Those that know me, or have heard me talk about my traveling adventures over the past decade know that I favour Air Canada for most of my flying, and although I have not flown WestJet except for one trip about 9 years ago if memory serves me correct, I don't really have anything against the airline specifically. Air Canada just has better schedule options for where I travel, and I have come to enjoy the benefits I get as being an Elite level Aeroplan member.
In fact I want WestJet and other airlines to thrive in order to create more competition, so that in the long run, Canadian travelers have cost-effective and convenient, safe travel options.
I started to follow WestJet on twitter only about a week ago, and was interested to learn about how they were going to be using social networking to advance their business, as Air Canada does not have any staff providing customer service or specials via twitter as of yet. For the record, I follow United Airlines, Starwood Preferred Guest, and numerous other travel industry related entities and it is interesting that they are all using Twitter a little bit differently, and some I might say more effectively than others. It turns out, WestJet is holding a contest via twitter this week, where they are awarding free flights in Canada to one of their followers on twitter between June 28th and July 2nd.
As a non-customer of WestJet, I think this is a great opportunity to reward their loyal customers and also to attract new ones who otherwise would be unlikely to try their offering any time soon. I fall into this latter category. Unless there was some extremely compelling reason to switch my business from Air Canada, I just don't see myself doing it.
That being said, what brought this Blog post about was a post to twitter and a subsequent exchange I had with the WestJet twitter voice. I am picking on WestJet for this specific example, but it is more an observation about how traditional companies are flocking to social networking and media sites and services, and don't have a firm understanding of the intricacies and nuances that exist in this great new world of technology.
The following are some posts which WestJet made via twitter today...
Time for the first WestJet Tweet Deals contest. Details at http://ow.ly/fXf8 for a chance to WIN #FREE flights #wjcontest #contest
Almost forgot; TODAY ONLY use TWEET1 as a promo code to save 15% off any flight traveled before Oct 7.
Reminder for Tweet Deals #contest ensure that your location is set in your profile for eligibility.Details at http://ow.ly/fXf8 #wjcontest
And it was this last tweet that surprised me, and led me to their website to read the terms and conditions of the contest. There wasn't anything non-typical about the wording of the contest details that differed very much than a typical off-line contest, however the part about having your location set in your twitter profile was a little strange for a couple of reasons.
To be eligible Entrant must within your Twitter profile, have a valid location at the time of “following”.
First of all, the location in your twitter profile can be set by you in your twitter settings, so I for example when I originally signed up, would have entered "Winnipeg, MB" into that field. Some people however enter more witty info to better reflect their personality or situation... I have seen things like "behind a pile of paperwork", the name of their company, or something a little more obscure, like your geographic coordinates. This last example, is what I had in my profile when I checked after reading the terms of the WestJet contest. It was listed on the twitter site as Location: 49.886551,-97.148575
If you search that in Google, you will see a map with the pinpoint right in the middle of downtown Winnipeg... So yes that location was accurate, but would it be OK for the WestJet contest? Who's to know.
And last week, my location was showing as at the Westin Beach Resort in Fort Lauderdale Florida, a place where I had not been since the beginning of May.
How does this happen? Where do these locations come from? In order to understand this, one has to have a grasp of how social networking services work, and how people use them.
Facebook for instance is a walled garden. Most people visit the facebook site or use an official facebook application on their iPhone to post updates to their profile. Twitter on the other hand, makes extensive use of the way it was designed, so that you dont necessarily have to be on the twitter site to update your status, or keep up with the people you follow. That is one of the reasons it has been so successful, people are interacting with twitter wherever they are. From their computer, but also form their phone, and other web services. Take a look at twitter and you will see that following a post is a footnote such as "from web", "from tweetie", "from brightkite". You will probably find that a vast majority of the posts are not sent from the twitter.com website, but from an outside website or application.
