Rajon Rando: Using Social Media to give back

While most athletes and celebrities use social media simply to be heard, some use it to help give back to their communities and promote worthwhile causes. Rajon Rondo, the starting point guard of the Boston Celtics, springs to mind as a player who attempts to use social media to promote a good cause.

Hertz: Its Social Media Sentiment

Hertz rental car prides itself on its superior customer support and loyalty programs. Lately the company has been branching out and trying to court a younger demographic of drivers who have been using Zipcars. I spent the last week monitoring the online mentions of Hertz and the sentiment of these mentions.

The vast majority of Hertz mentions occurs via Twitter. While the company has a decent Facebook following (35,000) its followers don't post much on the Hertz wall (other than to respond to Hertz postings and questions). Twitter on the other hand yields a handful of mentions per hour.

Some of these mentions are extremely negative. For example, there is a website called Hertz Hate that collects and posts all the negative mentions about the Hertz brand from consumers. Are there thousands of mentions on this page? No, but there might be enough to make someone consider using a different rental car provider.

Many of the negative tweets were from frustrated customers who were upset about time spent waiting for cars, being overcharged, or given a crappy rental car. Some of these customers took their frustration to the blogosphere. One such customer posted a blog titled "In which Hertz pisses me off." While it is difficult to quantify the exact reach of this blog, it was still retweeted six times and had 39 comments.

Job postings for Hertz are also posted via discussion boards and twitter feeds, as are rental deals. Hertz recently launched Hertz on Demand, a low rate hourly rental service to compete with Zipcars. The sentiment for this new offering is mixed. Some users have complained that Hertz on Demand is not environmentally friendly (like Zipcar) and that the page on the website needs to be updated. Some though have praised it as a nice alternative to taking a taxi.


Interestingly enough Hertz is quick to point out that it doesn't intend to use its social media pages for customer support. Instead Hertz encourages customers to call its customer support line or go to its website. The company will occasionally respond to complaints on social media sites, but it doesn't seem to do a good job. Jameson Boyce complained about Hertz charging him an extra $200 on top of the quoted price. Hertz reached out and asked Boyce to follow the company so it could send him a direct message and resolve the problem. Boyce did follow but Hertz never reached out, leading Boyce to post the following tweet.

It's possible Hertz might not have responded to Jameson because it was the weekend and its social media team was off. But even so, this is extremely poor customer service and will only serve to alienate Jameson and his followers more. As of Tuesday, a full five days after Hertz said it would reach out to Jameson, Hertz still hasn't contacted him. Jameson has vowed never to use Hertz again. This is a great example of a company failing to use Twitter for customer support. If they have done one thing by not responding to Jameson and other customers it's this: they've energized them in a way that could have negative consequences towards the reputation of the brand.

The overall sentiment of the brand appears to be neutral but its tilted toward negative. I found more negative posts than I did positive.

Epocrates: The Must-Have Tool for Nurses.

Nurses rely on technology more than ever.

My girlfriend Laurette is a nursing student at NYU. One of the things that she never expected to do when tending to a patient was to check her smartphone. But that's exactly what NYU wants her to do at her off-campus clinical. In fact, the school goes so far as to require that all nursing students own a smartphone. The main reason for this is because of a program called Epocrates that people in the medical field use. Epocrates is a free medical software with features for drug interaction, drug prices, dosing, diseases, and a medical dictionary. You can download the Epocrates app on any smartphone.

I asked Laurette a couple questions about her experience with Epocrates.

What are your thoughts on Epocrates?
"It's a great iPhone app. You just type in whatever medicine you want to look up and it tells you what it is, what the side effects are, gives you a picture of it, what drugs you can't give it with it. So that's really good."

Do you use this in class?

"Occasionaly, but mainly while we're in the hospital, while we're in our clinical we need to have access to this application"

Give me a specific example of when you would use Epocrates?

"Whenever we give medicine we have to look up what the medicine is and what all the side effects are before we give it to a patient.I don't know what a lot of these medicines are off the top of my head. I can look up the side effects and tell the patient to watch out for them. If you're not sure what the medicine looks like Epocrates has a picture of it. Most importantly, I can use Epocrates to help me give the right dosage amounts. Obviously if I were to give the wrong amount of medicine the patient could die. It's a very helpful resource to have."

Do you think you would still be able to do most of your clinical activities without Epocrates?

"Probably not. I'd definitely be a lot more nervous about giving medicines to patients. My biggest fear is giving the wrong dosage. I could still use a calculator on my smartphone though to help."

So you really are dependent on technology to help you do your job?
"Yes I am. Less mistakes would happen in the medical field if people took the time to use these tools."

Do you know of any registered nurses that use Epocrates?

"I've seen nurses and doctors use it. It gives you the most up to date information about medicines and new medical procedures. It's a great reference for all people in the medical field. The version on your phone is free but I believe they sell more advanced products that hospitals and individuals can purchase."

Thank you for your time. Now please wash the dishes in the sink.

More and more nurses are depending on Epocrates.

Sports PR: Managing the Players on Social Media

As mentioned before, social media has allowed sports players to connect with fans all over the globe. For the most part this is a great thing for a sports PR staff as they're no longer dependent on the media to get their message out. Now they can collaborate with the players and have them tweet information directly to their followers. Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals is a good example of a player who is clearly working under the direction of a team PR staff. When he tweets it's usually to remind fans that a game is coming up or that he will be making a local TV appearance.  He is tops among all NHL players with over 170,000 followers. He rarely speaks of anything but hockey and the Capitals.

If Ovi is a sports PR staff's dream then Paul Bissonnette is a nightmare.

Obama Twitter Townhall: Bring on the Sports Questions

The Twitter Townhall capitalized on what Obama does so well: he makes people feel important. He gave ordinary citizens (and the Speaker of the House), the opportunity to be heard by the President of the United States in front of a national audience. It was a win for Obama, and more importantly a win for social media.

This is how we interact with the President in 2011.

Derek Jeter: DJ3K misses the Big Picture

Laughing all the way to the bank.

Much has been made about Derek Jeter's decision not to attend last night's MLB All Star game. Some have criticized him for his absence, while others, most notably commissioner Bud Selig, have come to his defense.

Jeter's excuse for not making the trip out to Arizona was exhaustion from his chase for 3,000 hits. Is it fishy that this suppossed exhaustion comes after being on the DL for nearly two weeks? A little bit. But maybe Jeter's quest for 3,000 hits did get the better of him.

He was certainly, for the first time in his career, active on social media.

Social Media: Disrupting or Enhancing Sports PR?

The question was asked, is social media disrupting sports PR and communication practices?

To which I loudly say no! It’s enhancing sports PR by putting control into the hands of the players; allowing them to use social media to build a relationship directly with the fans. Athletes can hold twitter chats, wish a fan a happy birthday, and create content for the masses to consume. They are no longer dependent on their team’s public relations staff or the staff of the sports league to build a relationship with fans.