Motrin – Know the Intricacies of the Social Networks

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 524.

Toyota – Why “Being One of Them” Matters

The Problem: Toyota's recent recalls, from which many people were injured or killed, sparked a flurry of social media uproar. Outraged customers, expressing their anger and resentment of the brand, caused a widespread attack on the company.

The Solution: The first step to avoid these social media PR crises is to get into the conversation. Toyota took to the conversation after the fact, but had lost the ability to redirect the conversation when it needed to most: in the middle of the storm. Lacking a twitter handle potentially cost Toyota innumerable amounts of valuable customers. They were left scrambling to create a business proposal that people would accept.

The Problem: On September 30, 2008 Motrin released an ad portraying a new mom carrying her baby in a sling. The point they hoped to get across was that new moms could look like a “cool” new mom wearing her sling, and then they could help ease the eventual back pain with Motrin. Immediately, every woman who saw or heard about the advertisement felt as though Motrin was poking fun at motherhood. Taken to the internet as the hash tag #MotrinMoms, the destruction was already done.

The Solution: Twitter is more than simply a platform to speak your mind. It allows people to use features such as “retweet” and “#” (also known as a hashtag). If the hash tag symbol is placed in front of a word or phrase, it can then be clicked on, directing you to other tweets sporting the same hash tag. When one hash becomes popular, it is said to be trending. Motrin was trending, in a very bad way. If Motrin had any sort of presence on Twitter, or knowledge of how the platform works, it could have joined the #MotrinMoms conversation for the better. It's therefore important to understand the ins and outs of all social media networks if you expect your company to react properly.