I HAVE recently had to warn businesses of the importance of having a set social media strategy, after a Twitter campaign dramatically backfired for Australian airline Qantas this month.

Many businesses are now getting into social media as they understand that this is a new way to contact, and interact with, existing and prospective customers. Yet, without a clear strategy, many businesses, like Qantas, are accidents waiting to happen.

With Qantas, its competition was badly timed and ill thought out.

This was at a time when the airline was in the middle of a major industrial dispute which had at one point seen the entire fleet grounded.

It was seemingly obvious that they should not have launched a social media competition to push “luxury” prizes when so many customers had not been given what they had paid for and, despite having the luxury of a social media team, did not deal with the issues well.

With a form of two- way communication like Twitter, businesses need to deal with complaints swiftly and effectively, and also be aware of any bigger issues that may antagonise their customer base. Twitter could have been used to help build back their reputation, interact with their customers and help build trust before going onto a competition, whereas this simple competition only served to antagonise their customers even more.

Social media needs to be taken as seriously as any form of marketing communications and examples like this Qantas campaign show how any issues can have significant knock-on effects for the brand as a whole.

It’s important to have a clear strategy at the start, ensuring that communications are timely and any issues dealt with immediately.

GEOFF PARKER is client services director at Hooton-based SEO agency, Click Consult