And this is what WestJet doesn't understand about the terms they wrote into their contest. Other websites or applications I use, that feed content into my twitter account, also update my status as well as my location. Something was disconnected last week when I was listed as still being in Fort Lauderdale FL, however much I dream I am there throughout the day. Sites like BrightKite which are location based social networking tools rely on updating this info in twitter to take full advantage of their service. All of the twitter applications I have used on my iPhone such as Tweetie and Tweetdeck also interface with the iPhone's GPS to provide near exact location based context to my tweets.
So what did I do about this? I dropped WestJet a tweet letting them know that their assumption to use your twitter profile location for determining residency was flawed.
@WestJet silly that the twitter location field is required for your contest... Twitter apps update this field with geolocation info !
@WestJet Although I hope I win, It bugs me when companie exploit social media and don't understand the nuances of the technology!
To which WestJet replied in a direct message...
thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately not all apps update geo location & because of Canadian law we need to ask for it.
Although missing my point, WestJet was saying that the requirement was in place because Canadian Law requires it. Although I am not a lawyer specializing in games of chance, contests or sweepstakes, or a lawyer of any other kind for that matter, I am not sure that there exists a Canadian Law of any kind which regulates this. It is more likely a provincial matter, as lottery licenses are issued by provinces, and Quebec's strict sweepstakes laws are what prevent Quebecois from entering most contests. And I am not sure that residency has to be determined at time of entry, or just at time of redemption.
Think of roll-up-the-rim-to-win at Tim Hortons for example. When I drive through, I am handed a cup with a chance to win, I don't have to prove residency when I place my order, but if I try and claim the grand prize, I am sure I would have to do so. The skill testing question that WestJet requires to be answered is not administered upon entry, but at some later date of their choosing, so I would find it hard to believe that residency would have to be determined at the time of entry.
So I sent back the following to WestJet...
@WestJet No you are missing my point... if I post a tweet while visiting LA on my iPhone using a native app, it will change my location
@Westjet eventhough I am a Cdn Czn, under your contest rules I would be ineligable... CDN law does not require you to collect lctn to enter
I have not received back a response yet after nearly 5 hours, and likely won't but I think my point is this... If you are going to try and use social networks and social media to advance your business' goals, make sure the people devising your campaigns or at least administering them have a firm grasp on the technologies involved, and how all of the ways which the services you are employing are used, so that your CUSTOMERS, the ones you are trying to market to, are not left feeling ripped off or taken advantage of.
The terms state that when I first follow WestJet, my location had to be set. Although implied, it does not state that the location had to be set to a locale which is eligible for the contest. Mine was probably listed as Fort Lauderdale last week when I followed WestJet, even though I was physically located behind a pile of paper, at my desk, in my basement, of my home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Does that mean that my name is not in the draw, or does that mean if my name is chosen I could not win? I think if anything WestJet is opening themselves up to more legal trouble by trying to use the location field in my twitter profile to try and determine my residency than if they hadn't included that in the first place. If I were to find out that my entry was excluded because of my location listed last week, I would be upset. If I were to find out my name was drawn and my then my entry excluded because of my location setting, I would be livid. But rest easy WestJet, there really is no way for me to know is there?
Oh and by the way... Seeing as you fly to Fort Lauderdale and I long to go back, wouldn't I really be a potential customer of yours? Oh and I have two daughters who talk all the time about going to Disney World for vacation... and you fly to Orlando too. And I really have fond memories of vacations in Mexico, which I hear you are expanding greatly to this year. And my travel in Canada is mostly to Toronto and Ottawa, which I think you also serve from Winnipeg... Hmmm get that frequent flyer program up and running, and I might be your target customer after all!
WestJet
mikeecho (not verified) on Tue, 06/30/2009 - 23:24I'm lost here...
You profess you have no legal expertise and then you go on to give a company with a legal department some legal advice regarding their legal requirements?
Rather than blog on it, how about doing some research first? Maybe talk to a lawyer to get an informed opinion first.
Or, you could jusy blog about something you admittedly know nothing about.
Legal Advice
Darren Mak on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 11:26Your right... I do not claim to have any legal expertise, however I do have technology experience, and have a rough knowledge of the difference between Provincial and Federal jurisdiction.
