Latest posts from Danny Brown

Enjoy the latest posts from Danny Brown, and feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments after the post.

Austria and Social Media – A Digital Native’s Perspective

This is a guest post by Antonia Harler, an Austrian and soon-to-be graduate who wrote her diploma thesis about Twitter as a tool for Relationship Marketing. She?s awesomely quirky as well as open-minded and she?s also kind of a big deal ;). For more information check out her blog Social Glitz or follow her on Twitter @antwizzel.

When Danny asked me to write this guest post about how social Austria is, my reaction was ?hell yes?.

One of the reasons for that was that it?s a question that I?ve been thinking about a lot myself. I was lucky enough to experience the social media hype that?s been going on in the US and to some extent in Canada.

Many wouldn?t believe it but I am actually a late bloomer when it comes to social media. Not only because I?m Austrian but also because I had serious doubts in the beginning.

Social Media is What?

I created my Facebook account in 2007 whilst I was on vacation in Toronto, didn?t have a cell phone and was basically cut off from the outside world in the sense of not being reachable.

I?m a free and open-minded spirit and met a ton of people in no time and after being asked for my cell number, which obviously I didn?t have, I was asked if I was on Facebook. My reaction to that was ?WTF is Facebook??!

I signed up, though, and for a long while I didn?t see why on earth our society would need such a platform. However, I was sold once I was back on Austrian soil because really it makes many things so much easier.

Soon after I started to realize the immense potential social media had for businesses, no matter the industry or size.

In 2009 I went on to study in New York for a semester and, oh boy, the US is social media crazy. I was blown away and soon enough the word Twitter entered my vocabulary. Again, I obviously had no clue.

By then however, I was sick of not knowing what was going on in that industry so I started to read and learn. Businesses all over the world popped up on Facebook and Twitter. But where on earth were all the Austrian businesses? They remained invisible for a long time. I guess we are all late bloomers.

Recently however, we have started to catch up. We are finally on the way to ?austrianize? social media (though it?s still mainly the big names such as Red Bull that are taking the plunge).

Austrianizing Social

In my opinion, the company that is doing extremely well with their social media strategy is Swarovski .

They managed to build an extremely successful Facebook fan page with 454,000 fans worldwide. Recently they also started to embrace Twitter. And whilst they are off to a ?slower? start on Twitter they are doing it right, in my opinion. It?s one of those companies you want to engage with, simply because they will engage with you. Not something that you see very often, no matter the nationality of a business.

When it comes to small and medium sized businesses however, I don?t see social media being embraced the way it should be.

To many, ?social? is still extremely intangible and, unfortunately, it?s often approached with the wrong mentality. For them it?s important to realize that a social media strategy is not a quick fix and that it needs planning, strategizing and continuous execution just like any other business strategy. Austrian businesses need to learn how to embrace social media and not dismiss it as a fad or even fear the unknown.

In other words, we need to stop being late bloomers.

How about you? Is your country embracing social media, or are you the exception to the rule? The comments are yours.

Draw a Tree, Get Cool Stuff

Over at Bonsai Interactive, we made an art video on how to draw a bonsai tree, but we’re not sure of the results. So… we want you to show us the way.

Draw your interpretation of a bonsai tree (either yourself or with friends) and then upload to the Bonsai Interactive Facebook page wall (and hey, feel free to give us a quick Like while you’re over there if you haven’t already).

The best will get a cool little bonsai package sent to them. We’ll also upload to our Bonsai album so you can tag you and your friends if it’s a joint collaboration! We’ll choose our favourite next Friday at noon eastern. So, watch our video then get drawing.

Bonsai!!!

Air Canada and the Non-Lesson from United Airlines

This story caught my eye today. It’s about a little 10-year old boy who’s dying from muscular dystrophy.

As part of his dying wishes, Tanner traveled to New York to take a tour through Central Park. He flew with Air Canada. In Canada, the name Air Canada is synonymous with “Who Cares Canada” instead. Simply put, they’re pretty much the crappest airline around.

Yesterday, however, they outdid themselves. They broke Tanner’s $15,000 wheelchair.

This is an 10-year old boy who can’t get around without his wheelchair. His needs mean that the chair is almost like an extra body part for him.

As an example, think of yourself trying to breathe on only one lung – that’s how important Tanner’s chair is.

So, bit of a problem would be an understatement.

No problem, you’d think. Air Canada broke it, they’ll replace it, right? Wrong.

They told Tanner’s family that they can’t do anything until this coming Monday – five days later. Five days for Tanner to be bed-ridden because Air Canada screwed up. Bad move, Air Canada – we live in the age of social media and instant backlash.

You might recall the outcry when U.S. air carrier United Airlines broke a passenger’s guitar, and the protracted period he went through to get a replacement. Eventually he made a YouTube video that saw United Airline take a negative PR hit they were never prepared for.

You would have thought airlines would have learned from that escapade, especially when you have some great uses of social media from the industry by the likes of JetBlue and Southwest Airlines.

But then again, this is Air Canada we’re talking about.

Despite an outcry on Twitter; despite the news story that leads this post; despite the family pleading their case about how crucial it is for Tanner to have a wheelchair, so far there’s been nothing from the company apart from a “loaner” that Tanner can’t use.

Instead, it’s taken a company in New York called Mobility Solutions to come to Tanner’s rescue. All through Twitter. All through helping a little boy out. All through goodwill; not through responsibility of breaking an item and replacing it.

Nice job, Air Canada.

Now I know times are tough, since you announced your second quarter results and showed a loss of $203 million. But then again, you made an operating income of $75 million, compared to a loss of $113 million last year. So you have some spare change.

But not enough to replace a dying kid’s $15,000 wheelchair that you broke?

Maybe there’s a reason. Maybe there’s red tape you have to sign off. Maybe you have to investigate what happened. Fair enough – that’s business.

But there’s business and there’s good business. You screwed up. You replace. Then you find out what happened.

It’s not so hard, is it?

And while you’re thinking about that, you might want to look at sorting out your Twitter profile, or updating your Facebook page. That’s where the questions are happening. If you had these up-to-date, some things you could have done:

Addressed the concerns of Twitter users that are calling you out.
Used your Facebook wall to keep folks updated on what’s happening.
Used the #TutusForTanner hashtag on Twitter to offer apologies and advise what went wrong/how it’s being fixed.
Connected with the news outlets social feeds and updated via there as well.

The great thing about social media is that any mistakes made on it can be rectified on it as well. You have that chance.

Or is it still “Who Cares Canada”?

Update: Looks like Air Canada has stepped up to the plate and is helping to resolve. Good on them – just a pity it probably had a tad to do with the negative publicity as opposed to just getting it sorted as a given.

Update 2: I’m hearing Air Canada is going to fly Tanner to Disneyland (another of his dying wishes) as a way of showing their regret at the incident . Good job, AC – great to see you becoming involved.