The Home Depot Doesn't Monkey Around with its Reputation

We learned that a business’ reputation is essential to survival this week. The use of social media leaves businesses at the mercy of their consumers since anything posted can go viral.
The Home Depot had their reputation put at risk in November 2013, after an outside agency posted from their official Twitter account for ESPN show “College Game Day” (which Home Depot sponsors). The rogue tweet featured a photo of two African-American men and a man in a gorilla costume playing the drums and read, “Which drummer is not like the others?”

 Yikes.

The post was reported immediately, but not before screen shots of it circulated on social media, in addition to being picked up by NBC and CNBC. Virality at its finest.

Thankfully, Home Depot acted swiftly to remove the post and issue a public apology:

Understandably, they fired the person and severed ties with the Landor Associates branding firm that produced the picture. I was most impressed with Home Depot’s initiative to reply to individual tweets:

I found this especially commendable – they could have left it alone after issuing the public apology. This course of action helped followers and customers feel confident again. Home Depot obviously cares about their public image and understands the importance of maintaining goodwill with them.

Home Depot’s spokesman, Stephen Holmes, made a statement that the company is closely reviewing its social media procedures to determine “how this could have happened, and how to ensure it never happens again.” This mishap now serves as a case study of what NOT to do on social media. It’s unfortunate, but social media is really a trial by fire.

I think the way in which Home Depot handled the event went well and I would have reacted the same way. They were responsive and resolved the mistake. I'd work to establish a 1-to-1 communication with users who were offended by the tweet just as they had. I wouldn't hide from criticism and publicly address/apologize for the mishap. But this crisis is the perfect example why companies cannot afford to treat social media as an afterthought. People need to think before they tweet. Their reputation and profitability depends on it.

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Hootsuite takes control of your social business

So, it's been a while since I've posted...sorry about that! I took a hiatus once classes ended, enjoyed sleeping in and playing with my pup, Tobias. But now that fall is here (Happy belated Labor Day, btw!) I'm getting back into the swing of things.

I thought you should know that I'm not taking classes this semester either, but it won't stop me from posting diligently at least once a week. *Fingers crossed*

These last few weeks, I've been getting calls, emails, and presenting at work about different facets of social media and various platforms. And I'll admit, it's been a great experience applying my newly acquired knowledge IRL and providing my (albeit, limited) two-cents on content curation and engagement.

I recently just finished a webinar on Hootsuite, and thought this would be a great opportunity to talk about a few highlights that I've gathered on the online social media management tool.

Its original form dates back to 2008, when it was known as BrightKit, a dashboard for all things Twitter-related. It was renamed in 2009 and quickly expanded with new features, including the integration of other social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. I found it especially important because of the following three features:

1. Listening - Only using Hootsuite to get the word out to followers? Sorry, but you're doing it wrong. You've got to listen, too! Listening to targeted conversations is often one of the underutilized methods of the management tool. You can listen to (almost) everything anyone is saying about you (or your company) by setting up streams for your platform. Take Twitter for example: you can follow Tweets Retweeted; Mentions; Keyword Search (domain name, a hashtag, alternate spelling); Sent Tweets; Your Retweets ; Direct Message (Inbox); Direct Message (Outbox); and Home Feed. This is especially great for engagement and user-generated content!
2. Insights - A social media strategy means nothing without analyzing your efforts. Luckily, Hootsuite allows users to measure ROI with real-time social analysis in brand sentiment, tracking a social profile's brand growth over time, and visualizing audience social demographics like gender and geography. You can pinpoint your reach down to the city-level. Whoa.
3. App Directory -  Hootsuite offers a collection of extensions and apps that users can add to their dashboard to create a customized experience. This goes way beyond the typical Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. You can add Instagram, EverNote, SlideShare, Reddit, DailyMotion... seriously, the list goes on and on. Users can manage, share, search, monitor, engage, optimize and explore streams of content that matter to them.

 

Hootsuite is great for its time saving capabilities. It allows users to manage social media sites from one place, no longer having to log in to four or more accounts separately. More than that, it's a crucial resource for a social strategy. Its scheduling and listening features are useful for content management and can help managers with creating additional timely/relevant posts. It's time to take control of your social business so social business can't take control of your time.

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