4 signs you're a social media failure

Great article

Thanks! It is just in the topic of my MBA Thesis.
Thanks for the help!
Daniela
http://e-businessmba.blogspot.com

Oren - you are absolutely right. And brands are engaging with their "fans" in a number of ways such as you point out with Nokia. In fact, if you do not have the resources or bandwidth to actively engage regularly, opting your fans and other influential evangalists is a very viable option.

Thank you for pointing that out. There is however still the challenge of brand confusion when others use your logo and represent themselves as if they are the company. They may be well intentioned however and there could be opportunity there. There are also many brand enthusiasts who actively engage socially around brands but do not represent themselves in a way that could be confusing.

I think we are already writing that article! I will certainly bring this up with the editorial staff.

Thanks for the helpful comments and insight.

Denise,. I would be interested to see that next article, on the challenge of the "social" part of social media. The activities of your fans and customers does not need to always be a "risk"; I think there's an opportunity for companies and brands to embrace its fans and encourage their independent social media efforts. Nokia (where I work) does this quite successfully, encouraging a wide network of technology bloggers and others to comment and criticize.
More here: http://smartblogs.com/socialmedia/2009/04/24/blogwell-preview-nokias-molly-schonthal/

Kudos to Lolita for responding to set the record straight. What happened here points more to an issue of brand management.

WeightWatchers is not alone in this and we could find many other brands that are wrestling with potential confusion and the hi-jacking of their brand. For all intents and purposes the Facebook page referenced in this article looked like it was from the company, while there were many pages that were clearly from "fans", this page had their company logo, link to website and so forth. The perception that it was company driven was further enforced by the Twitter page that directed folks to the Facebook page.

So there is another perhaps different lesson to be learned here. When you have thousands of folks who can engage in social media, and you are a well known brand, you are at risk for activity like this. And yes, it is daunting, new and challenging to wrangle it all in. There are a number of ways to prepare and respond to this - and perhaps that is for another article.

Lolita messaged me directly and said that she would keep me updated. All we can do is to prepare, plan and respond as things evolved - and as an industry, support each other as we bloop, bleep and sometimes blunder, whether it is really us - or someone who just "acts" like us.

Good points made throughout. However, I work at Weight Watchers and wanted to point out that the examples on Facebook and Twitter that you reference as your case studies are not pages that were developed by the company. These 'branded' pages were, like many others out there, developed by fans, consumers, etc. It's fairly common practice for people to develop pages/accounts as a sign of their loyalty to a particular product or brand and while it's fantastic that people are engaging with each other it does also lend to some confusion as seen here by your round up.
We have a great respect for social media and networking and wouldn't abandon or just "throw" anything out there without making sure that our fans would find it of value to them. For a good example of our official presence in this space, please visit www.myspace.com/weightwatchers or the Weight Watchers Supermarket Foods fan page on Facebook. I'll definitely keep you apprised of other online initiatives that Weight Watchers does in the near future.

Denise
I was just writing when my comments disappeared... hope you did not get a truncated comment.
In any event, thank you. As you know I am a novice, but your suggestion on being prepared is a good one and one that is applicable to most goals. Setting measurables, tangible or intangible, associated with those goals, is a no lose situation. It allows you to anticipate and react intelligently.
Larry

Terrific article and great examples to illustrate each point. I've added this to my "Superlist of What Not To Do In Social Media." http://www.interactiveinsightsgroup.com/blog1/superlist_of_what_not_to_do_in_social_media/

I sent a tweet to @WeightWatchers_ about this article. Let's see if they respond. My twitter screen name is Digital20s.

Denise fails to separate failure of the media from failure of the mediator. Companies turn to social media to mediate dialogue about their products (i.e. to market their products) for the same reason Motrin moms wear their babies -- it's fashionable. There is no evidence it works -- there is just evidence lots of people are doing it, so we Denise assumes we can't be left out.

Three responses on a social media page isn't evidence that the marketer failed to interact effectively with three strangers that might or might not have been prospective clients -- it's more likely evidence that some employee wasted at least a day's wages writing reports, attending meetings and talking in breathless tones about a future of social-media marketing that is far detached from reality.

The medium failed, Why? It wasn't made for marketing. It was made as a reaction to marketing. That's why a porn-merchant and money-trader launched Wikipedia instead of a responsible group of information leaders? Why's that? Because responsible information leaders -- newspapers, trade associations, educational institutions -- did not want to surrender one iota of control over what is said about their world. Clinging like drowning sailors to flotsam of a shipwreck, they failed to board the lifeboat, much less to establish themselves as leaders in the survival phase of the shipwreck. Now they cling to the gunnels, whining about how to know when they're a failure -- (sharks eat you, you drown, you starve, your fellows eat you).

What if marketing associations had been involved in Wikipedia aka Jim Wales private project cum MediaWiki Foundation? Annual donations would have been a foot in the door, and a rug to yank when merchants standing in the community is not recognized. As a stake-holder (fellow contributor along with international money-market manipulator George Soros) trade associations could effectively negotiate policy, or even campaign to get their favored candidates elected to positions of power. I.E. if you intend to exploit a social network community, be ready to maintain not just your place in the community, but the community itself.

I could go on, but in short, companies need to rethink their relationships with individual customers, and by the way, with their employees and contractors. If you want these anonymous relationships to

The example of Motrin's knee-jerk reaction is an illustration of not understanding the technology. Ten years ago most of those offended would have had to the USPS or phone to lodge a complaint. Today, with so many social networking sites at our fingertips, it's easy to make a ripple look like a tidal wave. I hope others learn from Motrin's mistake and take the time to understand the market's reaction before cranking up the PR apology machine.

Great article and good use of case studies. From my social media experience I think the most important points for me are keeping the social media accounts active and monitoring both the positive and negative points created during the during the dialogue with the end user. All too often marketers setup multiple social media accounts for one off promotional activities and leave the accounts to fester. Social media needs to be part of the overall online marketing mix and not treated as something separate.