OMG Netflix isn’t working: social media observations in a time of crisis

August 20, 2014

Netflix went down last night (I know, I was there) so I checked Twitter to see if it was’t just me. Twitter was ablaze with confused tenth graders, judging by their grammar. There were thousands of tweets reaching millions of people. I suppose I expected people to be more angry, but I was surprised. Here’s some quick observations from a digital geek working in PR.

1. More people say “Netflix isn’t working” than “Netflix is down”, which is what digital geeks like me would say (as seen in the lovely word cloud above).

2. People we’re varying levels of unhappiness but didn’t seem unreasonably angry at Netflix.

3. Most people tweeted their own tweet, other “crisis” situations like this tend to have more retweeting. People weren’t really banded together on this one.

4. Their customer service appeared to be replying to every tweet directed at them, with fewer canned messages than expected.

Overall it seems like Netflix has enough love – and social media preparation – to withstand some downtown.