How Twitter can trash a brand’s reputation in hours
If you doubted the power of Twitter to impact on brands in mere hours, check out this cautionary tale on book seller Amazon.
Anyone who was on Twitter over the easter weekend probably saw the hashtag #amazonfail, and followed a link to find out more. In hours the online bookseller has been redrawn as homophobic. Regardless of the issues involved, the power of social media to hurt a brand – and the need to respond quickly – has been more than demonstrated. As The Inquistr puts it:
“PR disasters on a Sunday are always a little rough, and no doubt that the Amazon PR team has been caught off-guard. They’ll no doubt try to spin a better story in the coming days to explain their homophobic “glitch,” but it may be too late.”
And at about the same time, I saw another tweet, linking to this scathing Qantas customer site.
It’s a dangerous time for brands.
April 14th, 2009 at 8:44 am
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Comments
14 Apr 09
3:37 pm
Scary times, but also hilarious times.
Last week on a whim I typed in “internet banking” into Twitter search and got pages of ranting, furious customers. Same thing with any ISP brand – the tweets made Whirlpool look like Disneyland.
Companies are monitoring Twitter as impromptu brand surveys, (eg. 54% tweets mentioning your {insert brand} were negative vs. positive) because as the Motrin people found out, Twitter is a massive brand amplifier and sometimes you can’t just ignore or deflect criticism.
14 Apr 09
4:08 pm
There have always been people shitcanning brands to whoever will listen, it’s amusing that this is being painted as a new phenomenon.
15 Apr 09
12:14 pm
I agree Ben disgruntled customers have been doing this for years, I personally set up a website that hammered europcar (europaCrapCars) and I even went to the trouble to put the link on their Wiki – it was there for 3 months before they removed it.:)
The point is and I think everyone will agree; the difference now is the time it takes and the millions you can reach is so quick when you want to vent your spleen, that’s the bloody scary bit for clients
15 Apr 09
1:08 pm
It is ‘a dangerous time for brands’ that don’t appreciate the importance of investing in the elements that improve and cement the brands relationship with the consumer, from product quality to communication. What is common is that when the brand is weak it’s the brand’s fault, when the brand is strong it’s the retailers fault, the consumers willingness to forgive strong brands is universally applicable and incredibly powerful so long as, like any gardener will tell you, it’s continually nurtured and cherished. You reap what you sow.
15 Apr 09
1:46 pm
Everyone complains about Telstra but they are still #1 for phone / web..
go and have a cry with your bad customer experience to someone who cares
15 Apr 09
3:20 pm
Interesting to know what brands will do with Twitter. The noise that is out there can make some waves that could negatively impact brands.
Amazon needs to do something. Can they “spin” this to be positive? Possibly? However, they need to respond, as all brands do, when they are under attack.
How brands choose to respond is the tough thing to work out, and that is before they even start to execute a response!
15 Apr 09
4:13 pm
A smart company would implement a confidential marketing policy to tweet positively about their brands. Much like the political parties do.
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