Social media — it’s the brave new channel for businesses to engage their customers. Some get it right, others not so much. Then there are the big guys, like Woolworths, that stand no chance in the face of their own notoriety. So, when Woolies posted this Facebook message to finish off the week, it must have known the hackles it would raise.
Here’s the innocuous message, posted around 4:20pm yesterday:
Happy weekend everyone! Finish this sentence: this weekend, I can’t wait to: ____________
And, here are some of the replies:
Go to my local farmers market and make sure none of my $$ go to The Big Two.
sit around and figure out how people get paid to make this kind of rookie social media mistake.
Amongst other things, at some point I will probably try to shop for a few of my favorite products only to discover they’ve been replaced by a far inferior Woolworths Select item.
Order online and have woolworths send me all their old nearly past sell by milk, fruit, veg, bread… Pull your socks up guys online is not an excuse to dump your dated stock
To be fair, I’ve picked out some of the worst ones — there’s more than a few light-hearted, genuine responses to balance the vitriol. While not a total train wreck, I’m sure Woolies’ social media team will think twice before posting another open-ended message.