The web 2.0 provides an excellent environment for companies to strengthen their brands. You can do it the Jedi way, or you can take a walk on the dark side. But, in keeping with the old Roman adagio: if you live by the sword, make sure you are prepared to die by the sword. The following are a couple of dirty social tricks I stumbled upon that backfired on their perpetrators.
I started a blog, which started the whole world crying. Cosmetics giant Vichy decided to create a blog based on the life experiences of Claire, a regular yet very pretty gal riding the cosmetics snake. This girl boasted somewhat artificial remarks about a particular Vichy product and was soon exposed as a corporate marketing maneuver. Vichy was immediately forced to make damage control and started using real bloggers’ opinions on product tryouts. They had a rough time though and until things straightened out, they were the laughing stock of the blogger community in France, which in case you don’t know, takes blogging pretty darn seriously.
Pimp my review. A mischievous employee of Belkin took it upon his own to start a campaign for promoting Belkin products. The industrious fellow paid 67 cents (USD that is) per positive review and / or recommendation written in Amazon Reviews for Belkin routers. A blogger discovered this and blew the lid off the whole thing. Allegedly Belkin was not aware of the ploy and made several apologies for the attitude of the employee.
The above are hardly isolated examples. I witnessed open video chat sessions with company executives getting massacred by former employees, viral campaigns that re-shaped product roadmaps (remember the Save Windows XP campaign?), Facebook causes bashing on products, etc.
These are all proof that trying to promote your brand via dirty methods can wind up in a terrible blunder, but more so when the medium is both your friend and your foe. Social channels are full duplex and feedback in social media is fast and when bad, merciless; a wrong move can trigger a negative image change reaction that can seriously injure brand and soul.
The rules of engagement in company-consumer relationships have changed dramatically. For the consumer, it’s a wonderful new era. There are a lot of fast reactions to social complaints: refunds, discounts, reparations, apologies, you name it. All sped up as the result of a blog post and the fear of the potential reputation damage they can produce. And I’m talking Amazon size companies here (The Kindle fiasco is still fresh in the collective mind).
For companies, it can also be a very powerful tool, dirty tricks aside. That is why we are now witnessing the re-shaping of marketing, recruiting and communication departments everywhere in order to adapt to the new media, and the arrival of boutique shops that devote themselves to 2.0 brand streaming. My good friends at El viaje de Odiseo are a living example of this.
In order to capitalize on the above it is crucial to be able to take in the criticism, separate the constructive part from the exacerbated berating and do something about it. To those with an open mind and enough humility, social networks, blogs and the like are tremendously powerful tools. To the stubborn and the excessively proud… better grab an umbrella because it’s going to rain blows.
It’s a brave new world out there.
Shuje
On my next post I will explain how becoming a member of a glam rock band stops your hair loss problems. In the meantime I’m open for feedback and receiving pictures of your lady friends. Send them to shuje@holoom.com
Been reading a lot about transparency in business and how the web 2.0 may be damn close to how business are being made. Public explanations or open disclosure of policies killing companies (Seen Domino’z youtube video on how to trash a pizza before delivering it?). Trust, how do you create it? Having friends, having fans. People wants to deal with real people. Just some thoughts on the same direction of your blog. Abrazo, GB.-
[...] or other formats. Here is where an appropriate brand-streaming is important on behalf of employers. If your brand is shot down in the blogosphere, then you will be hard pressed to get candidates to hop on [...]