Social Marketing Sins
Writing by Brick Marketing on Sunday, 22 of June , 2008 at 8:45 pm
Social marketing can be a powerful tool used in the right hands. However, if you misuse the system you could be in for some serious consequences - and those consequences could have a profound long term effect, as some have discovered.
There are two social marketing sins that can not only ruin your online image, they can potentially ruin you business - if not your business, your own career.
Social Marketing Sin #1: Never misrepresent who you are!
In the online world it is easy to take on a pseudonym and totally change who you are - you can change gender, age, profession - basically reinvent yourself - and many do. However, if you are in the world of business then this tactic can be fraught with danger.
Whole Foods CEO John Mackey was caught posting on Yahoo! under a pseudonym. He spent some time praising his company while at the same time rubishing another company - a company that Whole Foods eventually acquired. The detection of his acts lead to some pretty bad publicity and provoked an investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that delayed the eventual acquisition. Mackey claimed he was just having some fun. The problem is, he may have come close to being prosecuted and he probably would have if his actions had affected the acquisition cost of the takeover.
These actions could be considered illegal in several countries including the US, UK, Canada and Australia.
Social Marketing Sin #2: Never misrepresent who you represent!
In the past, social marketers have given their clients a boost by entering various sites and falsely representing rival companies. They have then quietly released misinformation or technically incorrect information in the hope that this would have a negative affect on the competitors reputation.
This is illegal in many countries and could lead to some very interesting damages suits if they hit the courts.
Social marketing is a tool that can be used to promote yourself, your business and your products. Using underhand methods is not only an illegal activity, in this day and age of smart users, you will be detected by someone and once outed, your own reputation will be shot. Play the game in a positive manner and everyone wins. If you need to resort to negatives then it doesn’t say much about your own product, business or social marketing skills.
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Comment by Hessie Jones
Made Monday, 23 of June , 2008 at 11:43 am
I have seen the potentially dangerous path of manipulation and misrepresentation by using agency people to take on fake personas to drive traffic to a website. Believe me when I say that the campaign was cancelled not long after it launched. It was quickly determined that the fake personalities needed more time to build up their integrity in order to influence traffic, let alone have the social net population heed what they had to say. While it was a media savings, the agency cost to maintain this momentum was more of a cost of effort because it wasn’t real. Every post had to be invented. The transparency has to be at the corporate level and needs to be developed from the outset. Understand that marketing can play a huge role in this but has to support the corporate initiative.
Pingback by Recipes for Publicity » Social Marketing Sins
Made Monday, 23 of June , 2008 at 2:38 pm
[...] out the Social Marketing Blog by Brick Marketing to see two social marketing sins to avoid when using online social networks to [...]
Comment by Zane Safrit
Made Sunday, 6 of July , 2008 at 10:54 am
Great post. Simple, clear, and to the point.
Yet, I smile when I read it. Adults too often need these reminders of what we learned as kids.
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