How to destroy your reputation in a single email

Building a brand reputation is a long process. It takes ages to create it and it needs of much careful and patient manners to keep working on improving it. Brand reputation is a must for companies and Social Media plays a key role in building reputation.  

On the one hand, Social Media is great to complement the offline branding strategies of every kind of company, not only because Social Media increases brand awareness, but also because of the positive synergies with social networking and the greater interactivity with users (clients and potential customers). 

On the other hand, a company's mistake can be easily spread online. If PR's reaction takes too long, consequences can be terrible. So, a single tinny mistake, followed by the wrong PR response, may become viral: as contagious as a flu. Then, there we have: an online public lynching against the brand. 

Innwise: A model not to follow

https://twitter.com/abadgz

Alejandro, a Spanish young joobseeker had an interview in Innwise, a marketing consulting company. Hours later, he received the following email, obviously by mistake: The liked ones (...) I'd may be harder to get the candidate from Toledo for 400€ [monthly] than the "pipiolo" (little boy) for free. I'd hire Alejandro for 3 months, trying free or up to 200€ in part time and 400€ to César". As you can imagine, Alejandro was very upset with the email, not only because they used the word "pipiolo", synonim of "little bird" to refer one of the candidates, but, more important: it reveals how some companies in Spain agree with the extended practice of youth exploitation with the excuse of the weak economic situation. A manager from Innwise contacted the candidates to apologise, some workers of Innwise tried to minimise the mistake saying it was out of context and the company apologised on Twitter, too. It was too late: #becariopipiolin had became trending topic. And so, the damage to Innwise reputation had gone viral. Besides Twitter and Facebook, #becariopipiolin has been main topic in Hufftington Post and it has been the most read post in Menéame.

Tweets about "#becariopipiolin"

What to do in this situation?

Well, first of all, a company should not allow this kind of policies and pay more attention to private communications in such topics, where information is meant to be confidential. But after there has been an incident like this, a trust and quick apology is vital. 

The apollogy note should contain: 

- The vision of the company about what actually happened. 

- The name of the person on charge: the company needs a face to prove the apology is not fake. Hidding is not going to help at all. 

- Any way to contact the company: it is always best to face problems than avoiding them. It is going to be a hard day, but an effective response will reduce the damage for the brand reputation. 

- A trust apology (not only "empty" words). 

The PR team should contact the whole staff to let them know what is happening, instead of allowing/promoting their staff trying to minimise the damage. It makes things worse, as users become angrier while interacting with them. It is the company (and its PR department) the one that has to sort it out the issue. 

What would you have done in their situation? 

My first collaboration with Passport to Trade 2.0

Internet Mobile has evolved in Spain and Spanish Social Media habits have changed, impulsed by the greater sales of smartphones and tablets. When I started to prepare my colaboratio with Passport to Trade, I didn't know how far Internet Mobile has changed the Social Media landscape in Spain. 

Why is guest blogging so appealing for me?

On the one hand, it is an ideal excuse to research about one particular topic. Information is power, so it is always good to know more. Besides, Social Media is a matter I feel particularly attracted, as it changes all the time. Even before I had planned to study Marketing, I was a quite active Social Media user. Before Facebook and Twitter, I spent my hours uploading pictures in Flickr, sharing staff in Fotolog and I even had two Space Groups (The ones from Msn, not a MySpace). Nowadays, I am the one my friends ask to know "What is that of Tumblr" or "What is Pinterest for". 

On the other hand, I have always blogged in Blogspot. Although I know how to use Wordpress, I have always used Blogspot. It is my pending task and I hope I can start to sort it out early, as I have realised Wordpress has loads of SEO pluggins and customisation options. 

Finally, the project is just amazing. 

What is Passport to Trade 2.0 about?

Well, #P2T2 project (as you can find on Twitter) is an European program to help small and medium-size companies and students going abroad. Passport to Trade 2.0 is a guide about online and face-to-face communication in 31 different cultures. It worths a look if you want to learn something about other European cultures. It is also available in nine languages, besides English. University of Salford - Business School is part of this project along with seven more European organisations. No doubt why Business Culture website has been shortlisted for the European Search Awards 2014. 

I am glad to have been part of this project. I hope I can write some more posts in the future. 

What is your opinion abour guest bloggers?

How Facebook has changed our lives in 10 years

Today Facebook is ten years old. Time flies. Why did you sign in? In my case, I just wanted to keep in touch with some foreign friends after my stay in Italy. Around 2010, being on Facebook became compulsory for people and for companies, too. Here there is the video Facebook has launched today. 

Life has change in ten years and, without realising, you have became more social thanks to Facebook.

Post by Facebook.

1. You are nobody without a Facebook profile. Few year ago, the million dollar question was "Aren't you on Facebook?" Indeed, even if they don't use it any more, almost everyone has a profile yet. Since your mother until that small pub o social centre in your neighbourhood. You know it isn't cool any more, but you still use it to gossip. I won't tell anybody. 

A Facebook user wishing Facebook a Happy Birthday (Source: Facebook)

2. You have so many friends you can't even recognise them. You aren't alone. They are not friends but acquaintances. Do you remember that friend of your friend who took a picture of you? Or that girl you met in a conference three years ago? Sometimes it becomes harder to recognise people, as it is a current trend to change your Facebook name for a pseudonym, apparently because they think Facebook won't spy you if you have a nickname. 

3. You hate receiving Facebook Messages. Everybody does, but it happens to be very usefull when you want to send a more informal email to an old friend or a colleage. I used to find Messages very useful as a substitute f Messenger, until I started to hat it, as some people don't understand midnight is not a good time to start a conversation on the chat. That is why its app is one of the most downloaded and hated. 

Some people don't share the celebration mood (Source: Facebook)

4. You know closer your friends (and acquaintances). Traditionally, religious and political opinions were left appart from regular conversations. Now timelines are packed with highly personal opinions. You can easily know if your friend is a cat or a dog person even if you don't use Instagram, as pictures of kittens and puppies are as popular are photos of babies. 

5..You go party or holidays to post it. Holiday photos are taken to be shared on Facebook.Social travellers look for wifi desperatelly when going abroad, so that all envy them. Going out is another version on this phenomenon, as it seems a cocktail cannot be enjoyed without sharing it with all your Facebook friends. 

Wishing Facebook a Hppy birthday and a soon recovery of "coolness", I still have a vital question: 

Does anybody knows what is a "poke" for?