That’s what my gramma has told me for donkey’s! I was reminded of this while reading Marketing Mag’s Controversy Cubed.
The story in a nutshell? Cap C ran a SM contest for Nissan’s Cube. All looked great until the winners were awarded by 6 judges. Appears the judges had a history with the winner(s) and they were unfairly awarded. Cap C followed the competition rules to the letter… but that wasn’t enough.
Participating in this Social Media space means you must be prepared to be transparent, candid and fair in your approach. Period. Fudging something, or discreetly throwing your Social Media broccolli under the table for Fido to wolf down while nobody is looking will not fly.
I’m not here to debate whether the judge favored one or more winners because they were friends, former business associates or whatever. I am interested in the part of this story that says:
… someone cried bull shit and posted their concerns online… but these haters were ignored for way too long.
…Tony Chapman told the FP that the Cube’s demographic were models, arty farty types and people with corn rolls only to completely unsettle all of the active participants in the contest who were dads from suburban Markham and Moms from the Hammer.
I totally get that it is far easier to edit than create. I also know that Social Media is very much in its infancy and therefore goofs are bound to happen. I know but there are some key learnings in all of this for the rest of us to take away.
And I keep coming back to the same one liner…
People need a ‘Come To Jesus’ kind of a social media 101 before they start dabbling in this, and for God sakes, don’t let the sales or marketing types lead these campaigns.
This is not marketing the way we did it even a years ago. This is not about marketing. This is about engaging people in real life. That means genuine intentions followed up with real value. Scott Stratten sums it up beautifully with his UnMarketing! I blogged recently about loving your haters. This is what Social Media was meant for… giving you the opportunity to find your haters, find out what their pissed off about and giving you the choice to remedy it and move you that much closer to turning your hater into a neutral… or if you’re good enough… a fan? Or you could just roll your eyes and move on leaving them to blog on and on and on and on about why you are a chump. Finding your haters and addressing the cries has to be part of your Social Media plan. Do I really need to give you an analogy to drive this part home? how bout the One bad apple story?
I’m also notorious for beaking off about stalking emerging media, market trends and analyzing the evolution of consumer behavior!
Why?
So people don’t hang me from the nearest stop sign <I’m short so wouldn’t need a lamp post> for delivering a SM campaign that doesn’t absolutely understand, know and consider the audience. Geeezus people! It has to be about the audience.
If you are trying to fudge this part… the foundation… everything else you build on top of this is chumpness! Duct tape it if ya like… but it won’t hold. Doing it right the first time isn’t nearly as difficult as you think! Really. If you think it’s just not worth the extra few dollars or effort… consider how well you would sleep knowing this was circulating about you, your client, your brand, your <whatever you like>!
Aug 06th by Shannon
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