The emergence of social media services as places to gather and share ideas has opened new avenues for consumers to find and connect with each other. While this obviously presents many opportunities for positive brand conversations, what may not be immediately apparent is the way in which the various social media platforms can also be used to hurt organizations or individuals when consumers become agitated or angered. In a recent post on his Web Strategy blog, Jeremiah Owyang described some ways that consumers have actually used social media to stage attacks on organizations:
* While every company has critics, they can now organize a coordinated attack. Every company I work with has some degree of critics, it’s a natural state of the market. Now, these critics may start to organize globally by using similar tools and technologies brands are to market themselves. Expect coordinated and organized attacks from critics.
* Facebook fan page brand-jacking is the new form of tree hugging. As movements form, the organized groups can stage mass attacks on brand Facebook fan pages, overrunning it with negative messages. Like sitting in trees with banners to slow down clear cutting and spray paining messages on buildings, this is simply the digital form of real-world protest. Expect more of this in the future –not less. (Update: interesting perspective on “social media warfare“)
* Ownership isn’t clear –yet the power belongs to community. The brands think they own the Facebook fan pages, but the fans can demonstrate power and take over ownership. When you look closely, neither parties ‘owns’ the property, it belongs to Facebook –but don’t expect them to do much, brands are really on their own.
It’s important that businesses look at social media platforms as not only crisis management and marketing tools for their own use, but also potential sources of strife. With the speed at which crises move across the Web, planning your reaction after the fact leaves too much room for trouble.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/