A Social media crises can happen for a variety of reasons. From accidental Facebook posts to epic marketing campaign fails.
Those campaigns become memorable definitely not for their effectiveness, but for the lack of common sense involved in making them.
Such campaigns don’t only fail to attract the attention of the target user or business, they offend viewers, generate anger, lose consumer trust and brand credibility.
According to an MTV report, it’s been a while since Sayfco Holding, a private Lebanese company has been having internal issues and problems. However, just recently, their Facebook Page has been heavily utilized as a tool to expose their dirty laundry in public.
A miscalculated move that has damaged the brand’s reputation maybe to a point of being “unrepairable”.
If the objective of the campaign is being transparent with the public to what’s happening, then Sayfco Holding has failed miserably. All you have to do is skim through the comments of their Facebook posts.
The public’s response to the posts only generated a wave of anger from users who’ve invested their money in the residential projects in question and didn’t receive any clarification regarding that matter.
The posts shared on Sayfco’s Facebook page addressed an internal corporate problem openly. Instead of showing care about its customers they redirected the responsibility to someone else.
What is guaranteed is that this social media stunt “sayfco scandal” has hit the once leading construction company in Lebanon.
Now What? How to handle the Social Media Crisis.
The question remains how badly has this stunt hurt Sayfco?
If the public’s response is that a lot of people got hurt, they were hurt badly, and the people who were hurt didn’t get support, then the potential damage to the brand is relatively big.
Sayfco News Update:
The page admins removed all old posts including the bankrupt banner, their board members pictures and everything else as if the Sayfco Holding scandal never happened.
Want to hire a digital agency to manage your company’s online marketing? Before launching our women-owned digital marketing agency in the mdidle east, my partner and I have worked for multiple agencies in Lebanon, UAE, and Amman for more than 6 years.
Driving growth for local businesses like Abed’s Salon to international organization like World FZO, This period is long enough to come up with a list that will streamline your hiring process to choose the right agency that fits your budget, brand and business.
5 things to consider when hiring the best digital marketing agency in the middle east:
1- Build a relationship :
You need to get to know the person handling your product, not the account manager who signed the deal nor the company’s CEO but the digital manager handling your daily requests. No one knows your company more than you do. If you can explain what you want to achieve, and how you want to position your company directly to that person, then you will ensure the agency is aligned with your business goals.
2- Ask and learn:
Question: Do you know how to replace a video with an image on your website?
Answer: That would require an experienced web developer to use an API. The API will pull data from your website and in 3 working days the image will be replaced.
Truth: It’s all Bullshit! In fact, changing an image requires a minute.
Even if you don’t have digital knowledge, you can ask for a second opinion or simply do a quick google search, you can be surprised of how quick and easy you’ll find answers.
3- Agreements and trust:
Whether you want to create a website, an app or want someone to handle your social media channels. There’s a lot of data at risk. I have seen some agencies that reached to an extent of withholding information or not handing access to the clients after an agreement ends.
4- Price vs Service:
A low cost service isn’t the worse and an expensive one isn’t the best. Research the agency! When did it start? Have they done that before? Do they really know what they are doing? If an agency doesn’t have a functional site for their own agency how do u expect to get a better one.
5- The extra mile
There’s always new trends coming up everyday like the Instagram hashtag follow feature and much more! Choose a digital agency in the middle east that actually keeps up with the trends to get the best results.
Agencies aren’t one size fits all. Hiring the best digital agency in the middle east to fit your business goals is not easy. If you feel that your digital strategy is best handled by a small local agency close to you. Others might feel more comfortable working with a global agency with multiple offices and hundreds of employees. However, The most important thing to remember is that the impact of hiring the right agency on your business and brand is limitless.
Want to grow your business? Get a 20 min Free Consultation, Let’s Talk >>
There are hundreds of NGOs in Lebanon. Recently I came across couple NGOs in Lebanon doing great work on the ground but those activities and achievements are not reflected on their website. Thus their impact is being limited and they are missing out on getting support from volunteers & donors.
FREE DOWNLOAD: The Complete Website Guide for NGOs >>
So here’s some advice to NGOs in Lebanon wanting to create a new website or wanting to revamp a current website.
1. Make the Cause Clear
Make sure users can clearly understand who you are, your cause and mission.
2. Integrate Your Website with a CRM
Integrate your NGO website with your members database, will simplify contacting donors, volunteers & members.
3. Your NGO Website MUST be Mobile-Responsive
Mobile is the future. Users should easily navigate your website when using a mobile device or tablet. Check if your website is responsive.
