Digital graffiti or The Twitter Democracy

I recently heard an executive from a media firm argue that understanding the people who are not your customers is just as important in social media marketing as knowing about your existing customers. This is particularly true of the risk posed by detractors who can actively devaluate a brand's equity. As companies rush to gain visibility on social media, some have been absent-minded; others have been completely oblivious to this maxim.

TIME magazine's 2012 list of The 100 Most Influential People in the World declared that "Influence was never easier—or more ephemeral." Customers have increased their ability to influence the marketing efforts of corporations thanks to social media and the possibility of engaging in an online dialogue with brands. The perfunctory messages that some corporations choose to post online in their efforts to get on the social media bandwagon can sometimes lead to disastrous outcomes, giving their online detractors a convenient forum to shout back with the anonymity of graffiti on a wall, on display for the whole world to see. Although largely overlooked, every now and then something happens that makes a lot more people stop to look and take in the message. TIME magazine's aforementioned editorial questions "how individuals can start a chain reaction of virtue, shaping events in ways that can become both viral and enduring". Resourceful influencers are on the rise on the internet, shifting the focus -if only for brief instances- from the corporate messages to their own voices.

This has been made comically apparent in the PR blunders that some companies have brought upon themselves in their careless forays into social media. Twitter has emerged as the central stage for providing harrowing and frequently hilarious backlash to vacuous corporate posts. Companies like McDonalds or Urban Outfitters have joined the unenviable ranks of Kenneth Cole or Motrin in 2012, illustrating the pitfalls of callous tweets or unfortunate choices of hashtag.

Read More here: http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/11056-the-top-10-social-media-fails-of-2012

http://www.thestreet.com/story/11380915/1/mcdonalds-twitter-campaign-backfires.html

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2111975_2112273,00.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/10/chrysler-twitter-f-bomb-tweet_n_834246.html

Laura Hawkins 26 Nov, 2012

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/BiUOP/~3/1pIrymZsdBs/digital-graffiti.html
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