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It is very difficult for any company to manage its staff, reputation, social media, and so on. However, when you are as large as Paypal, it is extremely important to get it right. Or you risk the wrath of a worldwide community. As has happened in the last 24 hours.
Social media can be used as a force for good, as Twitter’s Stories of 2011 clearly shows. 
However, there are times when it can all just seem to go wrong for business. This time it is Paypal, who have got entangled in a story rapidly going viral involving Regretsy, who took donations via a Paypal Donate button to buy gifts for under-privileged children for Christmas.
As you can see from the post below, someone at Customer Services in Paypal decided that the Donate button was inappropriate. At that point, everything began to unravel.
The results? It is too soon to tell but it could irreparably damage the brand that is Paypal for some users.
The Regretsy side of the tale. As yet, Paypal have failed to delete the ever-growing number of comments on the Facebook page, nor post an apology on Twitter (which you would think would be the first step in damage limitation and reputation management).
UPDATE: Paypal has issued a statement, apologised, and made a donation
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As you know, we have been trying to buy Christmas presents for kids in the Regretsy community.
We took many applications, vetted them carefully and set about creating a giant gift exchange program, where you could buy a gift for the over 200 children we’re helping.
We raised so much money that we found ourselves in a position of not just being able to send toys, but to send a monetary gift to the families as well. We hoped it might help them make their holiday dinners more special, or maybe pay a pressing bill.
PAYPAL SHUT IT DOWN
Apparently we made the mistake of using the “Donate” button, which Paypal is now claiming is only for nonprofit organizations to use. They froze the account, which also includes Zazzle money that we use to make emergency gifts. That money isn’t in issue, but what the hell! Might as well keep everything!
So last night, I decided to go about this a different way. Since these toys are already purchased, I decided to offer them up for sale on this site, just like any other retailer would. You could buy them according to what you wanted to spend, and we would send them on to the recipient of your gift, just like any other retailer.
PAYPAL SHUT IT DOWN
After a very long and jaw-dropping conversation with an incredibly condescending representative, they have decided that I must refund all the donations and purchases that have not been processed. If you don’t get a refund, it’s because we got your money before they got smart and kept us from helping children at Christmas, which is really the best move any corporation can make.
Here are a few highlights from our conversation:
YOU CAN ONLY HELP CATS
PAYPAL: Only a nonprofit can use the Donate button.
ME: That’s false. It says right in the PDF of instructions for the Donate button that it can be used for “worthy causes.”
PAYPAL: I haven’t seen that PDF. And what you’re doing is not a worthy cause, it’s charity.
ME: What’s the difference?
PAYPAL: You can use the donate button to raise money for a sick cat, but not poor people.
YOU HAVE TO START A NEW WEBSITE
ME: The problem is I’ve already bought all of these toys, so now I’m really in a position like any other merchant – which is to say, I have inventory I need to sell. Why can’t I sell them as gifts, like any other retailer?
PAYPAL: Don’t you think it would look suspicious if the same people bought them again?
ME: Why? These are my customers!
PAYPAL: If you wanted to do that, you’d have to start a new website.
ME: What? Why would I start a new website?
PAYPAL: I’m not going to argue with you.
WE WILL TRACK YOUR SHIPMENTS
PAYPAL: The only way you’d be allowed to sell these as gifts is if you sent them directly to the person who bought them. And we will track your shipments and make sure it goes to the buyer.
ME: That’s discriminatory! You don’t make other retailers send purchases to the buyer only, especially not at Christmas.
PAYPAL: No one but a nonprofit would send gifts to someone else on buyer’s behalf.
ME: What about Amazon?
PAYPAL: We know what you’re doing and we’re through playing games with you.
YOU’LL NEVER GET AWAY WITH THIS
PAYPAL: You say you’re selling these as gifts but there is no information as to what the gift is.
ME: People sell mystery gifts and grab bags all the time. What about sites where they say, let us choose for you?”
PAYPAL: It doesn’t say that on your site.
ME: Is that the problem? If I say it’s a mystery gift would that be sufficient?