4. Include Social Elements
Having the social sharing features incorporated into your website will increase engagement.
5. Add a Subscription Element
Adding a subscription feature to your website will help you share your news & events.
6. Update Your Website Content
Your website should always be updated& authoritative to build trust & reputation.
7. Branding Consistency
Your website is all about your NGO & it reflects & reinforces what the NGO represents.
8. Highlight Your Events
Keep your events calendar updated. New members will love to to join.
Your NGO website needs to look good, this is a fact and not an option. You need to stand out.
LinkedIn introduced it’s new standalone free app, Linkedin Lookup. The app helps you search for your coworkers by name, title, education, and skills. You can also learn more about their background, contact them and find common ground using the search field to find their LinkedIn Profile whether or not they have Lookup.
Linkedin Lookup will help you:
The handy app is currently available only on iOS, mobile web and desktop. To connect to people at your company you need to set up your account by simply signing in with your work email, you will receive a code to your email to verify your account and all info added will only be shared with your coworkers. This app is essential for people working at large companies.
You can find the the full details about Lookup on LinkedIn’s blog announced by Ankit Gupta, LinkedIn’s senior product manager.
The success of an event is based on a measurement strategy that states the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to be considered. There are multiple types of KPIs such as (Sales KPIs, Marketing KPIs, Social Media KPIs…). Organizations identify and track different KPIs depending on its objectives and what it wishes to achieve from an event.
The following list includes 3 social media KPIs to measure the success of an event during its different stages.
Social Media KPIs
To ensure the proper reach of the media campaign aligned with an upcoming event, an organization should use the metrics below to achieve maximum exposure, develop customer engagement, enforce brand image, reach target audience and achieve desired action such as registrations, attendance and lead generation.
1- Exposure & Distribution, 2- Engagement & Interaction, 3- Influence & Action
Exposure and Distribution:
Before launching an event, an organization should make sure it’s available on all social networking sites to connect with its target audience and that all channels are updated regularly with the upcoming event details;
Contact information (email & phone number)
Info (place, time & date)
Details (event promo: images & videos)
Prices (ticket details & point of purchase)
Speakers (bio & links to profile)
Social sharing (social media & email)
The ease of access to event details on social media should reflect a growth in exposure on all channels and its distribution among communities and groups; number of fans on Facebook, followers on twitter, connections on LinkedIn, subscribers on YouTube and whether the event is being circulated on social media, mentioned on other platforms and from what sources.
Engagement and Interaction:
Next step requires developing reach and increasing engagement on social media to attain maximum publicity, in order to achieve that a custom landing page should be prepared for those who are interested in the event and are looking for more detailed info. The landing page should be clear, include an attractive image and more text content including all the above and the following info:
Schedule (Breaks, Workshops, Panels)
Partners (Media & Sponsors)
Unique Hashtag (To build engagement during the event)
Outcome (Certificate…)
An event is the best opportunity to achieve maximum exposure on social media, thus during an event the organization should provide an incentive for its target audience to interact. This can be done through:
Connecting with users on social networks and sharing their feedback, comments and conversations by retweeting their content and images.
Another way is to gamify tweeting during event by organizing a simple contest or by displaying the tweet stream on screens in the event.
Engaging with influencers is another incentive, influencers are people your target audience trust and have great presence online and make it easier to spread the message.
Building a photo wall is also an interesting method to encourage attendees to take pictures and share on social media.
Influence & Action:
This is an important indicator to evaluate the success of an event and how well the social media campaign and marketing efforts resonate with the audience. Although there is no universal method to measure an event impact on social media and no approach can be applied to all yet evaluating the different actions taken such as the number of retweets, mentions, comments, shares, reviews, video views, live stream/site visits, registrations, and number of leads/sales will help you understand the perception and attitude of customers.
You can use the following FREE tools to measure the above:
TweetReach.com: Add the hashtag used during the event and you will be able to see the estimated reach, exposure, contributors, tweets timeline and activity.
Twittercounter.com: Gives you twitter statistics (graph & numbers) over a custom period of time, number of tweets, followers and following.
Unionmetrics.com: Gives you instagram insights, top fans, best time to post, post engagement.
Mention.com: Create an alert for your organization name or the hashtag used during the event. Mention.com will scan different sources, social media or web and send you email alerts.
In addition to the above, there are several effective tools to measure event return on investment which should be relevant to the goals set prior to the launch of any event. Setting clear measurements will help generate more value and RIO.