My flower shop ladies have gotten an opportunity to witness just how powerful social media, such as Facebook and Yelp, can be this week. An employee of another flower shop in Springfield reportedly hit a puppy while out making deliveries. The puppy owner contacted that shop to express her dismay over this even. Rather than meet her with kindness, compassion, and an expression of sympathy, the owner chose to put the blame on the puppy owner for allowing the dog in the street. The conversation went south from there and the shop owner threatened the puppy owner with violence.
The puppy owner's sister posted a message, along with a picture of the cute little 2 month old puppy that was killed. In her message she reported that the puppy had been run over, the driver got out and looked to see what he hit, and then left. She said that the owner of the flower shop (which she named) threatened her sister with violence when she called to discuss.
In less than 24 hours, the message had been shared over 900 times. There were over 200 comments, most expressing rage at the flower shop. People began flocking to that shop's Facebook page to make some rather mean comments and to give them a 1-star rating. They did the same on Yelp.
The shop posted their side of the story, in which they said the puppy owner told the driver to leave the scene. They did not issue any apology to the puppy owner. This further enraged people. Eventually that shop had to take down their Facebook page.
Finally, last night, the shop must have apologized to the puppy owner. The sister posted a message to that effect and said that they appreciated the shop owner doing the right thing and she wished them well. Only 2 people commented on that post.
As I explained to my flower shop ladies, social media has the power to make or break. It doesn't matter which story is the most correct. People were already enraged because there was a horrible story attached to a picture of a cute, baby animal. Although the shop tried to post their side, the mindset of the people was already made, and since there was no mention of any type of apology, it was more like throwing gasoline on a fire.
I do not know what affect it has had on their daily business. One employee did say that they were receiving threatening phone calls. This was not the intention of the sister, and she stated as much, and tried to reel the angry masses back in. People were posting threats of violence against the shop owners/employees on the shop's Facebook page before it was taken down. I was a little worried for them, as were my flower shop ladies. Even though they are competing for business, they certainly do not wish to see anyone meet with harm.
If it is affecting their business, it may do so for a long time. The reviews on Yelp cannot be removed by the business (from what I understand - I'm not terribly familiar with the way the site works on that stuff). Most people will not see that the situation was resolved. THAT post will not be shared 900+ times and received 200+ comments. The damage is done.
But my flower shop ladies got to see how this can work against them. It showed them that, as a business owner, they are somewhat under a microscope, and if they should offend a customer in such a spectacular fashion, it can truly, truly, truly damage their business for a very long time. I cannot imagine my ladies doing anything so callous, so I don't think they will experience anything like this, but you just never know.
One of the psychology professors at WIU once told me that "anger comes from expectations." The puppy owner expected an apology from the flower shop owner but did not receive it. The flower shop people expected that their angry exchange was probably the end of it and the upset person would go away. People on Facebook who read the post were angry because they expected more compassion from people in the floral business. People were upset with the puppy owner because the puppy was not on a leash/in the house (it was later said the puppy had run out of the house and the owner was trying to catch it when it ran into the street). It was an unfortunate situation that became a powerful lesson for many involved and many who were watching. I wish them all the best.
Friday, May 2, 2014
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Teaching is HARD! :)
I went to Springfield on Saturday and met with the flower shop ladies. Luckily, there are 4 computers in their work area in the back of the shop, so as soon as all the pre-Easter deliveries were made and everyone was ready, we got started.
I immediately realized a glaring omission in my tutorials. I did not include the link to Facebook or Pinterest. That was a huge oversight! I guess I was more concerned with how am I going to explain this rather than how will they get there. To quote Homer Simpson, "D'oh!"
It was also very obvious that Blogger was not the best platform for learning this, but we were able to make it work. I don't think they cared for switching between screens, but it couldn't be helped. If I could teach this in an ideal situation, I would have the learners sitting at tables with individual laptops. I would be able to project the screenshots on a screen while I described what was going on. Ideally.
They had a LOT of questions for me about Facebook, mainly related to privacy. Due to an uncomfortably situation with a couple of former employees, the owners are very protective of privacy. I understand the reasons behind their apprehensions, and I was able to help them understand how private they can make things on Facebook. However, once something is posted online, anyone else can take a screenshot or copy/paste.
Pinterest didn't really catch their fancy, but they thought it was interesting. The owner and I are going to sit down at another time and explore the option to create a business page. We also discussed some ways to increase business using Facebook. I suggested posting things such as "mention this ad and get 10% (or $X or whatever amount) off your order" with an end date, of course. The owner and I are going to explore some other options as well.
The funniest part of the lesson was at the end, when I asked if there were any further questions. They all wanted to know how to delete both their Facebook and Pinterest accounts. And so we learned that! Keep in mind, these ladies are in their mid-40s to early 50s. So I was a little surprised by this from all of them, but I do want to keep my students happy.
I immediately realized a glaring omission in my tutorials. I did not include the link to Facebook or Pinterest. That was a huge oversight! I guess I was more concerned with how am I going to explain this rather than how will they get there. To quote Homer Simpson, "D'oh!"
It was also very obvious that Blogger was not the best platform for learning this, but we were able to make it work. I don't think they cared for switching between screens, but it couldn't be helped. If I could teach this in an ideal situation, I would have the learners sitting at tables with individual laptops. I would be able to project the screenshots on a screen while I described what was going on. Ideally.
