By now I am sure you’ve all heard about the Southwest Air/Kevin Smith debacle. People, who are brand evangelists of both brands, have risen up, supported & defended the brand, and have moved on from the topic. I don’t bring it up to start a ‘They Said/He Said’ debate, but to look at, with your help!, the marketing, communications and brand implications of being a social company.
If your organization has chosen to use social media as a method of communicating with your customers, prospects, vendors, fans, friends, followers, etc. you need to ask yourself the following questions:
- Are we social with our marketing and/or communications team? What about customer service, HR, product development, etc?
- If we have industry or corporate policies to adhere to, are we doing so consistently?
- How are we training are employees on social media? Are we consistent with training all employees, all the time? Do they know that one action could potentially set off a social media firestorm?
- What are the policies for addressing everyone who complains or makes a snide remark about the organization or its brands? Do address or ignore? If addressed them, how does that strengthen (or weaken) our position and/or use of social media?
- How do our disintegrated (i.e. non-integrated marketing communications) messages backfire on us? Especially in today’s world of real-time customer voices?
- What makes a crisis situation for us? Is it one bad tweet, blog post, podcast? Or is it when it hits the national media?
- Do we have brand evangelists? If not, why? If so, how can we harness their affinity better? Do we know they’ll be in our corner?
There are more questions than answers for some organizations. What would you add? And, more importantly, what advice would you offer to social organizations or those looking to jump into the social media waters?
Tags: Brand Detrators, Brand Evangelists, Brand Relationships, Branding, communications, Customer Behavior, Customer Relationships, Integrated Marketing Communications, Marketing, Social Media
Great post, Beth. Social Media is still so new and everyone is learning day by day. Organizations are continually trying to navigate this landscape while keeping company policy in mind. Here is Dan O’brien’s (CEO of Vivid Ascent) post with some tips on the matter:
Social Media Mapping – A Plea for a Disciplined Marketing Approach
Excellent questions for discussion, Beth. If organizations don’t have all their brand ducks in a row at every touchpoint, then social media is an easy channel for customers to voice their negative brand experiences. It really behooves them to ensure that everyone is living the brand to help reduce these social media risks.