With the Qantas lockdown in full swing social media platforms are abuzz with  commentary. On Facebook this evening the following wordcloud was developed using fan feedback from the 10pm Qantas posting.  Also the picture at right was uploaded to the photo file on their Facebook page. It will be interesting to see if consumers start uploading pics of themselves stranded at airports.

Conversations from the wordcloud above centred on the CEO, Joyce, the unions and words such as ‘shame’ and ‘shares‘ appear giving an understanding of some of the key concerns.

A Facebook protest page called Lock out Alan Joyce not Qantas Workers has gained 5438 ‘likes’ over the past 24 hours. The page is said to be not affiliated with the unions.

An AFR article on Qantas and social media noted that the wrong Alan Joyce Twitter account has been targetted online with an American university student copping flack for the grounding.

The buzz online has also seen the development of a fake Alan Joyce Twitter account with his bio saying  ”leading Qantas Airway to its biggest disaster yet and then on to the next”. The account was accompanied by a particularly bad profile pic. You can follow some of the discussion by viewing the #qantasfail twitter stream

Discussions regarding the airline dispute are also occuring in a range of online forums as far ranging as Golf, The Athiest Foundation of Australia and  Vogue Fashion.

It should be noted that this is not the first time Qantas has come under fire in the social media arena with the airline under attack recently when they gave two Wallaby fans platinum tickets to the Tri-Nations decider . They didn’t bargain that the rugby fans would come dressed asRadike Samo complete with afro wigs and painted black faces.

Digital Democracy is a leading Sydney social media agency. Director Jenni Beattie has over 20 years marketing experience and has focused on social media for the past five years. Jenni teaches social media at UTS and also develops social media strategies for a range of clients. Digital Democracy can be contacted on 0423073099

Interesting in taking your Social Media knowledge to the next level? you might be interested in an upcoming course based in Melbourne.

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Last night my ten year old son was asking me what I do and I mentioned I do online marketing including social media.

He asked ‘But what is social media?” and I explained it. He looked very puzzled and then said but that is just chatting online mum, just conversations.

It was interesting kids and teens don’t see what they do as coming under the term social media to them it is just life, a part of their world that doesn’t need an umbrella term to matter.

This week Tourism Research Australia has just released some new research into tourism businesses use of the internet in Australia.

The internet has been steadily increasing as an information source for all visitors in recent years. In 2010, 29 million international and domestic visitors used the internet for information prior to commencing their trip, up 11% since 2007.

Findings

84% of all tourism businesses that take bookings have an online presence:

71% on their own website

74% on others’ website

Research commissioned by the Tourism Ministers’ Council Digital Distribution Working Group show that while internet presence is high for Australian tourism operators, booking and payment capabilities remain low.

It would have been nice to see some research breaking down Social Media usage among the travel industry but perhaps that is available in a more detailed report.

Download the Snapshots 2011 Internet Use in Trip Planning and Booking pdf

Social Media strategy templates and Social Media strategy tools are often in demand by the social media marketing industry but is there such a thing? is there a one size fits all?

Recently Vocus has produced a Social Media Strategy planning tool.  The tool developed by Vocus and MarketingSherpa entails a Drag-and-drop module where you answer answer questions and create a social media strategy tailored to your needs. 

Overall it is a nice snapshot of some elements you will need to think about but it does breeze over concepts  rather than examining them in detail. The ability to compile relevant readings however is a particularly useful component to the tool.

Verdict? It certainly can’t replace an experienced online marketer who can view your online strategy wholistically but its a fun and reasonably well executed tool.

I read with interest that The International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) is joining forces with the Institute for Public Relations (IPR) and the Council of PR Firms to form a Coalition to develop global standards in social media measurement – one of the four key commitments of the Lisbon Summit Measurement Agenda 2020 initiative.

When working many years ago for the global media content analysis company CARMA,   AMEC set some standards for the media content analysis industries which was much needed after the many years of simplistic AVE measurements.

Tim Marklein, coalition chair and Practice Leader, Technology & Analytics, WCG  said “Clients and agencies are hungry for expert guidance to navigate the changing media landscape, and they deserve guidance that’s based on sound social science, proven practices and openly available methodologies.  Too many of the social media measurement options available today are based on proprietary tools and methods that can’t be easily replicated across brands, campaigns and organizations. As a coalition, we intend to break down those barriers and map out a path to standards that address key social media measurement challenges, including content sourcing, influence, sentiment, engagement and ROI among others.”

On 17th November, AMEC is running “The Big Ask” social media measurement conference in London, when it aims to ask PR and media intelligence professionals what they want to see as part of the new global standards. Let’s hope the conference has many social/online mechanisms  where international marketing professionals can follow the event and participate widely in it.