Avoiding the “Ouch” Side of Social Media

May 21st, 2008 by Nan Dawkins

What’s the most common reason brands find themselves on the “ouch” side of social media? I started thinking about this after reading Jeremiah Owyang’s list of brands that have been punk’d by social media in the past few years. As I made my way through Jeremiah’s list and began adding some of my personal favorites, my mind sorted each incident into broad categories:

Brandjacking for nonprofit cause (Louis Vuitton, Starbucks, Chevy Tahoe)
Brandjacking for fun
Silly PR firm gaffe (nothing deceitful, just not terribly smart…like the Johnson and Johnson Baby Camp example on Jeremiah’s list)
Sneaky, underhanded behavior designed to deceive (Walmart, Sony, Whole Foods, Burger King)
Poor quality (products that don’t work properly, bad service, mistreating customers, etc. – Dell, Kryptonite, Delta, Ted, AOL, Best Buy, Panasonic, Comcast)

Sadly, deceitful tactics like fake Blogs are the reason for a big chunk of the social media problems companies have experienced. Hopefully enough of these incidents have been exposed to frighten big brands (and their PR firms) into better behavior in the future.

But the biggest category, hands down, is the last one on my list: Poor [fill in the blank]. In the days of Web 1.0 (i.e., the digital newspaper, the uncomplicated landscape of “one to many” communications), companies didn’t have to worry too much about trivial things like product quality or making customers mad by holding them hostage on a runway for ten hours (Delta).

Those days are obviously over. Today, if you abuse your customers (by selling them a poor product, not delivering the customer service you promised, or letting rats run rampant through the kitchen you use to cook the food you are selling), chances are, you’ll be busted in a big, very public way.

It really isn’t that complicated (Bull Durham: You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you run around the bases), but some companies seem to be having a hard time grasping the new realities of a Web 2.0 world. Perhaps, come to think of it, this is why we’ve seen so much deceitful behavior.

Here’s a thought: Instead of hiring a PR firm to create a fake Blog and convince America that the Blog is real and that people really love, love, love you, why not…

Play fair. Clean up your own mess. Say you’re sorry when you hurt someone. Share/give back.

Oh, wait…those rules are for kindergartners, right?

No company can protect itself from the ”ouch” side of Social Media completely. However, if you focus on delivering what you promise and treating your customers with respect, you’ll go a long way towards mitigating the risk of being punk’d.

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