Once Again: What Not to Do with Social Media

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A major business has built a ‘Twempire’ by giving away a no strings attached coupon to every follower. While the coupon is a small gift for each consumer – if you add everything that was given away it amounts to an astronomical payment for a following of over 2 million and growing.

Here are some direct issues –

First, they have an identity crisis – there are more contacts compared to the true number of people. People kept creating social identities to get the free money – no strings attached. They should have instead learned about the consumers preferences, asked for other contact information, forced the money to be spent within a short period of time and preferably given them $5 off at least a $10 purchase!

Second, there was never an engagement plan - They grew their list without a real plan to engage each consumer. They simply kept collecting cards. They could have done a better job if they had sent the consumer a follow up email with a survey soliciting additional information. They could have rewarded the consumer with another discount. An engagement plan of a series of welcome emails would have gone a long way in serving the consumer.

Third, they should have leveraged their brick and mortar - By inviting the consumers into their store by hosting ‘Celebrating Social Media Day’ or something similar for different age groups and genders. Driving in store traffic could potentially lead to a sale and definitely help build relationships.

So if you are out and about building up connections on social media – do have a plan to make sure that you are actually converting your connections.