about it rather than just tapping away on their keyboards for a few seconds

fact is, confected keyboard outrage is fleeting, people are lazy and busy, and very few will bother with sustaining the rage online

hence corporates are much better off just monitoring social and participating and necessary in any discussion

it’s plain foolish to set up public complaint channels which will just attract the cranks like bees to honey, damaging your reputation for what supposed gain?

the only people still pushing social these days are inexperienced comms people and social careerists clinging on with their fingernails

If they have staged a retreat does this then mean we can see the comeback of @Qantas_PR?

Er…describing any customer who makes a complaint as a “whinger” may be at the root of the issues some organisations experience managing social. Fact is, if Qantas are merely consolidating their Twitter handles in order to better resource and manage their accounts, there’s clear arguments that support this strategy. My remarks address comments made that purport social to be a one-way self-flagellation mechanism and that may support corporates dropping such channels altogether. In many cases social media can and does support strong, positive relationships between brands and their customers. As an aside, it’s ironic when anonymous commenters make harsh assumptions about the experience or specialisations of others in forums for holding certain viewpoints, while simultaneously denouncing the “cranks” … “damaging your reputation” online. As for me, my fingernails were rubbish long before social media, which is why I would only ever recommend social as one part of an integrated marcomms strategy.

the headline is misleading – they are just closing down one of two accounts – they are still on twitter & big brands aren’t jumping ship just yet