Social media, like most fragile things, should come with a label: ‘Handle with Care’. Anything from this medium, is thrown open to people who pretty much agree on nothing, so it is very important that every campaign is thought through well to avoid unnecessary and unpleasant digital confrontation. The NYPD learned this the hard way today when their #MyNYPD hashtag generated quite the opposite of the result they were hoping for. They had asked for images to be sent in with the hashtag as part of efforts at PR on Twitter but Instead of smiling, contented faces, they got images of people getting beaten bloody. Some even came with amusing captions, like the one sent by Occupy Wall Street, with the photo of an officer wielding a nightstick, which said: “Here the #NYPD engages with its community members, changing hearts and minds, one baton at a time.” KFC never thought that their #iatethebones campaign would propagate cannibalistic instincts (though it’s quite obvious) and McDonald’s #McDStories expected nothing but stories of how much people loved their burgers. Clearly, what people had to say was quite often the opposite. In 2011, Qantas Airways also faced a social media disaster, when their #QantasLuxury hashtag was used by angry passengers of disrupted flights, for everything but the competition they had created it for. Bad social media campaigns do create exceptional brand exposure, though in a bad light. Is that the sort of exposure you really want?
No comments:
Post a Comment