Public Relations and Social Media (by Marlon Wong Granados)

“Every business interacts with a variety of publics: consumers, the general public, the financial community, the organizations’ employees, government, the media, suppliers, and many others. Public relations is the process by which the relationships with each to these publics is managed.” --- Reid and Bojanic, in Hospitality Marketing Management (2010, p. 492).

Just recently at my workplace, there was an incident regarding one of my coworkers. It turns out that he used Facebook’s personal messaging system as a medium to exchange harsh words with another person. This person was not in any way connected to our company, but after finding out where my coworker worked through my coworker’s Facebook profile, this person decided to post on our company’s public Facebook profile what my coworker had said to them for anyone to see. It appeared that my coworker said things that were not nice; and even though he thought he was having a private conversation via personal messaging with this person, this person exposed publicly what was said. The person also accused our workplace of hiring a person that was disrespectful and crass. The incident was handled by management, in essence it was a minor job in public relations, and as such the post was deleted, the person contacted by management, and after conducting an investigation, my workplace decided that my coworker must be let go.

This incident first made me think about our first amendment --- our freedom of speech. While my coworker said disrespectful words, was it right for the other person involved to accuse him at his workplace, to expose him on the company’s Facebook profile? Was it the correct decision for the company to let my coworker go? Secondly, I thought of the issue of public relations for company. A company’s public relations team might be an external company or it could just be an owner or a manager. Nowadays, companies should provide guidelines in employee manuals that refer to social media use, especially usage regarding the company. Even in the mentioned incident, where the private discussion was not about anything related to the company, the way someone projects themselves when speaking to another person, regardless of the medium, can be measured against the values of a company. While our company did have social media guidelines regarding the use of these tools concerning the company itself, and while there was nothing explicitly mentioned on the employee handbook about conducting oneself appropriately when speaking to other people outside of work, it was implied in our manual that we must conduct ourselves professionally in and out of work.

In the early days of Facebook, I wouldn’t think twice about posting any kind of status update, much less what I wrote in a personal message. In those days, while we still valued anonymity and privacy, as a society we were slowly changing. There was no Instagram or Yelp, and most people remained anonymous through nicknames and online handles. With the advent of social media sites, starting with Myspace, social media began to change. We started posting selfies, carefully manicuring our personal profiles, and increasingly communicating with one another online. Facebook came along and at first it was a college student only website. With the expansion of Facebook to encompass anyone in the world, including our parents and bosses, there were some issues that we began to deal with. 

Do we have to self-censor nowadays? If we do, does it inhibit part of our personality? What can companies do to protect themselves from incidents such as my coworker’s? As future managers, we will have to deal with issues such as this, and we must learn how to handle them effectively.

About the Author

Marlon Wong-Granados is a transfer student and Hospitality Management major at Cal Poly Pomona. His focus is on Restaurant Management. His ultimate goal is to be a restaurant operator and make a positive impact in the restaurant industry. He enjoys food, soccer, boxing, and travel.

References

Reid, R.D. and Bojanic, D.C. (2010). Hospitality Marketing Management (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 

The picture was downloaded from the TopRankBlog.com 

Do you want the option of accessing all social media websites?

Social media allows mass communications, but WeChat does not.  When people post something on a social media website, such as Facebook, people can interact with their friends' friends even thought they may not connect with their friends' friends on Facebook. They can also search and participate in trending conversations with the aids of hashtags. Can people do that on WeChat?

People can only interact with the friends with direct connections on WeChat. Let's say two people, Tom and Amy are "friends" on WeChat. I happen to know both of them in person but I am only connected with Tom on WeChat. When Tom posts an update, Amy and I can both respond to Tom's update, but I will not be able to see the conversation between Amy and Tom. Likewise, Amy will not able to see my conversation with Tom because Amy and I are not connected. The hashtags do not work on WeChat either.

Therefore, I don't think WeChat is a real social media tool. And because most social media tools are blocked in Mainland China, people living there really don't have a voice on social media.

The fact that people don't have access to social media in Mainland China does not surprise me, however. Things have always been well controlled for decades. What shocks me the most is people's choice when they are presented with options.

I met a nice lady last week, who told me she originally came from Shanghai and had been working at Cal Poly Pomona for over 10 years. We briefly talked about the firewall issues in Mainland China. Her response was: "I only want one-to-one conversation like what WeChat offers. I don't want Facebook or any other social media tools. They are just too much! Why bother?" When she said "I,"  her attitude and body language suggested that she was referring to the people living in China. All of a sudden, she became very offensive.

I was shocked. It is fine for people not to use the real social media tools. And yes, they may choose to have one-to-one conversation via SMS, WeChat, e-mails, or phone calls, but the question is: Do we want people to have the option of carrying on one-to-many or many-to-many conversations besides one-to-one conversation?

