Three Top Ways to Damage Your Brand With Social Media

By B.L. Ochman

While social media can do a lot to humanize a brand; increase the effectiveness of customer service, and create brand evangelists, it also can cause damage.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again - brand management is a matter of common sense. People want to be heard, they want a human being to say "I'm sorry that happened, let's see what we can do to make it right." They will let their friends know how they were treated - because they can.

Yet common sense is in short supply in corporations, or so it seems.

These three social media marketing mistakes are made over and over by companies that just don't want to believe that customers really are in control, and that what matters most about your brand is what comes up in Google.

1- Start a Twitter account then don't use it.
Let's use @TimeWarnerCares as an example, although many other brands are equally inept in social media.

@TimeWarnerCares opened a Twitter account, which has 563 followers - some of whom might actually be brand evangelists. @TimeWarnerCares didn't bother to follow anyone, so they have no way to know who wants to talk with them.

Who is Tweeting for the company? There's no way to know because there's no bio, no photo, no link to a website, and there has not been one Tweet since someone had the brilliant idea to "try social media."

Contrast that with @comcastcares where Frank Eliason ably represents Comcast, where he's entered almost 36,000 Tweets. He gets back to people quickly and effectively, and has helped the brand recover from an earlier YouTube disaster of a video that has been viewed 1,373,851 times since 2006,

Dell, Amazon, Domino's and many other brands have learned the hard way that a firestorm can grow very quickly in social media.

All it really takes to slow down an issue is a human being responding quickly to say something as simple as "Thanks for making us aware of this issue. We are checking it out now."

And then, the company has a reasonable amount of time to say what went wrong and what they've done about it.

If you don't want to listen and respond, don't use start a Twitter account, or a Facebook page.

What people really want is to be acknowledged and helped. That's basic human nature. Nothing new about that.

2- Don't track your brand in social media using either free or paid monitoring tools.
Despite my own many Tweets about service issues I am experiencing, I have had no response from @TimeWarnerCares the past 24 hours. That's approximately one week in Internet time.

Apparently, @TimeWarnerCares does not care.

That means nobody at Time Warner - not their ad agency, not their PR firm, not corporate communications, digital, or anyone in management - is monitoring the brand.

Hint: Time Warner Cable Sucks has 753 members on Facebook

Boycott Time Warner has 124 Facebook members and Time Warner Sucks has 244 members.

Time Warner's own Facebook page, begun May 6, 2009, has 297 members, and has had less than two posts a month. The first was the highly articulate "hi" and the second of which was "which are your favorite Time Warner channels?"

The description of the group says "errybody [sic] loves TWC!" Fail!

3- Start a social media program, but don't tell the rest of the company about it.
Uprinting.com, which seems like an interesting enough upstart of a company, has begun to reach out to bloggers and to use Twitter to promote their brand.

But when I called the company to inquire about something I read in the company's blog, the first two people I spoke to had absolutely no idea that there is a company blog, let alone one that made a special offer.

To their credit, the company's social media manager apologized to me on Twitter within hours, noting that others in the company should known they have a blog.

Corporate silos just don't work in social media. A customer service person at Time Warner told me last night "We don't twit." I beg to differ.

These days, monitoring your brand is a must! With so many avenues for people to share their opinions companies have got to follow what's being said. They could avoid many lost or unhappy customers if they just listened to what their customers are saying about them. "Listen and responded" really should be what companies aim for. Sadly many companies fall short and end up not even hearing.

Seriously thinking companies have good social media promotions.

Great read on how companies are missing a huge opportunity to use Social Media as a 24/7 customer relations tool.

Brand monitoring is damn complex ! and the idea that there should be a damage control officer for the internet still didn't filter in all industries ( i guess time warner is one of those).
on the other hand some ppl in social media are capitalizing on those companies lack of exposure and coming up with a "social media for dummies" services such as this

B.L.,excellent points about the missteps and the impact on brands. More than likely Time Warner was advised that they had to have social media accounts (protect brand from squatters or faux accounts; hot trend, etc) but the advice was not followed with an internal analysis and well thought out plan. This happens quite frequently. My approach with my own client is to refrain from "must," "should" and work with them to articulate their goals, understand where their customers are and then develop a strategy that makes sense for their market, resources and level of comfort.

I saw your post about the @timewarnercares Twitter account over the weekend. I think you make some pretty salient points in it -- it is very important for companies to monitor their brands online, and we could be doing a better job of it than we are. However, we've got to start somewhere, and we're starting here.

First, “TimeWarnerCares” is not an official handle. It's entirely possible that one of our 46,000 employees claimed that name to prevent it from being used against us and either didn't tell anyone, forgot, or has completely left the company. After all, it only takes five minutes to set up a Twitter account. Currently, Twitter's verified accounts don't apply to businesses. Facebook doesn't stop any knuckleheads from starting profiles either -- even if they purport to be officially representing a company

This opens up a pretty interesting question for you and your audience, actually: What do you recommend to deal with “squatted” Twitter real estate that could mislead even social media savvy folks like yourself?

