Social media doesn’t close at 5pm. Or take weekends off. Or go on vacation.
I’ve been watching today’s very successful Labor Day-only Chick-Fil-A promotion. If you wear any sort of sports team shirt or hat to a Chick-Fil-A today, you get a free sandwich, driving awareness of the company’s Chicken Wave fan group and contest.
“Chick-Fil-A” has been a trending topic on Twitter all day, and tweets about the promotion are rolling in at ~60 per minute.
Of course, Chick-Fil-A planned this promotion for Labor Day. I suppose you could argue the merits of that decision either way, but the fact that a LOT of people are talking about the same thing on a national holiday is the key takeaway here.
You Won’t Know What Hit You
Is your office open on Labor Day? Is your marketing team monitoring Twitter while away at the lake? Is your agency watching your Facebook fan page while camping?
Sure, your fans could be advocating vociferously for your brand while you’re offline. Or, a disgruntled customer could be brand-jacking you with a YouTube video while you’re covered in sunscreen.
Will today be the day that a social media crisis erupts for your brand? I doubt it. But what if it is? One of the hallmarks of a crisis is that you didn’t see it coming. And “the fog of social media” is getting steadily thicker.
Nights & Weekends?
If your company doesn’t generate a lot of social media chatter, perhaps this isn’t an issue yet. But, if you’re any sort of known consumer brand, or restaurant, or tourist attraction, is it time to consider assigning social media monitoring tasks on nights and weekends?
Google Alerts seems to be getting slower and less relevant, so that’s not the answer. As Twitter is the de facto real-time search engine (although I’d ultimately bet on Facebook), being able to monitor AND react to Twitter brush fires is critical, and it’s not a 9-5 gig.
Just as companies have increasingly moved to round-the-clock customer service call centers, perhaps one or two of those folks should be drafted to spy on Twitter during their shifts? Incidentally, this creates yet another tie between marketing and customer service, which is an increasingly important linkage as customer support and satisfaction impact brand perception more directly than ever before – thanks to social media.
Agencies Take Note
If you work for a public relations firm, interactive agency, or any other sort of marketing company, this question about who is watching social media when the lights are out is even more critical.
If you’re being paid to monitor social media on behalf of your clients, using Radian6 or Collective Intellect or Spiral 16 or some other system, how are you going to explain it when a crisis started brewing on the weekend, or while your team was sleeping?
Should agencies hire one person to monitor on weeknights, and another person to monitor weekends? Should agencies band together and form a collective to rotate and share off-hours monitoring responsibilities, like on-call physicians?
What do you think?
About Jay Baer
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RT@StartupProRT @tweetmeme Who’s Watching Now? | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Consulting – Convince & Convert [link to post]
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Who is watching your Social Media back nights and weekends? Should agencies be on call like Doctors? [link to post]
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RT @tweetmeme Who’s Watching Now? | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Consulting – Convince & Convert [link to post]
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@jaybaer Brings up awesome point about company listening while lights are out today [link to post] BTW-we got a sandwich.
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Who’s Watching Now? | Social Media Marketing | Social Media … [link to post]
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Who’s Watching Now? | Social Media Marketing | Social Media …: Social Media Strategy Blog Social Media Con.. [link to post]
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~ Who’s Watching Now? | Social Media Marketing | Social Media … [link to post]
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RT @tweetmeme Who’s Watching Now?– Social Media [link to post]
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Interesting blog looking at how social media is impacting corporate reputations – ‘Who’s watching now?’: [link to post] -Tough one…
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Is your agency/consultant listening on the weekends? @jaybaer raises some very interesting questions: [link to post]
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@arikhanson The post brings up good questions but I wish there were high level solutions addressed. RE: Jay’s post: [link to post]
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@LenKendall I think the idea of a rotating sked has merit, don’t you? Billing-wise tho, this gets real expensive quickly for brands.
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@arikhanson Agreed. And outside of crisis management, I don’t see the point of this at all from an investment perspective.
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RT @arikhanson: Is your agency/consultant listening on the weekends? @jaybaer raises some very interesting questions: [link to post]
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RT @SparkySparkler: Interesting blog looking @ how social media is impacting corporate reputations – Who’s watching now? [link to post]
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Monitoring the conversation (even when the lights are off in the office) [link to post]
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Social media doesn’t sleep or go on vacation. Your customers watch even when the lights are out: [link to post]
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Social media doesn’t quit on weekends & holidays, so what does this mean for monitoring? (from @jaybaer) [link to post]
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@EstrellaBella10 professional social media is paced very much like a TV newsroom.. Short stories, along with working late hours & weekends.
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@digitalvision Good analogy. That’s especially true when a crisis strikes.