I certainly respected her choice, and I stopped the conversation. Yet, her comments keep me wonder what Mainland Chinese really want. Unfortunately, they cannot answer my question as they are not allowed on Blogger.com.  

Documenting the Changes of B2C Communications on Facebook from 2010 to 2014

Last, I published a research study in Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, and I shared a brief discussion about this study on MultiBriefs.com.  In this study, I led a research team to investigate how restaurants' B2C communication strategies evolved on Facebook over time and how consumers' reactions to a variety of Facebook messages changed over time. 

We analyzed 2,463 Facebook messages initiated by 10 restaurant chains in the fourth quarter of 2010, 2012, and 2014.  We have found status updates experienced a substantial decrease by restaurants while usage of photo updates increased dramatically in the same period.  Photo remained to be the most "popular" media type, receiving most "Likes," comments, and shares from consumers.  Video was not "popular" at all in 2010 but experienced a slight increase in usage and slowly emerged in 2012 and 2014 as another "popular" media. 

Drawing from the research findings, I made the following recommendations to businesses: 

1. Engage with Facebook users in a consistent manner. We found that companies could win more customers over time by posting about the same amount of messages over the years.
2. Post high-quality photos. Because it seems "everyone" knows the power of photos on Facebook, now it may take more than just a regular photo to catch people's attention.
3. Use other picture-based social media tools to engage customers, such as Instagram and Pinterest.
4. Choose an eye-catching screen shot for a video cover.

If you are interested in reading more of our findings and implications, please email me for a desk copy of the article for personal usage or download the article online on Emerald Insight.

Have you observed any changes among organizations' or people's behavior on Facebook? Would you mind sharing your observations with us?

#B2C #Communications #Facebook #Research #Longitudinal

Can Hotels Fine Guests for a Bad Review?

A hotel in Upstate NY has a policy to fine guests for bad reviews on online review sites.  Is it even legal?

The hotel says it never enforce the policy.  If so, why would this hotel put this policy out there for criticism?  Well, unless the management wants to get more attention, regardless if it is good or bad.

Check out more details in the following Fox News video.  

Are Customers Also Responsible for Their Dining Experience?

I recently read an interesting experiment from a famous restaurant in #NYC, where the owners compared customers' behavior of today and that of 10 years ago.  I wrote an article about it on MultiBriefs. 

 

Here is what was reported by the restaurant (and what I included in the article): 

July 1, 2004:

Customers walked in. 

They were seated with a menu.  Three out of 45 requested for a different seat. 

Customers spent about 8 minutes on the menu before closing it, indicating that they were ready to order. 

Servers instantly took the order. 

Appetizers were served in about 6 minutes (except for complex items). 

Two out of 45 customers sent items back. 

Servers remained attentive to customers. 

Checks were delivered when customers finished their meals. 

Customers left within 5 minutes. 

On average, it took 1 hour and 5 minutes from start to finish.

July 3, 2014:

Customers walked in. 

They were seated with a menu.  Eighteen out of 45 requested for a different seat.

Instead of opening the menu, they took their phones out. Some were taking pictures; others were just playing with their phones. 

Seven out of 45 had servers come over immediately. 

They showed something on their phone to the server and took about 5 minutes of the server’s time.  Later, the servers explained to the management team that the customers needed help with Wi-Fi connections for their phones. 

When servers approached customers for orders, most had not even opened the menu and asked the servers to wait.

Customers finally opened the menu, with their hands holding their phones on top of the menu. They were still playing with their phone. 

Servers came back to check with the customers. Customers asked for additional time. 

Customers were finally ready to order, with an average wait time of 21 minutes. 

Food began arriving in about 6 minutes (except for complex items). 

Twenty-six out of 45 customers spent about 3 minutes taking pictures of the food. 

Fourteen out of 45 customers spent an additional 4 minutes taking pictures of themselves or one another with the food in front of them. 

Nine out of 45 customers sent food back to reheat. 

Twenty-seven out of 45 customers asked servers to take a group picture for them.  On average, it took about 5 minutes of theirs and the server’s time until the customers were satisfied with the group picture. 

On average, customers spent 20 minutes more on the meal and 15 minutes more to pay and leave. 

Eight out of 45 bumped into somebody in the restaurant while they were texting and walking in/out of the restaurant. 

On average, it took 1 hour and 55 minutes from start to finish. 

I am thinking: Are customers also responsible for their dining experience?  How does technology has brought down (if it does in some way) people's dining experience?  In regarding to online reviews, what information matters most from online reviews --- The overall rating?  Service?  Quality of food? Or something else?