Twitter promotion FAIL

And now a lesson in how to NOT run a social marketing campaign.

By now a lot of you will know about the @twt4turkey competition/promotion that Super Liquor are running at the moment. This is their twitter page.

The first I heard about this was on Wednesday the 25th of November when this tweet came my way. Choice, I thought to myself. I could do with $100 worth of liquor in the lead up to Christmas. Ace. I also thought to myself, It's interesting that I am a 'winner' when I have not entered anything... Hmm, I thought, I smell a scam.

So, like my cynical self, I of course checked out their previous tweets. They started their account on the 23rd of November and I am not sure who they started with, but I am going to guess that they picked up someone's list(s) and just followed everyone on it.

Reading further I found this tweet:So, I find this curious. I wasn't following twt4turkey and I certainly had not retweeted any information. So how had I won? I'm not one to look a gift turkey in the mouth though, so I DM'ed for more details.

They asked that I sign up to their promo on a separate site and that they would send me a voucher. Easy. I can do that. So I did.

Bring on the booze!

Yeah, that was OVER 2 weeks ago.

I'm not being completely unfair on this one. I gave them a chance, after waiting for 2 weeks. In a really nice way too. Being that I use tweetdeck you have to read from the bottom up, sorry.See, nice. It can happen.

Now, telling me to stay tuned isn't going to do it for me to be honest. Tell me why I am waiting. Most of the time I am a reasonable person. I'm happy to listen at least. But 'stay tuned'?

As it turns out, I am not the only one who has been waiting... waiting... waiting...

Graeme from AdAgeBusiness has been waiting too. It would seem he has been much more studious than I when it comes to asking Super Liquor what the hold up is, however that part is his story to tell if he so chooses.

Crux of the matter is, when people have started to question Super Liquor as to where the vouchers are, they have said that there was a hold up with Tegal and the vouchers. One small problem there, I'm not waiting for a turkey. Surely Super Liquor have access to their own vouchers?

Graeme and I have even been putting the boot in a little over the last couple of days, in the hopes of eliciting some form of response from twt4turkey, but to no avail. This is a fail in itself.

Why are you not monitoring what is being said about your brand? Again - read from the bottom up kids.Right, general bitching done. Serious points now. How has this campaigned fallen flat - in my view:

• Don't expect your campaign to fly in 2 seconds, and when it doesn't, throw your rules out the window and just start throwing around prizes - it makes you look like a joke.
• If you are going to start in one place and ask your entrants to move to a new site, GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER and think about the information you need to know. When I was filling out the form on Super Liquor site I thought to myself, "hmm, I wonder why they are not asking for my Twitter user name?? How are they going to know who I am?" I am not so bad as I have my real name loaded against my account, but what about those who don't?
  
• Get your turkeys (I mean ducks) in a row before you commence a promotion. I know you're all excited about the wonderful world of Twitter but secure your prizes before hitting the market. This is just poor organisation.
• When you work out that there is an issue with supply prizes, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS NOT CHRISTMAS (I'm not a Christmassy person) don't continue to give away things you don't have. Fail. Fail. Fail. Having been kept waiting, I thought, I wonder if they have said something in their Twitter feed and halted the promotion until whatever it is gets sorted? Nope. Still promising the world and delivering nothing.
• If you are going to keep a winner (this goes for customers too kids) waiting, keep them informed as to why. Don't, for any reason, let it get to the point where they are hunting you down for answers. Like I said before, on the whole people are reasonable. If you tell them what the issue is, they are much less likely to bitch about you in a public forum.
• If people start bitching about you in a public forum, RESPOND. Seriously, if you are in the space, why aren't you monitoring what people are saying about you? Be a part of the conversation, not the focus of it.
• Finally, if this has been a database building exercise, I would recommend not using said database in the near future, especially to those who you have kept waiting. They will not be happy about that at all (read: me)

As a tangent, I had an interesting conversation with someone who runs a restaurant a few months back about Twitter. I suggested that it would be a good place for them to be, however they were hesitant as they didn't want to have to give away free stuff. That was how they saw Twitter, as a mechanism for businesses to 'win' friends by giving things away for free. I just don't believe this to be true.

In my view, the really wonderful thing about Twitter is that it gives you the opportunity to engage with businesses on a level that you generally wouldn't. That of course depends completely on who is running the account, however there are a number of businesses who give nothing away, but I follow them because I am interested in the company/brand and what they have to say.

Super Liquor, if I were you, I would have come into the Twittersphere a few months back, put your toes in the water and started a few conversations. By jumping straight in, sure you've made a splash, but perhaps its a little colder than you anticipated?

Right, slight edit... I just found this:

Now, I don't meant to sound like a bitch, but seriously, who do you think is on their Twitter feed at 6.34pm on a Friday night this close to Christmas? Seriously. While I am glad that they have, finally, said something, in my opinion they have not timed it well, and they are still asking their 'winners'/potential customers/customers to look for this information. It shouldn't (if they are organised) take too long to @ reply those who have been waiting some time for their vouchers.

Will be interested to see if/when this voucher turns up...