Twitterers 1, Motrin 0

Via JK Virtual Office Resources, a cautionary tale for the internet age about the power of good and bad internet attention and your brand. Background: Motrin created some ads that unintentionally portrayed mothers in a less than flattering light. From the article, some key points:

…outraged mums, furious at the suggestion that their babies were a hassle, posted rebuttal videos on YouTube. Through Twitter, the microblogging service, thousands of people attacked the company.Eventually a marketing executive at McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson that markets Motrin, e-mailed individual bloggers to apologise for the campaign. But the damage was done.

Motrin was caught off-guard. For days, no company representative replied. Critics accused the company of being not only insensitive but also unresponsive. (Bolding mine.)

(I know it’s a British-ism, but the visual of “outraged mums” is quite funny.)

Mistake #1: Ignoring the blogosphere- in the fast moving internet era, it’s pertinent to respond to good or bad internet feedback as soon as possible. No other medium snowballs like this one. Just ask any of these people.

The “Motrin moms” episode … demonstrates the perils for enterprises that are unprepared to interact with social media.

Exactly. The article, linked below, goes on to explain how many big firms have since appointed social media ambassadors to monitor and interact with influential virtual communities.  Be aware:

“It’s no longer just companies talking to the press, and customer service talking to customers. All these other people showed up in the -middle. They may not be press and they may not be customers, but suddenly their collective voice is bigger than the traditional channels.”

Technology leader Dell is a great example of proper social media marketing and community interaction:

Dell is taking its customer feedback seriously. When the company launched the Latitude laptop last summer, six of the features, including backlit keyboard and fingerprint reader, were ideas that came from IdeaStorm…

..Dell, for one, has made a business of it. By broadcasting discount alerts on Twitter, it says, it has generated more than $1m in sales. And in the US, 59 of the 100 leading retailers, including Best Buy and Wal-Mart, now have a fan page on Facebook, according to Rosetta, an interactive marketing agency.

Other savings can be realised through the Web’s ability to reach many people at once. “If you solve someone’s problem on the phone, nobody knows,” says Mr Sernovitz. “If you solve that same problem in writing on a blog, it costs you no more, but thousands of people are satisfied. And then, if 100 people never call because they found the answer, you very, very quickly get to multimillion-dollar savings.” (Bolding mine.)

Proactive, pre-emptive and smart. Easy to find and follow information on the web raises your brand’s public image immeasurably.

This article is a really great jumping off point in understanding the different ways the internet can enhance or detract public opinion of your brand, and a compelling call to action for any business, small or large, with no strategy in place to handle internet word of mouth to their advantage.

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