Also, for the record, I have done research. This blog post was intended to relay an experience and to detail the flaws in a marketing plan which although a very good idea, was not executed correctly in my opinion. And as the title of this blog exhibits, these blog posts are solely based on my opinion, and my thoughts on various topics.
Maybe I will have to re-read over the blog post to see if my intended message was apparent, but just in case it wasn't, let me summarize.
1. People (not just at WestJet) are very quick to say something is against the law, or they are legally required to do so. They also are quite often incorrect when they state that something is mandated by Federal Law. I was just pointing out, that is not often the case in reality.
2. The main focus of the blog post is that companies are using New Media and Social Networking on a more and more frequent basis, but the implementations are often from a marketing department, and not a technology department. If you are going to use technology to promote your product or service, make sure you have a clear grasp of the technology before you try and shoe-horn it into a marketing exercise.
3. And my final point was indeed advice for the WestJet legal team. By using a location field that doesn't in any way reflect residency, in my opinion they could be disenfranchising people who legally entered the contest but because of a poor understanding of the Technology, WestJet may have excluded their entry in the contest or disqualified them if they one. Whether I am right or wrong in this is not important, it is merely a heads up that they should investigate fully the technologies they use going forward, in my opinion.
Bottom line is companies have to be careful about how they use these emerging technologies, both for their own protection, but also so that customers which they are trying to attract and retain. If your customers get upset about a promotion which is not administered correctly, are you as a company reaching your intended goals?
I think not.
Thanks for your comment, and I think this blog post has reached it's goal. To create a discussion about how companies are using technology, and to make sure they understand what they are getting in to.
Contests Don't Work
Bill (not verified) on Fri, 10/02/2009 - 09:46I have been involved in contests designed to generate new customers. My experience has shown that people will participate in the contest for the prospect of getting something for free, but they won't alter their buying habits.
Brand Awareness
Darren Mak on Wed, 11/11/2009 - 15:05Perhaps contests don't directly result in sales, or new customers, but hte brand awareness, and viral attention that can result is unmistakable. Like any good marketing plan, you should have measurable results you are looking for, and compare the campaign to these expected results during and after the campaign. Using this info for further marketing, or for the next campaign is very important.
You need to learn from your successes and failures!
holier than thou'
phil (not verified) on Wed, 03/03/2010 - 17:21I love how all you 30 something social media guru/lovers/addicts/cliques/specialist are so quick to jump at the throat of anyone who don't know 110% of you sekrit magical social media code.
OMG why do I got to put location ... Westjet is soooo dumb they don't know all the useless info I've accumulated that only has one purpose, to whine on blogs about how much more I know than anyone.
So you plit a hair into 1 million pieces and found a split end. How powerful you are.
Is this what social media has become ... a Mad Max Uber Geek Wasteland Of Memes And Sekrit Codes For Those Who Yell Out Loud "Geek Is The New Cool"?
Look at my laniard I'm supposed to be here ... I'm bonified. You suck.
Phil... You are missing the point!
Darren Mak on Thu, 03/04/2010 - 21:58Thanks for thinking I suck Phil... and thanks for spending time reading my blog. No, I don't profess to know everything about Social Media, nor am I a marketing genius, but as someone whose business is based on marketing, the web, and social media, I think I am rightly qualified to comment on my own blog about how before one launches a marketing campaign, one should familiarize themselves with the technology they plan to use!
In fact I support Westjet and their Social Marketing efforts! They are really taking the bull by the horns, and using it to their advantage. What blows my mind, and was the whole point of my post, is that multi-million dollar companies jump head first into technology sometimes, without having someone take a look at their implementation for egregious errors who is qualified to do!
I give Westjet an A+ for effort, and a D- for implementation!
And if you had read all of my post, you would have seen that I was trying to help them solve their problem, and see the error that they made. That was what my observations were about.
And by the way... I just love anonymous posters who flame... classy Phil!
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