It seems brands are struggling under the burden of social networking and the pseudo-power it has put back in the hands of the consumer. They will sit in their boardrooms with Marketing Execs, Creative Directors and MBAs... fully qualified and educated people coming up with great ideas. They will unleash these business-savvy and creative campaigns on the world, but then they will run scampering to the hills when a small, usually uneducated, vocal minority start bleating on Facebook.
STOP IT!
Stick to your guns!
Fritolay recently ran into the same cyber-bullies as the Woolworth's Christian magazine debacle. They recalled biodegradable chip packets because people complained about how noisy they were??? WTF? Sometimes brands need to grow some LOGICAL balls and stand by their decisions. Just because some vocal muppets on an SM platform complain DOES NOT MEAN ALL YOUR CUSTOMERS WILL BOYCOTT YOUR ASS!
Read the full story HERE.
"Fools talk, cowards are silent, wise men listen."
Let the fools talk. It's the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory. It's like brands and the people that manage them online are bloody n00bs to the Interwebz. If the person managing your social media has never been a moderator, or at least a heavy user on forums or IRC before, then they will be terrified little babies when faced with interwebz douchelords. I've seen a thousand of these loud-mouthed fuckwits in my time and they are just bullies (In fact I may even be one of them lol). Stand up to them - use logic and reason - and they will succumb. Unfortunately, the squeaky wheel always gets the oil.
But I urge all brands to heed this advice. Listen to your customers, but don't freak out if there's a little uproar on Facebook about a calculated business decision on your part. Yes, social media has empowered customers to voice their concerns, but since when did you hire them to decide on your strategic business decisions? Listen and absorb, then mull it over, then decide internally. Don't have a kneejerk reaction. Besides, the average attention span of a social media fracas is about a week, then they'll move on to some other stupid bloody popular campaign, while feeding their pigs in Farmville and trying to win a free iPad by becoming a tester AND GET THIS -->> still buying your products and services. The average interwebz user is a fucking moron. As they say, an Internet petition isn't worth the paper it is written on and most Internet users, the vast majority in fact, do not have the strength of conviction to stand by their threats further than the effort it takes to engage caps lock. Don't let them dictate your strategic business decisions.
DO NOT SUFFER FOOLS GLADLY!
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