Blog

The first installment in the Social Media Mistakes series covered the “ignore it and hope it will go away” mistake.  The second mistake is usually the next misstep businesses make with social media… they try to manipulate it.

In the blog post, Social Media Marketing – what you don’t know CAN hurt you! I share the story of how Belkin – a manufacturer of electronics – got caught in an attempt to play the social media marketing game by gaming those results.

Rather than rely on customers to post real reviews of Belkin products- they decided to advertise and offered to pay for post positive reviews.  Their advertisement was seen by Arlen Parsa who happened to have a blog.  Even though he’s not a reporter, he broken the story like a pro in Exclusive: Belkin’s Development Rep is Hiring People to Write Fake Positive Amazon Reviews.  Other bloggers saw this post, picked up the story and carried it as well.  Suddenly, Belkin has a PR problem.

Fortunately for Belkin, they weren’t new to the web so this “scandal” didn’t eclipse their long established web presence.  It’s still there – but it’s never reached #1 on a search for just the business name.  The same wasn’t true of the Cash4Gold Social Media Meltdown.  Cash4Gold actually had to launch an AdWords campaign on their own brand because the scandal stirred up by social media eclipsed their measly online presence.

For many businesses their first foray into the wild and wonderful world of social media is when they discover a social media shit storm (links to a story about United Airline’s own social media PR disaster) has erupted and their beloved brand is at the epicenter.  They come face to face with a disgruntled customer’s blog post  and the first order of business is to get rid of it.

It’s human nature.  None of us wants a blog post lambasting our business out there for all to see.  It’s even worse when the blog posts has comments that say, “Glad I found this – I won’t be doing business with these guys.”  That has happened on my own bitchy blog post, “When the Pest Control Company is your most Annoying Pest!

As a business owner, you need to understand that social media users tend to feel a type of social media moral obligation to share their experiences with their online tribe. This is nothing new – people have always felt compelled to share their experiences with others – the difference now is that sharing is “etched” in the stone which is the most comprehensive directory mankind has ever created

Important take away for business owners and brand managers

Recognize that social media is giving customers a voice – their complaints can no longer be counted as “customer noise“.   With that in mind, remember that the web is usually not the FIRST step in an effort to resolve an ugly customer service situation.  In the case of United Airlines – it took SEVERAL disrespectful interactions before Dave Carroll composed his now famous ditty.  (Read What to do when Social Media creates a Shit Storm for more on this story.)

Had Dave Carroll’s experience been “unique” – had he been the only one who was treated with blatant disrespect by United Airlines – his attempts to share his story would have fallen on deaf ears.  Instead, there are hundreds – perhaps thousands – of people who have had similar experiences with United.  They connected with Dave’s authentic experience – thus the viral nature of Dave’s musical retort.

This is why most attempts at manipulating social media fail miserably.  There seems to be a built in “bullshit detector” in social media. Maybe it’s that you can’t fool all of the bloggers all of the time… but for whatever reason – I have yet to see an example of an inauthentic customer complaint getting any traction online.

If you’re a business owner or brand manager – and you see bad buzz in social media about your company – the absolute FIRST step is NOT to try to “manipulate” the situation. Your first job should be to assess and correct the situation internally.

Diagnose and correct the problem – then make your apologies.  You might be surprised how willing people are to forgive you and your employees when you authentically make amends.   You also might be surprised how an inauthentic response can actually make the situation worse in the long run.

I write a lot here about connecting with customers.  It’s what social media does best really.  While the old web  was all about a one way conversation in which businesses “spoke” and consumers “listened”…  the “new” web with it’s social media capabilities – allows the conversation to go two ways.

Social media is new – brand spanking new.  Never before in human history has communication on a grand scale been accessible to the masses.

Businesses are learning – often the hard way – what this new level of communication means for their business.  In a nutshell – if you’re not treating your customers with the respect they deserve – you’re in for a nasty introduction to the power of social media.

Some companies don’t respect their customers.  They view them as idiots with credit cards and the latest “aggressive sales tactic” known as post transaction marketing is a prime example of this type of thinking.

What is post transaction marketing?  Well, it’s really quite simple.  When you complete a transaction with one of over 450 online retailers, when the purchase is complete, a “certificate” will pop up with an offer which appears to be from the merchant with whom you just trusted enough to share your credit card information.

Click here to claim [insert irresistible offer here].
Continue
Click for details now!

