As I mentioned in my inaugural blog posting, the notion of what it means to have an online or digital strategy is changing dramatically. We are in the midst of a second-generation dot-com boom, which is largely fueled by what are commonly called Web 2.0 services: services that allow virtual communities to participate in the creation and sharing of content in the social web. Blogs, video sharing, photo sharing, and mash-ups, all supported by easy to use pro-sumer and consumer softwares, empower the average user to create and publish just about anything that comes to mind. Combined with social tools, like Facebook, Flickr and Twitter, this new content can be distributed systematically, effectively and with a viral capability that makes the flu pandemic of 1918 look like a sniffle.
The upside to this is that your customers can share all their thoughts about and experiences with your brand, product and services with ease. The downside to this is that your customers can share all their thoughts about and experiences with your brand, product and services with ease. The question then, for businesses of all shapes and sizes, is how to harness this capability to generate word of mouth and customer sentiment that is positively aligned with business goals.
“Oh, I can make it up as I go,” some say. “The intern is pretty savvy with Facebook, and I’m pretty sure she uses the Twitter, too. We’re half-way there.”
Sound risky? It sure is.
Don’t believe me? Well, how about a little convincing…
- Back in April of 2009, some users perceived that Amazon.com seemed to have removed a number of gay-themed titles from its site search results. Over a weekend, a firestorm brewed and the #amazonfail hashtag, criticizing the move, quickly became a lead trending topic in the Twittersphere. Despite having an apparently valid reason for the “fail,” the Amazon brand, and its director of corporate communications were sent into a tailspin, and stated that they should’ve been monitoring its brand more closely in the social space before it got out of control.
- In the same month, employees at a Dominos Pizza franchise in North Carolina posted videos of them doing rather disgusting things to their pizzas. This, of course, went viral and set the Domino’s marketing and communications team into crisis mode. They responded, but perhaps not quickly enough. The brand was seriously damaged and by some estimates the stock plummeted 10% in the following week.
- In February of 2010, filmmaker Kevin Smith was kicked of a Southwest Airlines flight for his, ahem…portly frame. Needless to say, he didn’t take it very well, and was on Twitter immediately with his story. Mind you, as of this writing, Mr. Smith has 1.7 million followers on Twitter. Southwest did a decent job at handling the situation, but like Amazon it needed constant brand monitoring to manage the crisis.
- In March of this year, Chrysler’s outsourced social media agency, New Media Strategies, posted a less than appropriate post about the automaker’s home city. The resulting firestorm was damaging to the brand, and completely off-topic to its multi-million dollar Detroit-boosting ad campaign. The car maker rallied its CorpComm team, released a statement and fired the agency. Too little, too late? You decide.
The cases outlined above have relatively happy endings. Chrysler will still sell cars; Dominos will still sell pizza; Southwest will still get passengers. But, just for the sake of argument, what if the companies had not been listening? What would the fallout really have been?
Dialogues about brands, products and services are popping up in the social sphere daily. For corporate communications, marketing and product executives, it is critically important to incorporate listening activities into a modern digital strategy. To do so, you have to have a social game plan. And, it must be tied to a broader, comprehensive digital strategy that puts the customer at the center of your mobile, social and online activities. I’ll get into a token review of social media best practices at a later time. For now, think about the following risks that you introduce to your organization if you do not have a well-conceived social media plan in place:
- You may alienate your customer.
- You may inadvertently leak sensitive information.
- You may dilute your marketing and messaging effectiveness.
- You may damage your brand.
Convinced yet? I hope so. This is a critical time for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Those who adapt will succeed. Those who don’t…well, you know the answer.
