Murmurs on social media can have a loud impact

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Murmurs on social media can have a loud impact
ASINA PORNWASIN
THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- SOCIAL MEDIA users in Thailand are usually very active on special occasions and festivals. Over the past week, timelines were flooded with messages marking Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year - most in hues of red.

However, many timelines turned green Thursday, when users began talking about Kasikornthai (KBank)'s newly designed website.

KBank is recognised as one of the strongest brands online, and it even has a dedicated team, under the username "KBank Live", to interact with users over social media.

The noise over the design became even louder on technology blog Blognone.com, which invited people to offer "creative" comments. Social media users immediately flooded the blog with responses, and by the evening, KBank had replaced the new design with the old one.

This is not the first time that comments on social media have forced changes to be implemented.

A social media expert told The Nation that online feedback can be felt almost immediately, and KBank |was very wise in promptly rolling back its newly designed site.

Feedback important

"It might have made a slight impact on the online experience, and if it is seen as a crisis, it might also have had a slight impact on corporate image, without damaging people's confidence.

"In this case, it was just feedback from a group in the IT field - it had not gone viral - so it cannot be classified as a crisis as such," the social-media expert said.

He explained that launching a newly designed website is similar to launching a new advertisement on television - it gets both good and bad feedback.

However, companies should monitor changes and ensure they don't hit a crisis point.

They should keep an eye out and see if the impact is to their corporate image or if it affects customer satisfaction, or if it is just a topic of discussion.

In KBank's case, it was all about "action and reaction", he said.

"An easy way to identify a crisis is to see how big the damage will be, whether it will destroy the business," he said.

He added that "loud" comments from people on social media do not necessarily have to translate to crisis.

Recently, KBank received the ISO 27001:2013 certificate for information safety management from the United Kingdom Accreditation Service.

The certification recognises KBank's world-class information safety management in its three major digital banking businesses, namely K-Mobile Banking PLUS, K-Cyber Banking and K-Payment Gateway, thereby ensuring customers can safely conduct financial transactions round the |clock.

KBank is the first Thai financial institution to receive such a certificate.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Murmurs-on-social-media-can-have-a-loud-impact-30254574.html

-- The Nation 2015-02-21

[Thailand]

Amazing that the Nation has to be told that the use of social media can have effects and that those effects can be immediate.

[angiolo]

Well I hope our forum is heeded by those in power > Probably not or many of us would be waking up in prison

[Plowman]

Power to the people!

[WhizBang]

Perhaps a social media outcry could force Bangkok Post to rethink it"s new design.

[Emster23]

Anyone at the Nation happen to follow what happened after Koh Tao fiasco? Social media baby.... Those in positions that should know something (TAT among others) have not a clue regarding the widespread impact, are stuck in a 70's mentality.

[Godders]

This preoccupation with image and branding is all very well, but it simply doesn't produce results. Personally, I don't care a jot about the design of the Kbank webite but I do care that hardly anybody in the local branch of the tourist town where I live can communicate efficiently in English.

And nice though it is for an old geezer like me to be shepherded through the ritual of getting a ticket from the queueing machine by a dolly bird dressed in a short skirt and tight green jacket, she really is surplus to requirements. I would much rather she spend her time behind one of the cashier desks which are all too often left empty at busy times.

Hasn't anybody on Facebook enlightened Kasikorn to the fairly obvious fact that lunchtimes are the only occasions most working people can get to the bank and that it doesn't make sense for most of the staff to disappear for their cow pat moo or whatever when the bank is at its busiest?

In Europe many major bank branches open on Saturday mornings for the benefit of people in full time jobs. Why not here? Time for another murmur on social media, perhaps.