Yesterday I wrote a post entitled "Bin Laden Was Crap at Social Media". While the title of the post was meant to draw people in, I felt the content clearly outlined how being on top of your online presence is necessary and that not being online is tantamount to guaranteed failure.
The post was met with compliments from one of social media's most impressive industry leaders about 10 minutes after it went live which was very exciting for me. From there it went downhill....fast. It was a veritable roller coaster all day.
In hindsight using "Bin Laden" in the title as an example of a non-existent Social Media campaign may have been, in some opinions, in bad taste. I can certainly see how some would feel that way and it was never my intention to offend anyone. Which brings me to an important point about Social Media.
INTENTION DOESN'T MITIGATE IMPACT. While my intention was to make a point about brand-monitoring the impact of the headline was just too much for some people to get over.
What I found most interesting, from a socially scientific perspective, is that many people, when faced with something they find offensive, immediately feel they are then free to make personal attacks. The anonymity of the internet allows just about anyone to comment on your content.
If you have a popular blog, you'll know this already. Sometimes you'll write a post with the intention of providing some valuable insight that you've discovered while working with a new client and someone will "take it the wrong way" and vilify you, publicly. Some commentators are not content with remarking on the content and will look for other things to disparage, like writing style or gender. The trick is to a) not take it personally and b) have a plan.
In order to run a successful Social Media campaign you'll need to have a policy in place from the get go to determine how you will deal with criticism, who will respond, in what tone etc. However, you can't respond if you don't know what's being said so make sure you're on top of your Twitter, Facebook, Linked In accounts and you consistently monitor the comments on your blog.
If you, like many others, simply write a post and toss it out there for all to see (if your SEO is good :) and do not bother to address criticisms and comments, you can't really say you're on top of your own branding. Allowing others to determine how you're viewed online is a great way to set yourself up for social media failure.
The policy of my company is to share information that we think might be helpful to others. There is no ulterior motive. Business does not depend on the number of articles written, that's biz dev's job. Providing value is at the heart of our business model. That is always the "intention".
With that core value in mind the decision was made to remove the post. Not because people were critical and missed the intention but because some people were offended. Being offensive is not part of our strategy, as a company (although we respect that others do make it part of theirs :)
I took responsibility for the impact of the post personally and we, as a company, re-learned the "intent doesn't mitigate impact" mantra. Sharing it here is a way to turn the entire experience into shared learning.
The moral(s) of this post is that you have to monitor what's being said about your company. If you don't have a social media campaign in place and people are talking about you online you'd better figure out a way to get in the conversation. If you do have a campaign, make sure you stay true to your core values when putting your content out there and if, for any reason, something happens that you didn't expect have a way to deal with it as part of your strategy.
Good luck!