
Bank of America and the Twitter Robot
Social Media is made up of two simple to understand words:
- Social – relating to society.
- Media – a means of mass communication.
Pretty straight forward. Successful social media marketing connects with an audience through real interaction. Well, Bank of America seems to find this concept a bit confusing. On Monday of this past week, @darthmarkh tweeted to B of A’s Twitter account about being chased away from a B of A branch in NYC by police. He was chased away for protesting B of A’s banking practices in an elaborate chalk protest.
B of A responded by asking if @darthmarkh needed help with his account. Classy move.
The automated response showed that B of A was in fact the faceless corporate monster that the protestor was railing against. B of A’s failure is a lesson for every business out there: listen before you respond.
Some of the highlights of the conversation are below. The Bank of America robot continued to autorespond for several days:
Just got chased away by #NYPD 4 ‘obstructing sidewalk’ while #chalkupy-ing with @CyMadD0x outside @bankofamerica HQ pic.twitter.com/fXyI2JUQVv
— darthmarkh (@darthmarkh) July 6, 2013
@stevetimmis Hi Mr. Timmis, I work for Bank of America. What happened? Anything I can do to help? ^sa
— Bank of America (@BofA_Help) July 6, 2013
@BofA_Help @stevetimmis Ha! Sending an effortless message over twitter is such an admirable thing to do. Why don’t you stop being pure evil?
— Maxwell Marler (@MaxwellMarler) July 6, 2013
@MaxwellMarler We’d be happy to review your account with you to discuss any concerns. Please let us know if you need assistance. ^sa
— Bank of America (@BofA_Help) July 6, 2013
@LatinaAnarchist We are here to help, listen, and learn from our customers and are glad to assist with any account related inquiries. ^sa
— Bank of America (@BofA_Help) July 6, 2013