Social Networks - When socializing gets you fired.
The use of social networks by corporations as part of their marketing strategies is now fairly common in many sectors. But what can act as a great multiplier of the brand message can cut both ways. As Virgin Atlantic and British Airways have apparently found out the hard way.
An excerpt from a piece in the November 8th issue of The Economist:
As well as embracing blogs, firms have been exploiting social networks such as Facebook and MySpace to get their messages to a broader audience. But although they have the potential to be useful marketing tools, such networks can also be a source of damaging publicity, as British Airways (BA) and Virgin Atlantic have discovered to their cost.
On October 31st Virgin fired 13 of its cabin crew who had posted derogatory comments about its safety standards and some of its passengers on a Facebook forum. Among other things, crew members joked that some Virgin planes were infested with cockroaches and described customers as “chavs”, a disparaging British term for people with flashy bad taste. On November 3rd BA began investigating the behaviour of several employees who had described some passengers as “smelly” and “annoying” in Facebook postings.
Read the full article article.
Social networks more about “socializing” among English Canadians than among French Canadians.
French-speaking Canadians who visit social networks mention obtaining information (41%) and fun (24%) as motives more often than English-speaking Canadians (22% and 14% respectively). Conversely, socializing is mentioned as a reason for visiting social networking sites by only 19% of French-speaking Canadians, compared to 43% of English-Canadians.
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