I was spending some time farting around digg — something I love doing because it is consistently awesome — and came upon this digg called One of a kind computer desk… with the unintentional but very unfortunate stocked item in Target.com: “Black Kid’s Computer Desk.”
Well, it was obviously just a random act of inventory base name plus color name — and could be “White Kid’s Computer Desk” would would make its own sort of ick.
Holy moly, 3,071 diggs in 7 days and 297 comments! That is a super explosion and really nobody’s fault but super-embarrassing to say the least.
This is the reason why one really needs to do social media monitoring or hiring a firm like Abraham Harrison to do your social media monitoring and online reputation management — for occurrences just like this one, and many more.
That said, it looks like this was either a spoof — funny — or Target is on the ball because now it is called Kool Kolors Computer Desk – Classic Black.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Your blog post is correct that companies need to do social media monitoring because the problem with social media is things spread and people don’t always check the story (how many living celebrities have been reported dead through social networks?). A quick google search shows that there are blog postings dating back to May of 2008 about this. A search on Target’s website reveals this desk now comes in other colors and is $10 more expensive than the ad going around the internet.
There are two lessons here.
First, Target should have done more than just change the name. Here it is at least 18 months since this error and it’s still being talked about.
Second, everyone has a responsibility to verify information before they retweet, report, Digg it, etc. Social Media is an extension of word of mouth marketing. In word of mouth marketing you weigh the credibility of the source. Everyone know neighbors and co-workers that they would apply different credibility levels to when listening to stories…the same is true on the internet. I follow blogs of people and weigh the source when reading the story.
Since this was first posted in May of 2008 Target may have been on the ball, but I would add one more possibility to your final bullet…vindictive. Why is someone posting old news unless they have something against Target?
There comes a bigger reason for SM monitoring….catching and stopping old news or inaccuracies before they become viral. Just think how many of these Diggs could be also posted on facebook and then shared from there…3000 could mean that 30,000 have seen this story! How many of those 30,000 are telling co-workers “guess what I saw last night”
And this article is pretty much, “look what I found over the weekend on digg,” right?
Amazing comment — thank you so much for taking time to comment here on MC.