Social Media, the new soul of the Business

Remember that time when big business and companies only had to worry where to spend thousands or even millions of dollars to run their advertisements be it on radio, newspapers and even TV? I tell you, those were the days. Because at that time, it was only one way of connection. They could only send the signal (advertising) and we consumers only had the right to receive it, to consume it. There was no way to interact with that brand other than buying it or calling them, but who would call them, right? Well, that has changed drastically.

The Internet 2.0 has arrived, and with that, the consumer has now the power to enter in contact with the brands that they love (and hate, of course). Big companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s know that they have to follow the internet trends to stay relevant. Otherwise, their rivals in market absolutely will be where they are not.

Of course you just can’t be “there” following wherever your consumer goes. As I said before, you have to make yourself, the brand, relevant. When I say “relevant”, is not just posting an advertise and leave it there, as if it was just a banner. People will talk, and you have to interact with people, be it your consumer or not.

And you better have a good team of people to handle that, because the big your brand is, the bigger is likely for you to have problems with that, because you are big and sometimes, you get what we call it a “Hater”. And if your team is not ready to handle that, well… you almost can say goodbye to your brand.

But worse than have a hater, certainly is when you are not capable to operate your social media, and to recover from that is almost a miracle. As PCMag says in their article, “19 Massive Corporate Social Media Horror Stories”,  Heinz Ketchup was once foolish enough to let a domain name lapse and have it taken over by someone who populated the site with pornography. Anyone who scanned the QR code on the back of thousands of Heinz bottles found themselves looking at X-rated bits and bytes, rather than delicious ketchup. Heinz apologized to the man in Germany who found the problem; the porn site (known as FunDorado) offered the guy a lifetime membership.

At their article you can read how important it is to know how to handle your social media, and most important, the people that work for the brand, because they are also the face of the brand. In a way, it makes sense, because you certainly don’t a person that is against the feminism working in a pro feminist business. That simply doesn’t work well for any of them (the brand and the person).

Just as real life conventions, people and brands should know how to act politely at the internet and social media. As an old saying goes: If you say what you want, you are going to hear what you don’t want to hear.”