Socialmedialand

Archive for the ‘Anti-Case Study’ Category

At #180series yesterday the audience asked our panel an interesting question (via our Uservoice forum):

What are some popular examples of social media gone wrong?

I guess there are some very famous examples of social media snafus – Dominos, MotrinMoms, etc. All classic stories of big brands ignoring the online community until too late and then scrambling to do damage control. But the question got me thinking about social media gone wrong from the other side – small brands trying to use social media to increase awareness and buzz around their products and failing to do so.

“Authentic” Blogger Outreach

A little while back a coworker brought me a proposal [edit: I misrepresented this situation in my original post] that an agency (The Agency) had sent to us as a bid to work on one of our current clients. It was a blogger outreach plan complete with an example of previous work The Agency had done for a client that sold organic juice for children (Juice Client.)

In this case, I’m using the term “blogger outreach” in a very broad sense. The basic premise of the campaign was that The Agency had hired 5-7 people to impersonate blogger personas. These people were very close to the personality type they were taking on, but they were not the actual person. For example, one persona was a “daddy blogger” father of two who was very concerned about diet, organic food and nutrition for his kids (Daddy O.) The person playing Daddy O was also a father and may have cared about diet but was not actually Daddy O. In order to fulfill the “authentic” part of the plan, Daddy O created a fake Facebook account and a few other traces of his personality across the web in case anyone searched for him. Personally, I don’t think that’s very authentic at all.

The process was that Daddy O would search for forums and blogs about health and kids and write some sort of response. He would work in how he bought Juice Client product for his kids and they loved it and since it was also good for them, he was happy. Then he would include a link of course. I clicked on some of the links to his responses that were included in the case study to see examples of this in action. In the ones where his post was still there, it was the first and only post that was ever made under that screen name. When people responded to him he didn’t return and continue the conversation, and when you looked at his profile it was basically a short description of his persona and a link to Juice Client. In the other ones it was clear his post had been deleted.

The one question I keep repeating in my mind as I’m reading and looking through all this is: WHY? Why did you have to make up people? There are so many legitimate (actually authentic) daddy bloggers, mommy bloggers, parent communities, etc that you could have reached out to and gotten real people’s honest opinions on this. And that kind of campaign would have been way more beneficial. Because those people are real, and talk about this stuff all the time, if you’d gotten them hooked on your product they would still be singing its praises right now, whereas the fake bloggers you created are only going to do it on the clock and stop as soon as you quit paying them. No wonder it never took off.

There’s an easy way and a hard way to do things. Taking the time to contact bloggers, send them samples of your juice, ask them to post honest opinions on what they thought about it and disclose that they were sent free juice – That’s the hard way. It takes time, some money, and patience. The easy way gets you links right away, quick results that you can show the client and then end your engagement before they realize that won’t last.

Sometimes the hardest thing is the right thing (pretty sure I stole that from some song somewhere – just can’t place it…) and in this case it really is. Social media is sometimes put forward as an easy, quick thing to do when in reality it’s not. It’s a long term commitment where the pay off isn’t always immediate. We, as agencies, consultants, PR professionals, social media experts (or amateurs), or whatever you call yourself, need to prepare the client for that. It’s our job to explain to them how this works and why they need to take the time to do it right rather than go for the easy, quick win. Let’s all take that responsibility a little more seriously.

Thoughts? Think I’m being too hard on The Agency? Share your opinions in the comments!

I have to post an update. In my previous post about the Johnjay and Rich Twitter account I talked a lot about the opportunities they’re missing by using their tweets like messages on a billboard rather than starting a two way dialogue and starting some interaction. I also mentioned hoping that they would read it and contact me. I’m excited to say that only a few hours later I had a message in my Facebook inbox about it, and although they weren’t offering me free concert tickets, they were asking for some more advice. Pretty cool, huh? Love it when brands listen and start convos (active listening at its finest.)

Here’s where I owe them an apology. In my rush to talk about everything they could be doing (and I stand by my suggestions btw – I think they’re pretty good ones), I didnt realize that the account had only been active for about a week. It’s a little too early to have judged the activity on it, for all I know they had planned to implement a few of those same ideas.

Although I may sometimes stick my foot in my mouth, never say that I don’t own up to my mistakes.

Video may have killed the radio star, but will Twitter kill the radio host?

Confession time. I listen to 104.7 Kiss FM when I drive to work in the mornings. I say it’s because the <15 minute drive (be jealous) is too short to worry about messing with an IPod or picking out a CD. But really it’s because the Johnjay and Rich morning show is like Jerry Springer on the radio. Confession Wednesday, War of the Roses, Second Date Update – it’s a big helping of “I feel better about my life because I’m not sleeping with my fiance’s father AND mother” (true story.)

