social media: February 2009 Archives
Tropicana is abandoning its new-look packaging after receiving criticism from consumers on Twitter and other social media channels. Flash mobs are increasingly part of the modern life, whether it's baby-wearing mothers who are angry at Motrin, or Facebook users upset with a change in their terms of service.
But do flash mobs constitute legitimate research?
Public relations pros quoted in The New York Times sing the praises of these new tools.
"You used to wait to go to the water cooler or a cocktail party to talk over something," said Richard Laermer, chief executive at RLM Public Relations in New York. "Now, every minute is a cocktail party," he added. "You write an e-mail and in an hour, you've got a fan base agreeing with you."
And here's Peter Shankman: "Twitter is the ultimate focus group. I can post something and in a minute get feedback from 700 people around the world, giving me their real opinions."
Yes, the opinions are real. And somewhere in there you can find real insights. But the twitterverse is just a big SLOP sample - a self-selected opinion poll. The postings of the Twitterati don't represent anyone - not even Twitter users overall.
Somewhere inside Tropicana, someone is listening to all these mini-rants. And that's good. And that person should then consider the next step in an inquiry, which is to find out if these opinions are representative of some larger group that Tropicana cares about. There are lots of traditional tools with which to do that - from focus groups to large-sample surveys based upon an EPSEM sample (if you're not a researcher, that's an equal probability of selection method sample, which allows you to estimate error from the sample relative to the unknowable population parameter.)
There are lots of self-appointed "social media experts" out there who are just hammer-pounders. What's that? You know the old saying, "give a kid a hammer, and everything looks like a nail." These "experts" may or may not have real training or experience in marketing, public relations or research, and they view every problem as being solvable by the tool du jour, whether it's Facebook, Twitter or Flickr. They offer one-note solutions to complex problems.
Social media are a new part of the communication landscape, and they have transformed it. There are new rules of behavior, new opportunities, new cowpies to step in. Every business should learn about social media and take it seriously.
But I wouldn't make a knee-jerk reaction based upon what a few cranks said on Twitter.
Yes, they may be customers, but they're not representative of all your customers. Listen, yes. But don't let them bully you into making poor decisions. That's a poor use of social media.
We've all had one. That moment you wish you could take back. Maybe you were impatient with your child, a colleague, or a loved one. Perhaps you laughed at someone's expense. Or uncorked some profanity in an inappropriate situation.
You know why you did it. You were tired, you had had enough, you weren't really thinking, you had a few drinks, you were just careless. You thought you were safe.
There's nothing new about the one bad moment. What's new is the omnipresence of recording devices and ways to share digital information. So today, your own bad moment can become permanently attached to you. It can go viral. And so, despite a lifetime of almost always doing the right thing, this one bad moment becomes the stain that never goes away.
Actor Christian Bale exploded on the set of Terminator 4, and his tirade has gone viral. The rant occurred in front of a small audience. But the recording has been shared millions of times. On YouTube, you can hear mashups of the rant with dance music and Dora the Explorer. There are currently about 40 videos featuring the profanity-laced rant. One has more than 2,320,000 page views.
"Christian Bale? Isn't he that spoiled hothead? Oh, and I think he acted in some movies, too."
Bale is not alone. Michael Richards had his bad moment. So did Michael Phelps. The pace of these moments seems to be accelerating. A-Rod lies about steroid use. Chris Brown may have assaulted his girlfriend, pop star Rihanna. Squeaky-clean Disney actress/singer Miley Cyrus appears to mock Asians. And that's just from the past few days!
So please, be careful out there. And more importantly: be good. It is true: your true character is revealed by your behavior when you think no one is watching.
A more difficult issue that deserves further discussion: forgiveness. As a culture, how can we forgive people that we really don't know? The viral qualities of a bad moment are far more powerful than those of atonement.