On another note -- I'm sorry to hear that you're having problems with your cable service -- that's really frustrating. If you find that you still need help, please try our Office of the President at 212-364-8300, X2 -- or e-mail them at twc.cotp@twcable.com. The office is open from 9-5 EST, Monday- Friday. I work with them pretty frequently, and they're really good at getting issues resolved.

Thanks,

Jeff Simmermon
Director, Digital Communications
Time Warner Cable

Terrific post--very well articulated and absolutely on the money. Don't you wonder what these brands see when they look at their own online presence? Do they think no one else sees?

Jeff - great to hear from you, even if it took 5 days. that's a long time in social media response time.

My internet connection is still dropping constantly, but my phones work at last.

Sure anyone can start any account on Twitter or Facebook. That's why brands need to monitor what is said about them online 24/7 - something time warner clearly isn't doing.

Sorry, but this really isn't an adequate response.

Hey Jeff - there is NO x2 option at that number. the recording asks for a 7-digit extension.
doh

I'm not sure that we're dialing the same number. I called it, pressed 2 and got directed to the Office of the President.

Alternately, you can e-mail them at twc.cotp@twcable.com, though I have gone ahead and sent this along for you.

Every organisation needs a social media policy. This strategy will facilitate integration of the social media channel into the marketing commuications plan
@portz

Thanks! GREAT POINTS. We rarely see ourselves the way others see us - and it's how THEY see us that determines how they treat us - business or otherwise.

B.L. -
You make excellent points, and I hope companies out there contemplating social media take them to heart.

Listening to online mentions of your brand is a must, and I don't think the free monitoring tools cut it anymore. Some time ago, we relied on a mixture of free monitoring options (including Google Alerts), but found they just weren't comprehensive enough. Too many times people were saying fantastic things about our agency, but we weren't finding out about them in a timely fashion. Thus, we lost that window of opportunity to properly thank them and keep the conversation going.

I'd also like to add a fourth way to damage your brand's reputation with social media: Not understanding the medium or planning how to communicate through it. I've seen many brands get excited and setup accounts without having a plan to utilize it and incorporate it in their marketing mix. And, even worse, they start utilizing the accounts without understanding how people communicate in the channel. So they start posting a bunch of marketing copy and look like they are trying to out-right sell their product/service.

Thanks for the post. It's a great thought-starter!

Regards,
Alissa Sheley
@alissasheley

I blog and tweet about the plastic waste as an environmental issue. There is enough of a groundswell against the obvious stuff like bottled water and plastic shopping bags that corporations have gone on the defensive with social media campaigns.

BottledWaterBabe on twitter is a well run account that uses carefully spun facts to argue against people who oppose the mass consumption of bottled water. 'She' doesn't have a huge number of followers but she monitors keywords and replies frequently.

Another account that was short lived was run by a guy put his full name on the account but used the nickname BanTheGreenwash. He called people names. He worked for the plastics industry and he argued against banning or taxing plastic shopping bags. He didn't get twitter at all and the account was deleted within a few weeks.

Good advice, but I have a #4...Not offering any way for your audience to make your #'s 1, 2, and 3 viral! I wanted to Facebook or Tweet this info, but don't see any buttons to do so.

What a great point Alissa! Having the opportunity to say thank you in a timely way and keep the conversation going are definitely among the bonuses of social media monitoring.

I have met so many extraordinary people online in just that manner, and enjoy some really wonderful friendships as a result.

Social media can do a lot to humanize a brand; increase the effectiveness of customer service, and create brand evangelists, it also can cause damage. I've said this before, and I'll say it again -- brand management is a matter of common sense

Jeff Simmermon had the perfect opening and instead he closed the door. He should have reached out to speak to you, not at you. He could have won major points to be proactive, especially in such a public venue and instead he used the "well it worked for me" line. Hello!!!

I love this post! I think it's VERY straightforward and VERY true. It's amazing how much damage can be done to a brand/company with a lack of common sense!

I find it interesting that if you replace the phrase "Twitter account" or "Facebook page" with the word "Website" then dial back your wayback machine to the mid 1990s, you would find A LOT of companies were mis-using their website. Just as organizations had to mature their "web presence" back then, these same organizations need to accelerate the process of FULLY LEVERAGING the promise of these new channels of communication. Like the web in the mid 1990s, social media provides organizations with the ability to better serve and connect with their customers and market...as well as capture consumer feedback that will lead to product, service, and marketing success. Unfortunately, the current pace is measured in "internet time" so firms need to get on it!!!!!!

I keep coming back to this post and referring it to friends and colleagues. "What people really want is to be acknowledged and helped. That's basic human nature. Nothing new about that." You couldn't have said it any better. Where Comcast has a vested (read financial and human) interest in maintaining it's social media strategy, it would appear Time Warner suffers from a bad case of peer pressure. As a social media strategist and Time Warner customer (thanks Los Angeles), it's a bit unnerving. GREAT post. Thanks BL!

Good post to remind businessmen and marketers to keep their social media accounts active and responsive. We've got advertising tips to share too if you'd like to check it out

Great lesson to be learned by companies and individuals [as employees or entrepreneurs]. This is a good short list... there are tons of other things that brands should be aware of when building so as to be as strong as possible.