So this morning when they brought up their Twitter account I got pretty excited (nerdy I know.) Because I thought I could follow the drama online, see what other people are saying about what’s happening and join in with my own witty commentary on the disastrous lives of my fellow Phoenicians.

Alas, by Twitter account they meant they have a billboard where they post inane messages about who they are talking to now. Then, who they are talking to now. Then, who they just stopped talking to that you can hear on the podcast that they posted on the website. I can hear the static in my mind as I tune out.

Have I mentioned they only have 92 followers when they have a vibrant and large audience of listeners?

Radio is heard here, radio is heard everywhere

I took that line from Clear Channel’s ad campaign. But they are not being heard “here” in social media land. This is a definite let down. The opportunity here is so large! And they’re totally missing it. Twitter is not a billboard; it’s a whole group of active, talking people. I don’t even know where to begin breaking down the improvements they could make.

#Hashtags: they could create tags for their popular programs, bring up the search window during the broadcast and mention the funnier/better comments they see. Plus, hearing a bunch of 140 character responses from all different people would be a lot more fun than hearing that one annoying caller who tells their entire life story and repeats “I love you guys” a billion times before finally getting back to the point of the drama.

@Replies: why don’t they use conversation on Twitter to add to their contests and game shows? Why don’t they take questions from Twitter when they’re talking to celebrities? Again, it’s way quicker and more to the point than taking all those callers – also easier to filter.

DM: this could easily incorporate into contests. While they do the trivia live on the air, if someone DMs the answer before the person on air does (and is the first to do so) they get a prize as well (significantly smaller maybe but it could get participation by way more people.)

Promotion: where’s the follow us button on the homepage? I searched for that thing, if I wasn’t planning on writing this I would have given up. Put it somewhere I can find it. If people start twittering to you, and about you, the people who follow them will see that. They’ll wonder what they’re missing out on and tune in online or in their car as well.

I could go on. I won’t because if Kiss FM sees this I would love for them to contact me - either to offer me free tickets to a concert of my choice, or to ask for my help consulting on new and exciting ways to join the community we’ve got going here in Phoenix as well as Tucson and those in Colorado, Oregon and wherever else they broadcast.

But until that happens I’ll just sit here in the midst of my disappointment while yet another brand misses the wealth of social media by trying to use it like just another traditional ad space.

One step up from a hall monitor badge...pretty nifty

Ok don’t. Seriously. I was just kidding. Really. Please don’t sue me.

The settlement of a libel lawsuit regarding user comments on the review site Yelp bring concerns about validity in social media to the top of everyone’s minds. Ok maybe not everyone’s, but mine and most other peoples’ in my industry. My coworker Josh wrote a post asking for opinions on the social media ethics debate that this will enevitably spark on both sides so I decided to throw in my two cents. Here goes.

For Businesses:

To sue or not to sue, that is the question? Can you really say that suing a former customer who clearly had a gripe they were willing to post for the world to see could ever be construed as a positive, constructive, PR minded move? I think not. If you find that there’s been a negative review about you, yes you need to act, but you must think about the repercussions first.

If it’s true: you need to evaluate your business. Apologize for the gaff and try to make it right for them and then use that feedback to adjust your business moving forward.

If it’s wrong: reach out to them. Ask them why they think that, why they said that, ask what the situation was and how it could be made right. Maybe the customer isn’t always right, but they think they are and you need to deal with them on that level. Draft a public response to the review, the libel was written in the social media forum; try responding there first before taking it to court. Tell your side of the story in an adult, mature way. (No “they’re a big fat liar” type stuff.)

If that doesn’t help, think about this before you sue: If a potential customer sees the negative review how much will that affect them in the total of all reviews that have been posted versus if they read a news story about the review and how the reviewer is being sued? I don’t know about you but I’d rather not go to a chiropractor that has shoddy billing practices (according to one person – but this is the comment that’s been publicized above all others at this point) AND sues their customers.

For Social Media Users:

This is kind of scary. I mean I don’t really think about what I say on review sites before I say it. I just tell my side of the story, like I was complaining or raving to a friend. I don’t ever think about whether my exaggeration might be taken as libel.

Personally I’m not sure any of these cases will go actually go through without proof that the person had lied outright and maliciously. This one was settled and I think most of them will be (assuming more keep coming…see above.) So as long as you’re honest and stick to things that really happened and your opinion about them you should be safe.

If you’re still worried you can read this definition of Libel to make sure your comments don’t violate anyone’s rights.

For Everyone:

Maybe we all need an ethics refresher course. Be honest. Do the right thing. Treat others the way you’d like to be treated. If the business treats a customer correctly in the first place – no problems. If the customer is honest in their reviews and opinions of that treatment – no problems. It’s so easy people. Why can’t we all just get along….