Organizations should take social media more seriously February 9, 2009
Posted by Clara Miller in Business Communicators Summit Tags: GoDaddy, Social Media, twitter, Viral Tweets.This post was guest-authored by Shel Holtz, who will be speaking at KC/IABC’s Business Communicator’s Summit this Thursday, February 12. For more information about BCS or to register, visit http://snurl.com/9p1kl
Two incidents that occurred over the last week demonstrate the unprecedented speed with which information spreads and action is taken online — highlighting the need for organizations to take the social media space more seriously.
Internet domain registry GoDaddy’s Super Bowl ads have always been risque (to put it mildly); this year’s ads were no worse than in previous years. The difference this year is a critical mass of Twitter users who voiced the offense they took to the ads with messages, like “Wow. I’m really quite embarrassed to have my domain names registered with what appear to be unabashed pornographers.”
Several messages suggested that domain owners were seriously considering switching their domains to other services. Registrars like Domain.com and Network Solutions responded by making overt offers with special pricing to lure disgusted GoDaddy customers to their services. (These offers were promoted primarily over Twitter and on company blogs, although the special low prices are touted on their websites.) This was followed with blog posts — promoted through Twitter — that provided instructions on how to make a domain switch easy.
I haven’t seen any statistics, but it wouldn’t surprise me if GoDaddy lost as much business over the crude ads as they attracted. What’s more, searches on the company are likely to turn up reports of the exodus.
The entire sequence of events transpired within 36 hours, which is lengthy compared to the amount of time it took for a movement to rise up against the people behind software designed to spam Twitter as part of a lead development scheme. One well-connected user of Twitter — Kristie Wells, who has 3,500 followers — complained about the software that automates the process of “retweeting” (a usually altruistic action in which a Twitter user copies a message sent by someone else so his or her followers can benefit from it): “I call bull**** on viraltweets. Please please please people…make this s*** stop. Gaming Twitter is not a GOOD business practice,” Wells tweeted. A dialogue ensued with the people behind Viral Tweets. The back-and-forth between Wells and the software creators led many to agree with Wells that Viral Tweets violated the spirit of Twitter.
Within hours, a programmer named Shannon Whitley authored a script to block any Twitter user who retweeted the Viral Tweets “scam.” While Viral Tweets will undoubtedly sell well based on its ability to spread messages through Twitter, the reputation of the people behind the software has taken a hit and a growing number of Twitter users will never see messages generated through the software, having blocked those who may be inclined to use it.
These kinds of reputational storms are not limited to Internet domain registries and software developers. MacNeil Labs, a Johnson & Johnson company, found itself in the center of a similar situation over a video that had been on the Motrin website for a month, yet over the course of a single weekend, the company had issued a public apology following massive mainstream coverage of the uproar the video caused.
Despite the fact that the current social media ecosystem supports near-instant vilification of people and companies, few organizations have put systems in place to either identify an issue or respond in a manner timely enough to offset the potential damage. Implementing social media channels is no longer just a cool thing for a company to do. It could be a matter of survival.
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[…] Despite the fact that the current social media ecosystem supports near-instant vilification of people and companies, few organizations have put systems in place to either identify an issue or respond in a manner timely enough to offset the potential damage. Implementing social media channels is no longer just a cool thing for a company to do. It could be a matter of survival…Read more […]