Netflix’s Social Media Strategy – or lack of?

Yesterday, as Netflix brokedown for several of us online viewers, Twitter (with several 100’s of tweets in an instant) became a common platform to vent out the frustration.

As I revisit the ObjectiveMarketer blog again, the first entry in the comeback series has to be this story about Netflix, told via public tweets- in the spirit of Twitter itself! Enjoy; there is a great amount of learnings for the brand out there! 🙂

Story begins about 24 hours back. Setting – Couch. Accessories – Laptop, mobile device with twitter app, Netflix Movie controller device (Samsung, xbox, PS3 etc) and a Remote control.

On Search.twitter.com: “Netflix Down”

@SuziDoll: Whyyyy netflix went down!! #netflix i wasnt done watching #roswell !!

@arnoldjaime13: Is Netflix really down?

@caylorb: Is Netflix Instant down for anyone else??

@MasterLeePhD: Netflix goes down temporary and the entirety of America crumbles. #netflix

@asupilot11: Hey @netflix your service is down. Me & a lot of other customers are experiencing some difficulties. Whats going on?

@ColetrainATL: Netflix is down. I seriously get all my breaking news from Twitter

@mcgm: @jabezlebret I’m surprised that @hulu & @netflix dont see the need 2 use#Twitter 4 rapid response when their service is down #fail

@trackris24 Thank god for twitter or else i would never realize netflix is down, and keep trynig to refresh my browser ever minute. lol.

On @Netflix Corporate Twitter Account – Clearly, no clue about what the world is talking about …. 

@Netflix: Suggestions of other “great, underrated” comedies? We’ll RT. RT @jonahray Awesome SAFE MEN is on @netflix instant. Great, underrated comedy

@Netflix: Check out http://om.ly/BMxut & tell us what 2 actors (dead or alive) would you most want to hang out with?

@Netflix: A Royale with cheese, anyone? #PulpFiction is now available to steam from @Netflix. What’s the film’s most memorable quote?

@Netflix: What’s Paul Newman’s best role? RT @VoxLive In case y’all didn’t know @Netflix just unloaded a ton of Paul Newman movies to Instant Watch

On @Netflixhelps Customer Support Twitter Account – 20 hours before this post. There has been no update since then. 

@Netflixhelps: We are aware that some members are experiencing Netflix Site Errors when attempting to load the Netflix websit… (cont)…

Summary:

1. There are several involved users of Netflix Brand

2. Netflix Corporate account on Twitter is dead. It shows no committment to 76,000 + followers. There is no response on the corporate twitter account related to the downtime.

3. Netflixhelps, which has a decent 11,000 followers need a little more than a stale status reminder of the issue. No clarification, no current updates.

There is a clear opportunity for a brand like Netflix to convert passionate users to loyalists, and brand ambassadors. However, as we see from this simple case, as happened yesterday, it is evident that Netflix has no clear social media strategy. They missed the boat this time. They better fix the issues on their software, because Failing S/W + Unresponsive Customer Service = #Fail.