L´Oreal Social Media Fail

There is this nail-polish that I always buy in Sweden and yesterday I decided that it´s ridiculous of me to have to buy it in Sweden when the brand is L´oreal which I should easily be able to find in a metropolitan city as Barcelona.
Let´s quickly examine how I did this, from the point of view of any typical customer. Oh well, the average customer may not blog about it but he/she would probably do what I did at first. 


1. Go to the web page


Guys is it just me or does this web page have the most ancient look ever. Check out the small boxes on the right side, awful. http://www.loreal.es
I try to find my nail polish but it´s nowhere to be found.
Nowhere on this web page exists any type of CONTACT tab. But all of a sudden I notice the Twitter icon at the button. Great I think, this means they are active on Twitter so I will be able to buy my nail polish as soon as tonight (cus everyone knows that a corporate Twitter account can not wait more than maximum 3 hours to answer a customer request).


2. I click on the Twitter icon and what pops up is the L´oreal Press account. Huuuhh? I think, Ok not what I expected but a Tweet account is always a Tweet account. I tweet them and they answer 12 hours later.
They tell me: We will answer any questions or doubts via this email address.
Here I get a bit put off and I´m thinking, Yeeez couldn't they just have answered me right there on Twitter. After all what I´m asking for is a store in Barcelona who sells L´oreal products. It´s not brain surgery.


3. I send an email to the email address and get an answer 2 hours later. Saying: Thanks for your email, we would love to answer your questions but it requires you to call a number and speak to us personally. Let´s reflect here for a second. Wouldn´t it be much cheaper and easier for them to just answer me with less than 140 letters in the form of a tweet. Sending out a personal letter? Who knows, maybe I will receive a paper letter too?

I´ll pass on this and I´ll move over to another brand. Simplicity folks, is what counts. We live in a society that moves fast. You have my attention for a quick moment. Catch me don´t lose me!

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Doing Social Media Right

Today I watched a webinar with two of the most famous social media gurus right now. Mike Stelzner and Mari Smith who both are active consultants and professionals in the social media jungle.
The subject was "How 9 companies do Social Media Right" and it was extremely interesting to see the examples they showed.
I´d like to just write down what struck me the most this time. What I thought was most innovate and creative.
First of all, hands down to restaurant  San Chez Bistro for allowing people to reserve a table through Twitter. Great innovative thinking and just what people like me need. To all restaurant owners: More of that please!
Next up Ford Motors. Its no brain surgery that Ford is famous for having done social just right for quite a while now. This example was their "Stories" tab and the "Idea" tab. This basically is a way for people to share THEIR stories about their Ford Explorers or Escorts. The idea tab is similar to what Starbucks does with My Starbucks Idea where people can actually contribute with ideas about how to make the coffee better. Awesome work!
 Martell Home Builders build new homes and have a widget on their webpage which shows where exactly on a map your closest contractor is. GENIUS for brands that deliver Pizza or flowers or Cupcakes. Ge-location, I´ve said it before and I´ll say it again. Rocks!

Then we have Zappos.  2 things I love: The CEO is actively tweeting, Go Tony! Secondly they promote a Fan Of The Week which I find absolutely great. Voting, Engagement, Activity isn't that what Social Media is all about?

These are the take-aways:

Develop USEFUL content
Profile your raving fans
Make your content easy and sharable, and FUN!
Build community
Encourage fans to share stories
Make involvement fun
Try Fb e-commerce
Think outside the box
Create special offers for fansTweet