There are some very interesting examples of bad social
media etiquette on the web, including racist and sexually inappropriate posts by athletes. However, the example I’m using in response to Kara Alheim’s discussion topic for this
week will be PG rated since my mother (or Eric Qualman) may be watching…
For all of the Marketing Communications professionals in the
class, I’m sure you will appreciate this failed tactic:
While this wasn't a particularly offensive tweet, it
exposed the underbelly of marketing tactics to the general public which hurt the reputation of both brands (the celebrity athlete and the Nokia brand). Desean Jackson (currently a wide receiver for
the Washington Redskins), inadvertently copy and pasted a prepackaged tweet
from Nokia without personalizing the tweet himself or at least removing the
quotations! According to Kerpen, “Actors, musicians, athletes…all have
excellent opportunities to grow their fan bases, shape public perception…by
harnessing social networking. Authenticity must be a key part of their plan,
though.” Jackson’s tweet is an example of a lack of authenticity for his brand. Michael Katz
(2012) of USA Today wrote, “Still, this writer wonders: Will we ever truly know
how Desean Jackson felt about the ESPYS Nokia pre-party?” Jackson did
delete the tweet after he realized the mistake. Kerpen (2011) suggests when
making a mistake, “if you make a typo in an update on Facebook or accidentally
share a broken link on Twitter, just delete it, fix it, and then share it again
along with a simple apology”. Jackson later retweeted:
Jackson did not acknowledge the error, which may
have been the reason the online social community exploited his mistake the way
they did.
The Nokia brand also suffered similar consequences. The lack
of authenticity on Nokia’s part was exposed since Nokia prepackaged a feeling
or opinion with “Chillin” and “It’s awesome” for the athlete to tweet rather
than have the athlete tweet their own opinion of the party. Jackson’s initial
tweet also brought attention to comments from other NFL players who also tweeted
about the Nokia party, all with similar comments. Takeo Spikes and Vince Young
tweeted exact replicas of Jackson’s tweet after the colon; in fact, they even
left the quotations on the tweet giving the public perception
that Nokia prepackaged the message for all athletes that posted #NokiaPreParty that evening (Floyd, 2012).
While Jackson deleted his original tweet and reposted
another tweet that appeared to be more individualized, I think it would have
been better for Jackson to acknowledge the mistake. I don’t think he would have
been able to resolve the error entirely, but he could have made a joke about
it which could have turned a negative perception to a positive one at least on
his end (not necessarily for Nokia). An example retweet could have been, “Chillin’ at
the @ESPYS #NokiaPreParty with my #copyandpaste function OFF. #oops.” And then he could have taken some pictures and
made some authentic comments about who he saw or what he was doing at the
event.
The last question Kara asked in this week’s discussion was whether
we thought it was fair to ban social media for entire athletic teams or if
using companies such as Varsity Monitor or UDiligence was suitable. This is a
very debatable topic, especially for businesses and other organizations. It
raises some questions about ethics and unfair hiring and firing practices as
well. On the topic of ethics and social media monitoring, Malby (2014) states “Experience shows that employers fire employees for reasons having nothing to do with work” (Maltby, 2014). Maltby (2014) goes on to note
that there are certain situations in which the employees’ Internet activity may
be of legitimate concern; the example used was if the employee belonged to an online racist group. Maltby (2014) suggests that the employer should hire a third
party to conduct the search under the specific guidelines relevant to the organization.
The search firm would only report on information within these established
guidelines rather than an “HR professional indiscriminately trawling through
social media” (Maltby, 2014). I think schools that use UDiligence and VarsityMonitor are approaching social media monitoring the right way. I think this
method is more suitable and fair than a coach searching social media accounts
of his/her athletes. If the school
establishes set guidelines for inappropriate behavior or comments on social
media and they make public their use of these search firms targeting all
students (not just suspected students per say) then it would seem to be the
most fair way to monitor social media accounts if such a need is determined necessary.
References:
Floyd, Brian. (2012, Jul 11). Everybody's Chillin' At The Nokia Pre-Party
(It's Awesome). Retrieved from http://www.sbnation.com/2012/7/11/3152495/espys-nokia-party-tweets
Katz, Michael. (2012, Jul 11). This deleted DeSean Jackson tweet is hilarious. Retrieved from http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2012/07/desean-jackson-twitter-nokia-espys-tweet/1#.VO4yKNLF--8
Kerpen, D. (2011). Likeable Social Media. How to Delight your
Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook
(and other Social Networks). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hi Kimberly,
ReplyDeleteI loved your post! I thought the Desean Jackson/Nokia tweet was a fantastic example of the perils of communicating through social media. As you mentioned, the tweet in question wasn’t offensive in any way, but its apparent that Jackson had no idea what it was that he was tweeting until after the fact. While it may have been an honest mistake (I guess we’ll never know for sure since he never owned up to it) probably made without paying attention to what he was tweeting, Jackson comes across looking confused, and clueless, but most of all, as you point out, he comes across as inauthentic.
