International SEO
Don’t Get Punk’d by Social Media!
Don't Get Punk'D by Social Media!
As online marketing evolves, an understanding of the power of social media to make or break your brand has become indispensible. As industrial internet marketers, we are often challenged by our clientele to prove the worth or utility of social media as it applies to their company or particular industrial niche. Granted, some products or services just don’t lend themselves all that well to Twitter or Facebook. But generally, there is always an opportunity to manage your brand by participating in some form of social media, if only to monitor what people are saying about your products and services.
Now, it’s one thing to not participate at all in social media and simply rely on strong onsite and offsite SEO tactics or a smart pay per click campaign to gain good exposure for your brand. You may be missing out on important conversations or trends that relate to your company, and as they say, ignorance is bliss. But if a negative trend has developed and you have no idea how dissatisfied or angry your clientele are, you may end up blind-sided with slumping sales or even a potential lawsuit. You also miss out on opportunities to gain valuable insight into your customers, thus losing out on valuable feedback and potential new product ideas.
However, the trouble really starts when a company participates in social media without having the first clue about how to strategically run a social media campaign, how fast information is shared online or the power of a single voice to become the voice of thousands (for better or worse). A lack of transparency when utilizing social media on behalf of a company can also create a quagmire of difficulties when the facts finally come to light. There are myriad ways a company can be Punk’d by social media, from something as simple as over-promoting your brand on Twitter to pretending to be a customer when in fact, you’re the CEO!
Below is an extensive and well-organized post about well-known companies that found themselves Punk’d, whether because of sheer ignorance, inappropriate responses to customer tweets, or having employees who misused or abused social media on company time. Take a lesson from these stories and use them to better understand the power of social media!