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Because social media doesn’t shut off. ‘Who’s Watching Now’: [link to post]
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Who’s Watching Now? Social media doesn’t close at 5pm. Or take weekends off. Or go on vacation. [link to post]
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WHO VACATIONS ?~ RT @BethHarte: RT @jaybaer: Social media doesn’t take a vacation. Who’s watching your brand? [link to post]
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RT @sonnygill: RT @jaybaer: Social media doesn’t take a vacation. Who’s watching your brand? [link to post]
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RT @Hammarstrand: RT @JayBaer: Social media doesn’t take a vacation. Who’s watching your brand? [link to post] (via @BethHarte)
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Active social media presence? Read this: Who’s Watching Now? [link to post] (by @jaybaer, via Commentz)
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RT @jaybaer: Social media doesn’t take a vacation. Who’s watching your brand? [link to post]
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RT Nor do I @jaybaer: Social media doesn’t take a vacation. Who’s watching your brand? [link to post] (via @BethHarte)
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Social media doesn’t take a vacation. Who’s watching your brand? [link to post] (via @jaybaer)
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RT @JayBaer: Social media doesn’t take a vacation. Who’s watching your brand? [link to post] (via @BethHarte)
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RT @jaybaer Social media doesn’t take a vacation. Who’s watching your brand? [link to post]
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RT @BethHarte @jaybaer: Social media doesn’t take a vacation. Who’s watching your brand? [link to post] Once in it, a 24/7/365 job
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RT @BethHarte: RT @jaybaer: Social media doesn’t take a vacation. Who’s watching your brand? [link to post]
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RT @jaybaer Social media doesn’t take a vacation. Who’s watching your brand? [link to post] http://url4.eu/ObNW
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RT @spiral16: No vacation for social media. Chick-Fil-A’s Labor Day promotion: [link to post] (via @jaybaer)
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Social Media Doesn’t Close at 5PM [link to post] (Jay writes a good post for Biz to consider)
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@jaybaer “Social media doesn’t take a vacation” good read Jay, thanks
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Social media doesn’t take a vacation. Who’s watching your brand? [link to post] (via @jaybaer @sonnygill)
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RT @rosskimbarovsky: Social media doesn’t take a vacation. Who’s watching your brand? [link to post] (via @jaybaer @sonnygill)
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Social media doesn’t take a vacation. Who’s watching your brand? [link to post] (via @rosskimbarovsky @jaybaer @sonnygill)
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Who’s Watching Now? Social media doesn’t close at 5 pm. Or take weekends off. Or go on vacation. [link to post]
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RT @EstrellaBella10 SM doesn’t quit on weekends & holidays, so what does this mean for monitoring? from @jaybaer [link to post]
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Who’s Watching Now? – @jaybaer – [link to post] Do companies need to monitor social media 24/7?
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RT @jaybaer: While you’re sleeping, social media is awake. Who’s monitoring your brand during “off” hours? [link to post]
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RT @kyleplacy RT @jaybaer : While youre sleeping, social media is awake. Whos monitoring your brand during off hours? [link to post]
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RT @TDefren: While you’re sleeping, social media is awake. Who’s monitoring your brand during “off” hours? [link to post] (via @jaybaer
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While you’re sleeping, social media is awake. Who’s monitoring your brand during “off” hours? [link to post] (via @jaybaer)
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@TDefren i know! how about adapting to a polyphasic sleep schedule? then you can always be awake to monitor your brand http://ow.ly/ozdp
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Good blog for folks who get paid to do social media monitoring. Who works nights, weekends etc [link to post] via @tdefren and @jaybaer
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rt @jaybaer While you’re sleeping, social media’s awake. Who’s monitoring your brand “off” hours? [link to post] Someone should be!
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RT @kyleplacy: RT @jaybaer: While you’re sleeping, social media is awake. Who’s monitoring your brand during off hours [link to post]
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I may never take another vacation again. Nice post Jay! RT @jaybaer: Who’s monitoring your brand during “off” hours? [link to post]
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RT @jaybaer: Great article about social media working while you sleep! [link to post] – Nice!
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While you’re sleeping, social media is awake. Who’s monitoring your brand during “off” hours? [link to post] You should be!
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RT @lancegodard: @jaybaer: While you’re sleeping, social media is awake. Who’s monitoring your brand during “off” hours? [link to post]
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(oops – attempt #2). Funny. I just commented on @jaybaer’s post “Who’s Watching Now” [link to post] (note the time!)
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#PR agencies take note, “Social media doesn’t close at 5pm. Or take weekends off. Or go on vacation” [link to post]
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Great post from @jaybaer: Social Media Ain’t No 9-5 Baby. [link to post]
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Like it! TomMartinGreat post from @jaybaer: Social Media Ain’t No 9-5 Baby. [link to post]
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Social media doesn’t take a vacation — who’s watching now? [link to post] | via @tweetmeme
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