PAYPAL: You aren’t going to be able to get around this. It’s too late, we know what you’re trying to do and we’re not going to let you do it.
ME: But there are hundreds of toys! Do you think it’s reasonable to create a drop down menu for hundreds of gifts, all of them different, and create an inventory for each as “one?” So that every time one sells, it’s sold out, and the customer has to keep choosng options and going through check out to see if they can find a gift that’s still available?
PAYPAL: Yes, I think it’s reasonable.
Then my brain exploded.
At this point, I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told that “No one above me will talk to you. No one at my level ever makes phone calls. We’re only doing this to help you.”
When I asked how to close my account, he said I had to “refund everything, write a letter saying you understood what you did WAS WRONG AND YOU WILL NEVER DO IT AGAIN, and then request permission to close your account.”
Then, for good measure, they froze my personal account, which has revenue from my book sales, e-books and all the other Finnish Folktales Swag. They’ll be holding that money for 6 months.
So to recap:
$ They allowed me to use a donate button, and got a portion of the donations
$ Then made me return the donations, and kept a portion of the fees on the donations
$ They allowed me to use a Buy Now button to sell gifts individually, and got a portion of those sales
$ Then made me return the sales, and kept a portion of the fees on the sales
$ They processed the toy purchases, and made fees on that
They have made a fortune for not doing anything but making me manually return thousands of $2 sales and contributions.
I have been able to guarantee purchase and shipment of the toys, so that part is happening, as are the letters from Santa (most have already been delivered).
However, I am very sorry to say that at this point, I am not able to make a monetary gift to the families. They have frozen everything that was not already spent or donated, and I have no more funds to make a gift of that size.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Retail sales are already down 1.6% and high street stores are slashing their prices with the Boxing Day sales starting 21 days early. So, as a company looking to cash in on this seasonal spree, what do you need to be doing *today*?
BBC News had an interesting piece with a shopper this morning, who said she was doing plenty of window shopping and then going home to check out the prices online for the items she wished to buy as Christmas presents.
“The deals are online. You can tell your friends about them, shout about them.”
This highlights in itself a human trait: people love to boast about a bargain, and social networks have made this very simple.
So, firstly, give your web presence a once over and make sure that the items you most want to sell during the coming 3 weeks are easy to find – on your site, on your Facebook page, on Twitter, and on the search engines. You will struggle to change your search engine rankings in this short time period (Note to self: start preparing the website for the Christmas season in July/August) but there are plenty of quick ways to promote your site that will get instant exposure using social media and alternative methods such as optimised photos and video, which are often listed more quickly by the search engines.
Next, check your backend systems. If you promote items, will you be able to ship and deliver in time? Are these items already in stock? A failure to deliver on time, which could be hampered by unforeseen circumstances such as this week’s snow, will have long reaching consequences for your brand and reputation so don’t raise expectations. Be realistic in your promises to customers about delivery time. If the item is likely to be late, issue a beautiful gift card or voucher, along with expected delivery date, so that the recipient can be given that on the day. Don’t lose the sale – it is simple touches like this that will make the purchase decisions easy for the customer.
Next, work on your social media presence. Build up your following by offering your existing friends and followers special deals to ’shout’ about to their friends. And put someone in charge of your Twitter and Facebook accounts for the next week at least to get people engaged and talking to you.
You need to get a dialogue going and not just people with large numbers of followers. You cannot know what people do offline. We all know plenty of people who don’t tweet but who know people who do, and that chance conversation about, “Oh, I saw one of those on twitter today. Company XYZ have an offer on,” could win you that all important sale. And every sale matters, as does the customer service backing it.
So, man your phones and email account with the friendliest, nicest, most patient staff you have. Christmas is a stressful time for everyone, and a cheery voice and a 
in an email will go a long way towards buying you long-term evangelists of your brand and products.
What other ideas are you putting into practice this holiday season to increase the chances of a sale? Share them with our readers, especially easy to implement ones that may make that little bit of difference in these hard times that are upon us.
