“In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.”

Within hours, the social web was abuzz with activity. At the time of writing this post, more than 25,000 tweets with #amazonfail, #glitchmyass, #stilldelisted and #sorryamazon had gone back and forth, the online petition against Amazon’s “Adult Policy” had nearly 28,000 signatures and the AmazonFail group had attracted 4,125 members.

So, what are the lessons to be learnt?

• Be prepared. Word on social media spreads like wild fire and traditional approaches of PR crisis management are ineffective in these situations. Bypassing organizational hierarchies, there should be an internal crisis management protocol or an escalation matrix which provides a nimble mechanism to ensure faster response. I came across this article in WSJ which is a good analysis of Domino’s response to the “disgusting video” recently.

• Listen, but of course! In the Web 2.0 world it is all about power to the people. What was common between both the Amazon & Dominos “situations” was that the spark was provided by blogs with small but loyal followings. More than 4 in 5 bloggers blog about their experiences with companies (Technorati, 2008) and with 77% of active internet users reading blogs (Universal McCann, 2008), one can’t overemphasize the fact that companies need to keep their ear close to the ground at all times. Besides paid tools like Radian6, Filtrbox, Techrigy etc, there are various free tools like Google Alerts, Social Mention, Blog Pulse, Board Reader and Twitter Search that can be used to monitor buzz about your company, your brand and your competitors.

• Get the message right. Amazon’s communication left room for a lot of speculation and when they finally released a statement of apology stating that it was an “embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error”, it was “too little too late”. The message would have been more effective had it been from a senior Amazon employee rather than a PR release.

• Be where the conversation is. In this case, Amazon should have tweeted, blogged and youtubed its heart out. But even at the time of writing this post, there was nothing on Amazon’s official twitter account in response to the barrage of tweets.

In hindsight, it is easy to criticize and advise. What else do you think Amazon should or should not have done?

I came across this video and story on DIGG, and while the employees have been fired, the damage has already been done.

Check out the video comments:

]]> http://www.digitallyapproved.com/2009/04/15/eat-this/feed/ 1 http://www.digitallyapproved.com/2009/03/23/jump-as-quickly-at-opportunities-as-you-do-to-conclusions/ http://www.digitallyapproved.com/2009/03/23/jump-as-quickly-at-opportunities-as-you-do-to-conclusions/#comments Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:15:44 +0000 Melissa Taylor http://www.digitallyapproved.com/?p=290 Last week I watched parts of Obama’s town hall meeting in Orange County, CA (by the way, a friend’s Facebook status at the time was: ”I’m currently looking at Air Force One”, how killer is that?).

There was a moment during the meeting when Obama addressed the AIG bonus debacle and said the words, “Listen, I’ll take responsibility; I’m the president” to which the room erupted into… applause?

That’s right. Applause. Why? It’s not that people are excited about the fact that a bunch of fat cats are getting huge bonuses – that is for certain. No one is sitting there going, “Great job, Obama. You did amazing work on this one. We love how much of our money your administration squanders on rich people that screwed us in the first place.” No. People are PISSED. And they should be. So what to do?

Deny deny deny? Have your press secretary give non-answers at an impersonal podium? No. The only possible salve for this kind of unrestrained outrage is to go directly to the people, speak directly to the people, and take responsibility. This country is so weary of years of excuses, double speak and hypocrisy. We want honesty, authenticity and above all for someone to step up and say, “Hey, this isn’t right. I might have screwed up here. I take responsibility, and I’m taking steps to make it better.” And that is exactly what Obama did.

If you can do that and you can mean it and you can work toward solutions, you can win back the hearts and minds of a whole lot of people. Perfection is not expected. Accountability and frank communication, however, seem non-negotiable. He could have stayed quiet. He could have stayed in DC and dealt with pushing his policies forward, working within the bubble where the work gets done and decisions get made.

But he didn’t. He chose to go to the people. Because it is important to speak to your people.

This doesn’t just go for our president. This extends to every business, every brand, every website, every entity that is providing a service or value to consumers. More than fifty-five percent of consumers have stated that they want brands to interact with them. Your consumers would like a quick chat, won’t you sit down?

I stumbled upon this blog post about many companies being deathly afraid of negative blog coverage. As I spend the majority of time speaking to clients, I can vouch that this fear is very real. Negativity freaks people out. Look, no one likes to be publicly lambasted, particularly not profit-seeking entities that have a lot to lose.

I get it. No one wants their ugly warts out there for everyone to see. But unless you are an absolutely flawless business that never ever makes any mistakes, someone is going to call you out. Actually, even if you are flawless, someone will call you out anyway – they will make it up if they have to.

The truth of the matter is, trying to squash negative feedback, or pretending it doesn’t exist or (god forbid) litigating (!!) is not only not the answer, it is the waste of a fantastic opportunity to engage with your consumers. Social Media is giving us a gift – the gift of answering consumers directly and publicly. Without having to call town meetings.

Those that speak negatively about you are simply inviting you to get in the sandbox and play.

So play. Learn the rules of the game please… but play.

This is the opportunity to gain a new customer, win an old one back, or at the very least show the rest of the people watching that your brand hears, takes responsibility and cares. It can’t be overstated how important that is to the health of the brand-consumer relationship and how far that goes in generating positive word-of-mouth.

Jump in. It’s not that scary. It’s not like it’s $165 million of taxpayers’ hard earned dollars going to the undeserving. If he can do it, so can you.