Photo Credit: Kelly Samardak, Just An Online Minute
Yesterday I attended the “When Social Media Becomes Unsociable” panel part of this week’s “Social Media Week” in New York. The panel, held at Fleishman Hillard’s New York office was full of people who engage/work in the new media space including:
- Constantine Basturea, Converseon
- Steve Coulson, The Advance Guard
- Peter Himler, Flatiron Communications
- Brad Mays, FH Digital Dallas
- Amber Naslund, Radian6
- David Bradfield (Moderator from FH Digital)
A full recap of what was discussed (Social Media- Don’t be an idiot) can be found on Kelly Samardak’s “Just an Online Minute” post with some fun photos as well, but we wanted to address the theme of what was discussed further.
It’s nothing new. When engaging with social media – Don’t. Be. An. Idiot.
The panel covered on the Michael Phelps fiasco (end conclusion: Mixed- Who’s the bigger idiot? Him for doing the drugs? (YES) or Kellogg’s who now has a backlash against them for dropping him?) as well as other examples from the panelists about crisis situations where members of the community put in their 2 cents to negatively comment on a brand or product. Scott Monty, Head of Social Media at Ford was a favorite of someone who does it well. Why? He does it smart and isn’t an idiot.
At times, people want to rush in a fix a situation happening on the comments section of a blog that gets 50 readers a month. The rush to jump in causes a wave of bad responses and then an even bigger dilemma than what you started with. Just take a step back and think of how you can best have a conversation with the person being negative. Are they wrong? They could be and you could be the one to help answer them. Are they right? Well, admit it if you have to and provide resources for them to help. Just take a few minutes and figure out why you need to be involved. If it’s not THAT important, move on and worry about the bigger dilemmas.
Result: Less idiots. More happy campers (read: clients and customers)