And we are all consumers, so what would you like companies to be doing? What will make you part with your hard-earned cash?
Mobile Commerce
Google Wallet, a tap and pay mechanism for smartphones, has been in testing for a while but rumours are circulating on Twitter that the official launch date may be September 19th.
At present, Google Wallet only works on the Nexus Android smartphone which is only available in the USA, but if Google wish to corner the pay-by-phone mobile commerce market, then it is likely that it will soon be available across more Android models. Mastercard are involved in the Google Wallet project and so the endeavour is likely to seek global adoption.
What does this mean for businesses? If you have been focusing more on social media than what is happening with mobile marketing, it may be time to begin to look at the opportunities which mobile marketing presents, and more importantly, what is up and coming with M-Commerce.
Whilst many retail locations have got in on the Foursquare and Gowalla geolocation marketing, there is still a level of trepidation and uncertainty surrounding more direct mobile marketing. Obviously, the major concern is that it could be all too easy to slip up and be accused of spamming mobile users and/or targeting the wrong market by not fully understanding the process.
However, understanding mobile marketing is one thing, but grasping how to best engage with your potential customers once you have attracted them to your shop or website is of at least equal importance. Whether it is making it simple to add products to a shopping list using a mobile app barcode scanner, or making it really easy to pay using a smartphone, e.g. by incorporating a Google Wallet type idea into the shopping experience, generating sales has to be on the radar!
Although it will take time for smartphone payment apps and M-Commerce to reach mass market, the probably imminent launch of Google Wallet means that you should start looking at how this will affect your business, and how you can maximise sales potential from mobile marketing and payments by keeping an eye on forthcoming product launches such as Google Wallet and other M-Commerce solutions.
OK, that might be a slightly over-hyped view, and will undoubtedly fall foul of all those female driver jokes, but there is an opinion piece doing the rounds that seems to imply that females are:
a) setting up more new e-commerce and internet companies than men
b) supporting social and internet sites more than men
c) spending more online than men
Missed the Mumsnets in your targeting? Maybe you shouldn’t lose a percentage of your market who have serious spending power….
Not just spending power in the consumer markets, but also in the commercial markets.
There are a growing number of business executives and owners who are women. This is an indisputable fact which is regularly reported.
It is an interesting piece, and undoubtedly, as the world returns to work on Monday, it will be forwarded, shared, taken to pieces, debated and annihilated – depending on gender.
Why not continue that debate in your boardroom, amongst the sales team, ask the receptionists, check your customer info?
My personal point of view is that I know who has to make the calls, ask for directions, deal with online purchases, update the sites/status and answer the tweets…..
The breaking story today in the social world is the development at Etsy which has led to all buyers’ personal details and purchases being able to be searched by anyone. Whatever they have bought, and whenever they bought it.
The theory behind the changes appears to be that people shop based on the recommendations of their ‘circle’ of friends. It’s all about making shopping ’social’, but the debate has to be do you want every purchase you make through a website showing up on Google under your name? Along with your email address, real name and possibly even your Facebook link?
If you ask on Facebook or Twitter which make of washing machine your followers or friends would recommend, that is your choice to reveal that you are planning to buy a washing machine. Or a hand-embroidered pink leotard to wear on your work at home days. Or whatever you plan to buy.
Purchases that you make normally are private unless you CHOOSE to review a product, ask your friends about it, or boast about the great deal you have just managed.
Etsy have just turned that privacy on its head with its PeopleSearch facility, by opting in all registered users to the new search system and opening up the database to the search engine spiders. You can opt out, but a new user should not need to trawl forums and consumer-run Etsy help sites to find out to opt out.
Whether or not this is permissible under strict UK privacy laws about data protection remains to be seen, but it is possible that Etsy may find themselves facing a fairly expensive lawsuit if they don’t rescind this functionality fairly quickly. Rather like Facebook did with Beacon.
Time Warner has announced today that it is introducing a new service which allows users to pay for movie downloads using Facebook Credits.
