Lessons from social media disasters

Social media is fast gaining acceptance as an effective way to build brand exposure and customers, as well as to improve the customer feedback mechanism. At the same time though, social media platforms can quickly turn into a disaster zone if a consumer is unhappy with a product or service and the business in question doesn’t handle the complaint quickly and effectively.

This is for two main reasons: firstly, the playing fields are levelled, which means customers and businesses have equal power of voice in a public space. Secondly, social media technology enables an idea to be seen by thousands of people within hours or even minutes through things like retweeting, bookmarking and status updates.

What this means is that no matter how big, established, or powerful a company is, it needs to react as quickly as possible to consumer dissatisfaction voiced on social media channels, or suffer the consequences. Three examples below illustrate these consequences, and provide valuable lessons for any business owner trying to build their brand online.

1. A Fake BP Twitter Account

In the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a fake BP Twitter account began posting satirical tweets about the company and the effects the oil spill continues to have on the environment.

Examples of tweets included things like “Look, cut us some slack. We’ve kinda just been winging this whole ‘deepwater drilling’ thing.” and, “SPOILER ALERT: The leak stops eventually, everyone forgets about it and we all buy another vacation home.”

As of writing, the fake BP account had over 164,000 followers, compared with just over 14,000 followers of the official one. The biography section of the fake BP account also never expressly admitted it wasn’t the real BP, and Twitter doesn’t enforce this. In the meantime, the fake account followers – along with negative exposure associated for the BP brand – keeps growing.

The Lesson: Social media as an open platform embraces freedom of expression, and sites like Twitter or Facebook aren’t responsible for removing negative messages about your brand. Rather than relying on them to manage your reputation online, concentrate instead on making your product or service offering as ethical as possible so you reduce your reasons for people to complain in the first place. Side note: it may be too late in the game for BP to do this.

2. Nestle vs. Greenpeace

Although food manufacturer Nestle’s Facebook Page was originally created to improve communication with their customer base, it became the opposite after Greenpeace supporters were “scolded” by a Nestle representative on the page.

The problem started when Greenpeace launched a video campaign protesting against Nestle’s use of palm oil, the production of which has a variety of detrimental environmental effects. Nestle attempted to have the video taken down, apparently due to “copyright issues”, and in response, Greenpeace activists began changing their Facebook profile pictures to anti-Nestle logos.

In reaction, Nestle then commented on its Facebook Page: “To repeat: we welcome your comments, but please don’t post using an altered version of any of our logos as your profile pic – they will be deleted.”

Cue a barrage of anti-Nestle comments across the Twittersphere and on their Facebook Page from angry consumers, one example of which was: “It’s not OK for people to use altered versions of your logos, but it’s OK for you to alter the face of Indonesian rainforests? Wow!” Although Nestle did eventually apologise, the damage was already done.

The Lesson: No matter how justified you think you are in defending your business, becoming defensive or arrogant on a social media channel will almost turn out badly, and is difficult to undo. Instead of knee-jerk overreactions Nestle-style, be open to criticism of your brand, and allow your customers to voice their complaints without attacking them back. Even better, acknowledge their feedback, and apologise if you did make a mistake.

3. AT&T’s Untouchable CEO

Disgruntled AT&T customer Georgio Galante was unhappy with his eligibility dates to get an iPhone from the cell phone provider, and emailed his complaints directly to AT&T’s CEO, Randall Stephenson. After sending two emails, Galante heard nothing back from the CEO, but instead received a voicemail from an AT&T Executive Response representative who threatened him with a cease and desist letter if he emailed the CEO again.

Instead of backing down, Galante blogged and tweeted about it, even uploading the recorded voicemail for all to hear. In a matter of hours, the story went viral, and was picked up by tech sites like CNET and Engadget as well as general news sites like CNN and Forbes. In the aftermath, AT&T quickly apologised publicly to Galante and promised to address his concerns.

The Lesson: Even though AT&T apologised, most people will still always remember the cease and desist part of the story (not to mention that it’s archived in hundreds of news articles). Being humble and polite to your customers is always better than being arrogant and then apologising afterwards, as chances are that they’ll remember the juicy bits of the story rather than the part where you make amends.