Monthly Archives: November 2008
Have We Become Too Content Conscious?
From time to time, I’ll come across someone who is still adamantly opposed to personally engaging in social media. “I just don’t get it,” is often the popular reply to my questioning of their lack of involvement. I used to be utterly confused by this response, especially in the PR realm where social media serves a core level of importance for strategy development and online tactical execution.
Granted, it may be that my entire mindset around the Web took a turn back in high school during the launch of the ICQ era and continued to flourish from there. However, professional use aside, I do have a new appreciation for anyone that still socially raises a hand in the face of anything under the social media umbrella.
In my mind, it’s kind of like music enthusiasts that refuse to adapt to the digital age (read iTunes) and insist on maintaining a purist appreciation by only listening to vinyl…and making sure you know they only listen to vinyl.
During a recent discussion, one friend noted that she refuses to join Facebook or any of that “stuff” because of the way that it now drives the motivations of her other friends whenever they hang out. For example, on any given night out, her friends spend the majority of the night taking pictures and texting others instead of actually engaging in meaningful conversation. Immediately after returning home, her friends insist on uploading their photos right away and tagging each other to let others know about their night out.
Oddly enough, this is all too common. We live blog or tweet at conferences, presentations or “tweet-ups.” We snap photos, we text, we tweet, we blog, we vlog, repeat, repeat, repeat. We constantly feel the need to keep our network updated on our status and fresh content. But, why?
Are we drifting farther and farther away from the value of long, personal in-depth conversations? Is our 140-character mindset serving as the new primary driver behind how we process and ultimately convey our thoughts to others?
I’m as guilty as the next social media enthusiast and I’ll be the first to admit that I love the way social media has allowed me to meet and connect with people across the world. We’re human. It’s natural to want to feel and experience a sense of community and social media facilitates that process. But, it’s interesting to think about how this shift is ultimately impacting the nature of our personal relationships.
Is hyperconnectivity and over-the-top content sharing ultimately enhancing or hurting the development of our relationships with others?
-Scott
Analyzing the Motrin Moms Ad
YouTube Screenshot
Anyone with an interest in social media has by now heard about the blow up over the Motrin Moms commercial. For those that missed the boat, McNeil Consumer Health Care, the maker of Motrin, released a snarky ad that poked fun at Moms who merely use front slings as a fashion statement while positioning Motrin as a solution to the aches and pains that come with the trend.
Outraged moms who took offense to the ad teamed together on Twitter to let their voices be heard. From there, the fire was fueled throughout the blogosphere to YouTube and beyond (it even triggered this immediate Motrin Ad Alternative spin off). By Sunday night, the ad was removed the Motrin’s PR team kicked into crisis communications gear.
Jeremiah Owyang and Troy at Travel 2.0 both provided nice assessments of the situation.
To be honest, I’m a bit torn. Motrin’s brand managers and ad team could have obviously done a better job researching moms and utilizing a collaborative approach via social media to gather feedback from Moms. Given the community power of the Mom demographic and presence throughout the Web, targeting a key number of influential Mom bloggers to preview the ad and provide feedback would’ve been a preferred course of action.
Easy to look at in retrospect. And no, it probably wasn’t the best idea to launch the campaign on a Friday. Unless you have a social media manager that is willing to sit with their eyes glued to the screen and ready to enter into 24/7 monitoring and response mode for the duration of a weekend, probably best to hold off until the next work week.
That being said…
Motrin. I’ve maybe used it few times. I recall my folks using it time and again for various aches and pains. I just became a lot more aware of Motrin and have every reason to trust they still put out a good product that does the job.
Talk about an unintended brand catapult. Poke around the Web and you’ll likely find that not everyone thinks this is the worst thing in the world for their brand. Yes, Motrin offended a portion of their key demographic. In many cases, I think generalizations were made and the ad was taken way out of context. But, they responded as soon as possible, removed all official ad placements and posted an apology on their site right away. From here, Motrin is sitting on a prime opportunity to either:
A) Fall by the wayside and be characterized by this one flare up.
B) Use this as a learning experience and come back full speed ahead with a new campaign or creative idea to demonstrate active online community engagement.
Lessons Learned – Pay attention to your community and target demographic, solicit feedback prior to launch, put a proactive response plan in place, respect the influential power of social media and most importantly…when life gives you lemons, tweet back to prevent a crisis!
-Scott