Each film download will cost 30 FB Credits or $3 and currently the offer is only available to US residents, but undoubtedly this will change as Time Warner see how popular the service is.
Facebook Credits may become a more popular option for purchasing online where the product or brand is a tight fit with Facebook user profiles, or for digital products and apps. However, a percentage of each sale goes to the social networking site so for the majority of businesses, using an e-commerce store within your own domain may be preferable.
Rob Stoubos, SEO Manager at ClickThrough, shares the lowdown on the new Facebook fan page layout changes.
Facebook are looking to roll out a new Fan Page layout which will mean that Fan Pages have a change of layout very similar to that of Facebook Profile pages.
Overall we feel this is a positive change which will mean pages are more streamlined with both Page owners and fans encouraged to interact even more with Fan Pages.
We’re summarised the changes below:
Summary of New Facebook Layout updates:
Summary of New Facebook Page Features:
So, what are our tips for making the most of this new layout?
ClickThrough Marketing Tips for the New Facebook Page Layout:
In this post, Head of Digital Marketing, John Newton, considers emerging trends in the way that the Travel industry is using social media and offers a few predictions along the way.
ClickThrough have recently been asked to share our views on the how social media will change the Travel industry over the next few years. The short answer is that social media will have a profound effect on the online strategy of many industries, which include the Travel market.
However, here are some more specific thoughts:
1) Facebook has set itself the aim of becoming the ‘operating system’ for many consumers, and this aim looks, in some cases, to already have been achieved.
We believe that it’s vital that Travel brands build their Facebook fan pages just as they first did their email database 15 years ago, and that they recognise that the interoperability of Facebook with other platforms (either social, CRM or ecommerce) provides them with the basis of a long term consumer relationship conducted through one major platform. Almost all social media campaigns will have Facebook as a required element.
2) Although the iPhone has made the smartphone popular, Google Android has made it affordable. The adoption of Google Android by many mobile manufacturers means that Android Travel Apps will become a major part of the buzz around Travel destinations.
Location based apps such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Twitter Locations and Facebook Places (see our Location Marketing white paper) enable Travel brands to engage Travellers (either through real or virtual rewards, or other means) in evangelising about their brands and locations.
3) Although when it comes to social media users are congregating around Facebook, there are also emerging Travel-centric social media vertical platforms. Bumped.in, Exploroo, ontheroad, Tripit, ShareTrip, TravellersPoint and Driftr are all social networks dedicated to Travel and Travellers.
These platforms allow consumers to share travel plans, update others whilst in the processing of travelling and even get real-time travel tips from other users in the vicinity. Travel is a ‘big ticket’ consumer item, and like the Automotive sector, consumers are passionate about sharing when things go better (and worse) than expected.
We believe that utilisation of these Travel-specific social media platforms will play a part in the social media plans of some Travel organisations in the next few years.
4) Consumer reviews will continue to play a crucial part in Travel industry purchases. In the PowerReviews ‘Customer Reviews and Online Shopping Habits survey’ this summer, customer reviews were viewed by 70% of people as having the highest impact on buying behaviour, closely followed by community forums, Facebook wall posts and User Videos.
We believe that finding ways to leverage true grassroots consumer opinion, and leveraging this to business gain, is going to be a major ambition for many Travel companies over the next few years.
5) Some Travel companies may decide to move away from the ‘superbrand’ as a focal point, and instead move towards developing bespoke social content for individual locations and hotels including more blogs for individual properties. Travellers and long term residents may well want to become part of this movement.
6) Consumers like the way that they can access their entire social circle so easily through social media platforms, and this has an implication for Travel retailers, and other brands too. Some consumers are already rejecting email and forms as a means of contacting customer services teams, and are instead choosing to take their business elsewhere.
Tools such as getsatisfaction have helped consumers get the answers they need quickly, but some consumers will expect to be able to use the social tools that they are already using on a daily basis.
Travel companies should expect consumers to use DM (direct messages) on Twitter (e.g. @HyattConcierge on Twitter) and Private Messages on corporate Facebook accounts more frequently to handle booking related issues, and be prepared to train their staff to be able to use these tools.
