tom oddo design

Don’t let this post dissuade you from being social on the internet, participating in online networks and promoting your brand online through Facebook or Twitter. This just serves as a warning to folks who think you can do no wrong by having these outlets available to your customers.

Before cable modems and fiber optics, businesses had to fear customer backlash through letters, op-ed pieces in the local newspaper, boycott fliers and picket lines. The online equivalent of these consumer reactions has now become e-mailing, tweeting and posting on the company’s Facebook Fan Page. This information goes 100 times faster than the old-school methods. By the time you finished running the copier to make the fliers for your protest, 30 flaming comments have popped up on the Facebook page and the issue has been tweeted and re-tweeted another 30 times.

A majority of companies and brands have a compulsory social networking account, either on Twitter, Facebook or both (LinkedIn coming in a distant third). These are set up with the mindset  that they have to join the fray or get left behind. That being said, they have little idea of what they are getting themselves into and do nothing to add value to this method of communication. Many don’t realize that creating a Facebook page isn’t like putting a new sign up in the store window that says “you’re hip.” Building a social networking presence is more like installing a new, special telephone line that exists for the internet socialistas to call you on. Oh, and it’s a two-way line, so you need to also pick up the phone and do some reaching out yourself, otherwise, you may never get another ring.

Businesses that open up this channel of communication and do little to cultivate discussion other than post or tweet sales and other marketing messages are not taking advantage of the real connection you could be having with your clients. Instead, they leave themselves open for hot complaints and upset customers to tarnish their reputation.

Observing the two blowouts that happened in the last few weeks, one involving a small internet pen company and the other a massive food company, it is clear that being a sound business in ethics and public relations is a MUST, especially when using online social media. Nestle is continuing to get hammered by people on their Facebook Fan page over the use of Palm Oil from rainforests that are being rapidly deforested. According to their replies, they are pledging to use only “Certified Sustainable Palm Oil by 2015.” In five years? In their defense, they are trying all they can to allay the public’s fears and criticisms. They are posting on a daily basis to update the 92,000 fans that they are doing everything in their power to fix the situation. However, in the realm of the instant internet, a five-year plan may as well take place in another lifetime.

Then there’s the aforementioned pen company. Apparently, in an e-mail discussion with a Mommy blogger (definition : a Mom that likes to blog about being a Mother, or various other aspects of Motherhood), a representative of the company quickly dismissed the blogger’s inquiry to “work with her,” saying “not to waste their time,” and to “get a real job.” Well, us bloggers LOVE to share our opinions, especially when we are disenfranchised. The Mommy blogger writes a post about the topic, gets comments from other Mommy bloggers and gets them riled up to leave wall posts on the pen company’s fan page and flame them on Twitter (as seen in the screenshots above). To this day, the company has yet to respond publicly to the criticism. In the few weeks that have passed, they did post a couple of sales to their Facebook and Twitter profiles. It makes me laugh. How effective is that going to be since your name has been trashed all over those social networks you are trying to market through? Either they are entirely clueless to the fact that they were bombed with all of these comments or they are ignoring it completely. I believe the latter. Someone must have called them or e-mailed them to complain or give them a piece of their Mommy-blogging minds. From the tone of the e-mail exchange that originally started this meltdown, it seems they didn’t give a shit to begin with.

What can we hope to learn from these blunders? Lets pretend that, although we run a sound, ethical business and foster a decent rapport  with customers online, we get hit with a flame on our Facebook page. As a Page Admin, you have the power to delete any objectionable content that gets posted on your wall or comments. In the case of Nestle, they asked for people not to post pictures of their logo defamed. “[The pictures] will be deleted,” they state on their page. So, if it happens to be a customer is blowing off steam about a legitimate complaint, contact the person privately (old-school phone call works best here), refer to the comment they made online and address the situation. Once you have smoothed things over (you charmer), you can gently remind them that, since the problem is now settled, you would appreciate the revision or removal of the online comment.

If your company gets flamed on Twitter, you better hope it hasn’t gotten so out of control that your company is a national trending topic (#disaster). The same considerations apply here. You may want to find out the customer’s real name or e-mail address by direct messaging them on Twitter. Then, you can address the grievance and kindly ask that a follow up tweet be made that the issue was resolved.

One side note about social networks is that it isn’t all about Twitter and Facebook. True, there is only so much time in the day to keep track of everything going on and everyone that may or may not be slandering your company. You definitely want to pick and choose the digital water coolers that current and past customers frequent. Many industries and trades have specific discussion boards or online forums that are visited daily by people in your business. Along with your Facebook and Twitter accounts, make sure you are keeping tabs on the people talking on these forum websites. With these tips, hopefully, you won’t end up as a Social Media FAIL.