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Wake-up call for communicators not yet tuned in to social media
By Barbara Gibson, ABC | November 17th, 2008
Over the past couple of months, as I’ve travelled around meeting with IABC members around the world, I’ve asked people about their knowledge of and use of social media. And I’ve been surprised at the very large numbers of communication professionals who still don’t seem to have either understanding or interest in learning more. Many say their companies aren’t ready for it yet, which I assume means they don’t want to have official company blogs or other sites, which is fair enough, as far as it goes. I don’t believe for a minute that every company needs to employ every social media tactic available. Our use of social media should be part of an overall communication strategy. But communicators who are still oblivious to social media are putting themselves and their organizations at risk.
Consider this weekend’s Motrin Moms backlash, a huge PR headache for Motrin and its ad agency. If you haven’t been following it, the best, most objective post I’ve seen is on Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang’s blog. There are certainly lessons here for all of us, and this is certainly not the first company that’s been caught off-guard because they weren’t paying attention to social media. In another post, Owyang shares a list of other brands that have been blind-sided by social media. Dave Knox, a brand manager at Proctor & Gamble, points out in his blog that the real problem was not the Motrin ad that sparked the controversy, but the fact that no one charged with protecting the brand was paying attention. You can bet that that fact now has the attention of the CEO.
Still think communicators can afford to not be (at the very least) monitoring social media? Time to wake up before the alarm ringing is yours.
PS - If you’re not already following Jeremiah Owyang on Twitter, you should be. He’s @jowyang.
November 17th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Thanks for this, an objective viewpoint is always needed, let’s cut through the emotion to see what’s really at the heart of it.
November 17th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Hopefully the alarm bells are ringing for every CPG brand out there. Up until now, most of the big Social Media “disasters” have been for tech companies like Dell (Dell Hell) or ComCast (sleep tech). This is the first CPG brand that has really been hit hard. Hopefully Brand Managers across the country are going to start paying attention.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I’m amazed by the number of communicators who tell me they don’t have time to learn how blogs work! To me that’s professional negligence! I definitely get tired of the people who think that social media are the answer to everything. After all, if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem starts to looks like a nail. I also find it heartbrreaking when impeccably done social media tools are clearly not linked to an integrated strategy, because NO ONE IS ACTUALLY USING THEM. I saw an example of that the other day, and it was such a shame, because it was a really well done site. It’s obvious to me, that there is no outcome based measurement associated with the site, or this lack of users would be glaringly obvious.
November 17th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
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November 17th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
I have to agree with Kristen - we all start off as totally clueless beginners but it’s unprofessional to not even attempt to understand new tools. I was at a Ragan workshop last week and was amazed that in a room of 45 professional corporate communicators, most people said they hadn’t heard of Twitter, and only 2 or 3 of us had accounts.
If you don’t take the time to learn about these things, how can you competently advise on communications? It’s definitely not that social media is the answer to everything …but social media tools are perfect for some things.
It seems to be part of a bigger disconnect between what people expect of their media and communications in the “real” world(accessible writing, the ability to comment and be part of a community,instant feedback etc.) and what they settle for in business communications.
November 18th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
There are tons of great posts out there on this topic, and I get additional insights with each one I read. Here are two from IABC members I recommend:
Neville Hobson, ABC: http://www.nevillehobson.com/2008/11/18/the-motrin-storm-breathtaking-speed-and-scale/
Justin Goldsborough: http://justincaseyouwerewondering.x.iabc.com/2008/11/17/looking-back-motrin-ad-pain-worsened-by-not-fully-embracing-social-media/
November 19th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
I think Kristen raises a really good point - implementation of social media requires strategy, goals and measurement. It is not enough just to use this tools because eceryone else is.
My question (and one also raised by Paul Matalucci in his Gold Quill blog)is how do we create “outcome based measurements” for social media?
Any examples? Ideas?
November 21st, 2008 at 5:26 pm
I think the key here is to see social media as an exciting expansion of our toolset as communicators - and as we would always do as professional practitioners, we need to evaluate what will work best for our clients or organisations, what will add most value and then choose and use wisely, to deliver maximum value from the communications. The same principles of good and great communications still apply. And yes, we do indeed ignore social media at our peril.
November 28th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
The tendency is to see social media as the ‘new thing’ rather than just the arrival of some more tools to do the communications job.
If you see them as something separate the tendency can be to set them for the sake of it, rather than - like you say - part of an integrated strategy where you deploy them with a purpose and plan in mind.
Other comments are right, they’re not perfect for every scenario, but they’re very very good for others.
I think one of the things that perpetuates the slow takeup is that they require a different state of mind to our traditional channels - for example, if you want to recommend to a CEO that they switch from a monthly broadcast message to their employees (one-way, safe) to a blog (two-way, edgier), you need to prepare the CEO for that and for the fact that they might hate it - then blame you. I don’t think many of us have thought through how we position that behavioural shift yet.