7) The economy continues to bite on both sides of the Atlantic. Consumers will continue to look for travel bargains, and especially late deals.
Companies that are able to offer same-day Hotel and Travel deals (in conjunction with their revenue/yield Management teams) for unoccupied rooms, leveraging the ability that social media provides for brands to obtain high search engine rankings for short periods of time for specific phrases, will be able to capture more last minute trade.
This is a big ask for the industry, but realising the potential of this hyper-late micro market will help to squeeze every last drop of revenue out of Travel inventories.
In the UK, the discussion about net neutrality continues, but now it is becoming more obvious what the impact of non-net neutrality could have on businesses.
The main argument for net neutrality is that users should be allowed to view whatever content they choose, and Internet Service Providers should not be allowed to ‘prioritise’ traffic to certain sites, particularly if they are doing so to improve their own business case or revenue streams.
This week, at a debate on Net Neutrality at Westminster eForum, two of the big ISPs (BT and TalkTalk) admitted that they would prioritise traffic for a specific company if paid to do so.
Traffic shaping is an essential part of running a network, especially when peer-to-peer traffic can swamp your network resources if permitted to run unchecked. However, this admission that ISPs would have no problems with prioritising access to one company’s website or content over another’s should begin to ring alarm bells for businesses.
There is a big difference between prioritising ALL voice traffic over all peer to peer traffic at busy times, versus prioritising BT VoIP over Skype (as an example). Let’s take this further.
There are certain highly competitive sectors online, e.g. financial (mortgages, loans, banking). Imagine if you are one of the competitors for that sector, spending considerable sums on PPC and online marketing. No matter what you do, your traffic stats begin to show a decline in visitor numbers; not because your campaign isn’t working, but because one of your competitors has paid a major ISP to prioritise their traffic over yours, and everyone else in the sector.
The Internet has never been a level playing field per se, but this additional level of “Money talks” could distort that level playing field considerably. It could have an adverse effect on the many smaller companies who have come to rely on the Internet giving them the opportunities to compete with the big boys. It also means that you could lose a percentage of your present and future clientele just because they are with the ‘wrong’ ISP. And your potential customers may never know what they are missing, because traffic shaping and non Net neutrality is invisible to the end user, although its effects can clearly be felt.
Whilst monetising networks is essential for investment in the future infrastructure which will be required to ensure the next generation of applications and services can be delivered, enhancing revenue streams by deciding what your customers ‘want’ has to be considered as a backward step.
For an Internet marketing agency, this is a worrying development, meaning new strategies will need to be developed to overcome this. And if you are a business, and have ignored the Net neutrality debate in the UK and EU to date, perhaps it is time to sit up and take more notice of the potential consequences of allowing this practice to continue development unchecked?
The recent exposure and publication of the emails of a law firm showed how easily confidential information can be posted on the Net. However, a more troubling problem is the proximity of any web user to malware, or malicious software or content, even through seemingly trustable websites and businesses.
A recent report by Websense shows that on average any user is just two clicks away from malware. From a business point of view, the last thing you want to do is be seen to be responsible for infecting your potential customer’s computers, however unknowingly that may have occurred. From an internet marketing agency point of view, particularly when finding backlinks, or banner sharing etc, it is vital that you do not unwittingly expose your clients to such dangers by linking to sites in bad neighbourhoods.
Interestingly, one of the points of entry to such sites is through trending topics, rather than through more obvious routes such as sexual content. This is not to say that adult and gaming sites do not pose a critical risk, but breaking news or top topics, such as “World Cup 2010″ earlier this summer, showed 25% of the search results were “poisoned”. Other trending news items have been even higher.
Users of the top 1000 websites were rarely more than 2 clicks aware from malware, as well as 70% of the top news sites and forums, and 50% of the social networking sites. Whilst needing to secure your business by educating your employees who are using the Net, it is also wise to use a competent internet marketing agency who will not expose you to such risks through their marketing activities.
