Usually, social media is a great tool for businesses to use to connect with consumers. One of the best things about businesses or corporations on Facebook are the testimonials. If someone is happy with their experience with a company, it is great when they go to the homepage and post about their experience. On the contrast, when they are unhappy you may get some not so happy testimonials.
That is exactly what happened to Bank of America recently. Bank of America purposed to place a five dollar charge for when a users debit card is used. This news did not set well with Bank of America costumers and they went straight to their Facebook page to BofA how they felt. From November 2010 to October 2011, 80% of comments on Bank of Americas Facebook page were negative. Bank of America decided to drop the idea of a five dollar charge after an overwhelming amount of negative feedback.
Besides the terrible testimonials that this caused, I guess you can look at this in a good way. Costumers are getting what they want. Only a few days after announcing the idea of the huge debit card charge, they dropped it from having no support from their costumers. This could actually be a great way for companies to communicate ideas with their costumers. Except not do like Bank of America and say "hey we are going to charge you an insane amount" and have to wait until so many people complained and then drop it. They could post on their walls an idea and then see the type of responses they get. This could have been a great idea for Netflix, I would hate to see their facebook wall.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2011/11/01/report-social-media-users-hate-bofa.html
drop the charge? well yes they should! why would they propose that anyway? I really enjoy, form a consumer standpoint, that we can now complain about things we hate... and the company will actually hear us! it's crazy to think of a time when companies id what they wanted and consumers had to take it because they couldn't connect and revolt against it. companies can take advantage of this, too. now instead of wondering where they went wrong, they are constantly told where they went wrong. i love it!!
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