I interrupt my blog procrastination to state the obvious: if you’re going to DO social, then you should actually BE social. Or at least you – or your paid PR team – should have have a passing understanding of how SM and the Interwebs work.
The Social Media Train Wreck of the Week award goes to Bill Cosby.
ICYMI: Bill Cosby asked the denizens of the Twitters, Reddits and Internets to ‘meme’ him. As anyone whose spent more than 10 minutes online knew, that was terribly bad dumb idea because it immediately went predictably wrong.
This wasn’t trolling. This was open season on stupidity of the “you’re getting everything you asked for, now let’s see if you really want what you’re getting” variety. Needless to type, TPTB have put this fail out of our misery.
Social Media 101 for those who try to MAKE it happen.
STOP. Stop asking for trouble. If you think you can use Facebook or Twitter to your own ends without any backlash or counter punches, think again.
- Get your house in order, check yourself before you wreck yourself.
- You can’t force ‘viral.’ And FWIW a million hits on something that has global brand recognition isn’t what I consider viral.
- Memes are forces unto themselves. A cool picture makes its way online and the PEOPLE – not the brands – make it happen; plenty of lessons learned from Alex from Target.
- Social networks have their own way, the culture of G+ is different from Facebook which is different from LinkedIn. “The problem is that most brands are trying to simply sell into the culture, without being a part of it,” Mitch Joel on part of what’s wrong with marketing today.
- People WILL call you on your bullshit, whether you’re a celeb reposting other people’s jokes without credit or a lame marketing agency trying to take credit for something you didn’t do.
For any business or brand looking at what social media can do for them, it’s a lot. Yet even those who do ‘get it’ realize it’s a crapton of hard work, the risks not always worth the reward.
Public relations, social media, branding, content, design .. those are the ‘what’ of what I do as a business communicator. My job isn’t to rev up your email funnel, it’s not to ‘fix’ your company’s bad online reviews or to build a better Facebook page. My job, the ‘why’ of what I do is to help you build a better company.
You tell me: Besides Oreo during the SuperBowl, last time you saw a good social share or hashtag campaign? When is the reward worth the risk?
Hi Davina,
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Best Regards
~ Philip
Philip Verghese Ariel recently posted..Tsu Is Not Just Another Social Site: You Can Make Money While You Engage With Tsu!
Appreciate that Philip, that’s why we’re out here – to meet new people and learn new things. Thanks for stopping by.
Hey Davina,
I can always count on you to tell it like it is girl.
I haven’t read all the stuff going on pertaining to Bill Cosby but I can relate to people complaining about why social media isn’t working for them when they’re not eager to put the work in. I think this is an instant gratification society and everyone’s in such a darn hurry. Oh sure, just hire someone to handle that stuff but then but I’ve seen that go very wrong too.
We all need to take responsibility for what we put out there on the web. Own it darn it and if you screwed up admit it and if someone is bashing you, approach it in a dignified manner. I don’t care who you are and you’re right, celebrities do NOT get a free pass.
Just my two cents worth of course but thanks for giving me yours! 😉
Have a wonderful weekend my friend.
~Adrienne
Adrienne recently posted..Everything You Need To Know About Building A Blog Community
No free passes, ITA. My thing Adrienne is this ridiculous expectation of perfection: a brand campaign is a mass ‘failure’ when a small – but highly publicized – group is critical or a celeb is panned when they tweet one random thought that’s not universally popular. As if it’s ever even remotely possible to be 100% awesome w/out any complaint, all the time. It’s absurd that we can’t have a bad day or bad moment, are always judged on every little thing. Makes SM sum zero, no win .. no fun in that. FWIW.