They had a LOT of questions for me about Facebook, mainly related to privacy. Due to an uncomfortably situation with a couple of former employees, the owners are very protective of privacy. I understand the reasons behind their apprehensions, and I was able to help them understand how private they can make things on Facebook. However, once something is posted online, anyone else can take a screenshot or copy/paste.
Pinterest didn't really catch their fancy, but they thought it was interesting. The owner and I are going to sit down at another time and explore the option to create a business page. We also discussed some ways to increase business using Facebook. I suggested posting things such as "mention this ad and get 10% (or $X or whatever amount) off your order" with an end date, of course. The owner and I are going to explore some other options as well.
The funniest part of the lesson was at the end, when I asked if there were any further questions. They all wanted to know how to delete both their Facebook and Pinterest accounts. And so we learned that! Keep in mind, these ladies are in their mid-40s to early 50s. So I was a little surprised by this from all of them, but I do want to keep my students happy.
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Making Progress
I've started on my tutorials, which are available at http://angiestutorials.blogspot.com/ (opens in new window for convenience). I've created a tutorial for how to create a Facebook account, how to create a Pinterest account, and "advanced" Pinterest. There's not much to using the Pinterest site, so I think I've pretty much run the gamut with that. There is a way to set up a business page, but I don't want to do that for the flower shop I'm working with because the owner may prefer to use her own information. That may be something we discuss aside from this project. I had no idea that it was possible, though, until I started working on this tutorial, so even I have learned something!
I feel like I need to do more with the Facebook stuff, but I'm not sure what. There's SO much information and so many things to do that it's a bit overwhelming trying to cover everything. I mainly want to show them how to run their business page, but it's hard to do a tutorial for that with screenshots. That will probably have to be something I show them in person, as it will not involve all employees.
I will also be creating a follow up survey for the participants to complete anonymously and return to me to let me assess how well I set up the tutorials for them. I tried to be as thorough as possible, but when I have fresh eyes looking at it, they will let me know.
At first, I was afraid this project would be a difficult undertaking, but it has turned out to be easier than I thought. I just hope I have all my bases covered! I will be heading to Springfield on Saturday morning to have the ladies do the tutorials and guide them through the process.
Hope everyone else is doing well with their projects!
I feel like I need to do more with the Facebook stuff, but I'm not sure what. There's SO much information and so many things to do that it's a bit overwhelming trying to cover everything. I mainly want to show them how to run their business page, but it's hard to do a tutorial for that with screenshots. That will probably have to be something I show them in person, as it will not involve all employees.
I will also be creating a follow up survey for the participants to complete anonymously and return to me to let me assess how well I set up the tutorials for them. I tried to be as thorough as possible, but when I have fresh eyes looking at it, they will let me know.
At first, I was afraid this project would be a difficult undertaking, but it has turned out to be easier than I thought. I just hope I have all my bases covered! I will be heading to Springfield on Saturday morning to have the ladies do the tutorials and guide them through the process.
Hope everyone else is doing well with their projects!
Friday, April 11, 2014
Final Project Proposal
For my final project, I am going to teach the employees of Flowers by Mary Lou in Springfield, IL, how to use social media. I have served as "social media director" for this company for the last 6 months or so, and it's time these ladies learn how to do things themselves. All of them are confirmed "technophobes," so their experience with technology is somewhat limited.
I will be teaching them how to create an account for Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. I will also teach them how to use each site and demonstrate how they can be beneficial to the business. To aid in my instruction, I will be creating a blog to use for this project which will show screenshots of the appropriate pages and demonstrate the appropriate steps for creating accounts on each platform.
The shop already has a Facebook page, which I run, but it is difficult sometimes because I am not an employee of the shop and I'm not there every day. They really need someone in-house to run it so that posts are made more frequently and they can interact with those that comment on the page. My sister-in-law is the manager and we are good friends of the owners, which is how I inherited this job. I think they can truly expand their business if they can embrace social media. I don't know if Twitter is an appropriate platform for them, but it is one they mentioned wanting to learn, so I will show them. I think Pinterest could be helpful as many young ladies like to create vision pages for things they want in their wedding. For those brides more like myself that have no vision, the shop could create pages with different ideas to demonstrate what they can do to make a wedding special.
This should be interesting.
EDIT 4/12/14: After speaking with the owner of the shop, we're not going to worry about Twitter right now. We're going to concentrate on Facebook and Pinterest.
I will be teaching them how to create an account for Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. I will also teach them how to use each site and demonstrate how they can be beneficial to the business. To aid in my instruction, I will be creating a blog to use for this project which will show screenshots of the appropriate pages and demonstrate the appropriate steps for creating accounts on each platform.
The shop already has a Facebook page, which I run, but it is difficult sometimes because I am not an employee of the shop and I'm not there every day. They really need someone in-house to run it so that posts are made more frequently and they can interact with those that comment on the page. My sister-in-law is the manager and we are good friends of the owners, which is how I inherited this job. I think they can truly expand their business if they can embrace social media. I don't know if Twitter is an appropriate platform for them, but it is one they mentioned wanting to learn, so I will show them. I think Pinterest could be helpful as many young ladies like to create vision pages for things they want in their wedding. For those brides more like myself that have no vision, the shop could create pages with different ideas to demonstrate what they can do to make a wedding special.
This should be interesting.
EDIT 4/12/14: After speaking with the owner of the shop, we're not going to worry about Twitter right now. We're going to concentrate on Facebook and Pinterest.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)