As a young and oh-so innocent child, there were several ways to handle being caught red-handed. There was contrition, there was avoidance, and there was outright disagreement. “No mom, I did not eat the last pudding pop! I hate you,” does not bode very well when a chocolate pudding trail leads down the hall to your bedroom. Punishments spent in time outs or writing lines tend not to inspire feelings of remorse as your hand cramps and you beg your elders to release you. “PLEASE! IM SORRY! I HATE YOU! I DIDNT DO IT! LET ME GO! I WANNA GO TO TOMMY’S HOUSE! HIS MOM IS BETTER THAN YOU!”
You get the picture.
The act of “growing up” occurs, and soon time outs become groundings when adolescents decide that they truly do know how to run the world and that they can involve whatever decision-making skills deemed necessary. For me, this was the beginning of AIM and Myspace, recreational activities that were promptly taken away when I misbehaved… I swear I was the perfect child… It’s ironic that my parents took away my meager beginnings of social media to punish me for activities in the real, live world. Today, it’s just as likely to be the other way around.
We’re familiar with naughty interns and employees, including the hoo-ha that was caused when an intern at Marc Jacobs decided he/she was not very happy with his/her employoment and wanted to make that known to the World Wide Web. Not only does this guarantee said individual severely decreased opportunities in the job world, it creates a pock mark on the social media presence of Marc Jacobs, an upstanding brand in the fashion world.
Abraham Harrison intern Matt Carroll made a valid point in his post, “The Intimidating Realm of Social Media“-
“The best way to solve [this] is to author a protocol with consistent practices for all situations. Crisis management always needs to be present in an ever-changing medium like the internet”
A crisis management protocol outlines what to do in a variety of social media nightmares. A protocol may include guidelines on how to respond to irked customers, how many tweets is TOO many tweets, and what kind of voice you want to use when engaging with your audience. Especially when you’ve been wrong. (Look forward to a Chris Abraham post on writing out of context, recently featured on Biznology, coming soon to a Marketing Conversation near you!) Outspoken Media agrees and points out that although in the sixties and seventies you were likely to be publicly humiliated for stating lack of knowledge, the opposite is now true.
”In the era of engagement and 24-hour Internet firestorms, owning your goofs has become a brand’s best line of defense in protecting itself from becoming publicly slimed”
It’s never easy to apologize, especially virally, where sympathetic smiles and hugs are slightly more rare. Gather your courage and own up to mistakes. It will be worth it, I promise. You’ll be met by positive comments and negative ones. Engage and converse with both. It’s the best way to win their approval and increase your appeal. You’ll lose them as readers and followers when you don’t acknowledge your mistake. When you apologize and rectify errors, it shows that you’re taking an active role in your online presence. It also shows that you want to be seen as a human being, not as a computer screen. Apologies are worth a million bucks in the marketing world; they only increase perception of you, both by your publics and your peers.
Related articles
- Fire for effect when you can’t get a direct bead on your market (chrisabraham.com)
- Voice of Russia Google+ Radio Interview with Mike Moran and Me (chrisabraham.com)
- CFOs Have Reason to Worry About Social Media (bjconquest.com)
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }