Handling social media crises

When problems happen and customers take to social media to vent their frustration, it may lead to a social media crisis like the one faced by United or Comcast. So, it is important to detect problems quickly, and act effectively. I recently published a paper, co-authored with Finola Kerrigan, Dirk vom Lehn, Cagri Yalkin, Marc Braun … Continue reading Handling social media crises

October 2015 round up

October was busy. Very busy. This included a lot of firefighting, which I tend to find very draining. My #5pm pictures show that I spent a lot of time at my desk. But, unfortunately, only a minority of that time was spent on writing or, for that matter, on anything remotely related to research. Instead, my month … Continue reading October 2015 round up

Spotted elsewhere: interview with co-founder of Instagram

What? A short interview with Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram, by BBC's Steph McGovern. Where? Spotted on the BBC website. So what? It is a short interview, but Steph McGovern and Kevin Systrom cover quite a bit of ground such as longevity on social media, Instagram's rivals, kids spending too much time on … Continue reading Spotted elsewhere: interview with co-founder of Instagram

September 2015 round up

A few days ago, my line manager asked me if the start of the semester had felt like a great shock, following the sabbatical. That got me thinking about how different things are now and six months ago, and how I feel about it. Six months ago I was doing things (reading, writing, meeting, discussing…) … Continue reading September 2015 round up

Coca-Cola: When it comes to customer feedback, negative is more valuable than positive

As I am putting together some notes on the role of Twitter to study sentiment, I come across an interview with Coca-Cola's head of creative content for Asia-Pacific, Pratik Thakar, here. At one point, Thakar says the following about social media as a source of consumer insight: I believe that social media is a big … Continue reading Coca-Cola: When it comes to customer feedback, negative is more valuable than positive

Unpacking perceived risk in the purchase of services

I am preparing some notes for a Services Marketing module, and thought that I would share this extract with you. Services are mostly composed of intangible elements, which makes it very difficult for a customer to assess the quality of the service before purchasing it (and, sometimes, even afterwards as in the case of credence … Continue reading Unpacking perceived risk in the purchase of services

Day in the Life of an academic #3: welcoming new students

The sabbatical is well and truly over, and the days of focusing on research are just a distant (but cherished) memory. I am now deep into the new semester, busy welcoming the new students (in my role as programme leader for the MSc Marketing), class preparation for the new semester, and dissertation supervision (for students … Continue reading Day in the Life of an academic #3: welcoming new students