When you “click”… you’re taken to an innocuous site which asks you to enter your email address.  Remember, you have to enter your email address to get the irresistible offer.  Since  this page doesn’t ask you to hand over your credit card information – many consumers didn’t think twice about entering their email address to obtain an additional discount or cash back.

After all, what harm can comes from turning over your email address?

What these customers discovered was that they had inadvertently signed up for a monthly charge to their credit card.  See,  buried in the fine print was the agreement to allow a third party to charge their credit card each month … using the same credit card information they had given previously to complete their purchase at a trusted online retailer.

The term used to describe this is “data pass”.  The data pass – the data being your credit card information –  happens behind the scenes and the whole process to gain your consent to this is intentionally deceptive. Using a brilliantly crafted combination of stealth and trickery – by entering your email address, you’re authorizing the merchant with whom you just did business to share your personal data with another company.

See, once you’ve completed your transaction, well… I’ll let the government report tell the tale:

For customers to reach the confirmation page, they must either accept the offer to join a membership club offered by the third party sellers (by clicking a large, colorful ?”Yes” button) or click a much less conspicuous “No Thank You” hyperlink. In general, the name of the familiar website with which the consumer has just completed a transaction is displayed on this page, making it more difficult for the consumer to discern that this “interstitial” page is actually owned and operated by the third party company, not the website on which the consumer has been shopping.

Consumers who have been duped by this process have found themselves unknowingly joining a membership site – with a 30 day free “trial”… then the charges of between $10-$20 per began.  Some consumers paid for months before noticing the charge on their bill.

According to C-net:

The government says the investigation shows that Webloyalty, Affinion, and Vertrue “trick” consumers into entering their e-mail address just before they complete purchases at sites such as Orbitz, Priceline.com, Buy.com, 1-800 Flowers, Continental Airlines, Fandango, and Classmates.com. A Web ad, which many consumers say appears to be from the retailer, offers them cash back or coupon if they key in their e-mail address.

Many of those who complained say they don’t fear the ad because they aren’t being asked to turn over credit-card information, according to the Senate report.

According to the Cnet article – one of the biggest profiteers from this scam is Classmates.com.  They’ve partnered with all three companies pulling this scam and pocketed over $70 million as a result.   And you thought Classmates.com’s  biggest sin was sending you emails that lie to you about someone looking specifically for you on their site.

Are victims of this scam complaining?   You bet they are.   According to the government report,

Thousands of customers have contacted the companies using words like “fraud”, “tricked”,”deceptive”, “misleading”,”scam”, “deceitful”, “dishonest”, “betrayed”, and “robbed” to describe their experiences.

In the government report – the customer complaints have been tagged as “customer noise”.

CUSTOMER NOISE

I guess “customer noise” is kind of like the sound you heard Ned Beatty make in the movie Deliverance.

Denny Hatch actually lists a few of the companies involved and he discloses their estimated “take” from their part in this scam.  (Be sure to click through to see a list of the popular retailers who have profited from this scammy practice.)

When confronted with this practice, the blame is promptly shifted onto consumers.  Obviously, if the customers of these online businesses are “stupid” enough to trust them with their credit card information – then they deserve what ever abuse they receive as a result.

This practice has it’s roots in the days BEFORE social media – before communication via the web was easy and accessible to all.  I’ve written often about how in the “old” days, mass communication was reserved for national media.

In the old days –  when consumers complained – retailers could count on the effect being contained.  The old adage that an unhappy customer told 10-16 others would affect a small mom and pop or  local retailer much harder than it would affect a larger company.  Unhappy or upset?  You’d tell your friends and relatives and your experience might dissuade them from buying.  Previously – the only backlash a large abuser of customers feared was the FTC.

However, it’s not just the internet – it’s social media which is changing all of that.

Now, when consumers have been led down the river and screwed hard instead of screaming like a pig – they can make their voices heard via social media.  These “squeals” continue to echo LONG after they were first made.   My blog post about my complaints about a pest control company will continue to live on as long as this blog is online.

When consumers squeal online via social media – the squeal gains legs.  In the case of United Airlines – a customer complaint ignited a social media shit storm.

Social media is changing the landscape by making the internet a two way communication tool.   Gone are the days when you had to have access to a journalist to get your story told. Gone are the days when you had to be able to code in HTML to communicate via the web.

Now – when a customer feels like making some customer noise and screaming like a pig – they can do so with social media.   They don’t have to be “smart” enough to code – or rich enough to pay a programmer.  All they need is an internet connection and a passion to begin.

Call it customer noise at your own peril.