As Kerpen (2011) suggests, “You have to be an authentic human being in your interactions. Anything less and your consumer might consider your attempt at conversation nothing more than a marketing ploy, no better than if you repeated a bland corporate mantra” (p. 99). The fallout from this tweet illustrates Kerpen’s quote perfectly. Not only does Jackson appear foolish, but he reveals himself as inauthentic by using his social media to do what is clearly a planned plug for Nokia. I agree with your suggestion that Jackson could have mitigated some of the fallout by using the mistake as an opportunity to poke some lighthearted fun at himself and the situation.
What’s just as bad though, was Nokia’s poor attempt at buying itself some social media exposure with a scripted spiel, and then asking everyone to tweet it almost verbatim. Even if Jackson hadn’t made his gaffe, enough athletes were tweeting almost the same message word-for-word to make it clear that something was up. If “Chillin’ at the @ESPYS #NokiaPreParty. It’s awesome” isn’t a prime example of a “bland corporate mantra,” I’m not sure what is.
The whole event comes across as laughable, but it leaves one to wonder whether or not more casual social media plugs by high profile users are the result of genuinely good experiences they've had with a brand, or if they’re scripted publicity done at the behest of corporate entities.
References:
Kerpen, D. (2011). Likeable social media: How to delight your customers, create an irresistible brand,and be generally amazing on Facebook (and other social networks). New York, N.Y.:McGraw-Hill
Hi Mike,
DeleteGlad you enjoyed this example! While I was writing the post, I had to wonder if this incident was worse for Jackson or Nokia...I would have to say Nokia. While Jackson made a critical error in establishing authenticity, I get the impression that it really wasn't that surprising of a mistake...like it was bound to happen sooner or later by a celebrity endorser. This very human error has the appearance of silliness and stupidity on Jackson's part which is a lot more forgivable when the brand is a human athlete rather than a big name businesses with a robust marketing department, highly trained staff, and a substantial budget. It's frankly a little disappointing!
I agree Kimberly. Who ever was tasked with running and implementing this particular campaign should be flogged. I mean really, you only had one job to do!
DeleteI also find it bit ironic that Nokia, which basically pioneered the early mobile communication devices that would evolve into today's smartphones and tablets, would be so inept at getting this right. The whole affair was just a huge fail for Nokia.
Great example Kimberly!
ReplyDeleteThough this tweet was not entirely offensive it still proved to be a poor act of social media use. I loved your take on what Jackson should have tweeted back in response to the embarrassing retweet. I thought that it was clever, funny and could have been an appropriate way to fix the issue. Jackson really should have done some kind of apology though. Like you state since he didn’t acknowledge the problem, the online social community exploited his mistake.
How embarrassing for Nokia too. As Mike mentions it was a poor attempt at buying itself some exposure with scripted spiel. Kerpen (2011) writes that large companies trying to be authentic develop models and processes, and customer service centers create scripts (p. 96). “These attempts at efficiency might cause some aspects of the organization to run smoothly, but in dealing with customers, they make it easy to miss the mark” (Kerpen, 2011, p. 96). Kerpen (2011) goes on and says, “Models and scripts will not help you connect with your consumer, instead, such impersonal devices create a division between your service or product and customer with a loss of valuable human interaction.” (p. 96). Celebrities should be an authentic human being when using social media.
As Mike also mentions, it’s really hard now to determine if these comments by celebrities are in fact truthful or just scripted spiels by companies. Matt Lalin, founder of Starpower, says that “a partnership is effective only when a consumer gets the sense that the celebrity truly vouches for the brand” (Raghupathi, 2014). Lalin continues, “Authenticity is crucial when aligning your brand with a celebrity, especially in a social media campaign. An authentic connection between brand and celebrity has the power to truly drive consumer behavior” (Raghupathi, 2014.) If the consumer isn’t convinced that the endorsement is authentic, it might affect the brand undesirably, as in the Jackson/Nokia case.
References:
Kerpen, D. (2011). Likeable social media: How to delight your customers, create an irresistible brand,and be generally amazing on Facebook (and other social networks). New York, N.Y.:McGraw-Hill
Raghupathi, R. (2014) The Celebrity Effect: Leveraging Celebrities as a Content Strategy Retrieved from https://unmetric.com/the-celebrity-effect-leveraging-celebrities-as-a-content-strategy/
Hi Kara,
DeleteSo true about the celebrity having an authentic connection between the brand. There is a lot of power in that connection, like for instance with brands like the Nike Jordan brand (which if you ask some of my friends- no joke- they don't even associate the Jordan brand with Nike, it's seen as completely autonomous. Then there are other celebrities that endorse brands but have a wavering connection. An example would be a celebrity that endorses a beauty brand and is seen all over media for the brand but when they are interviewed and asked what beauty products they use, the brand they endorse is left out cold.
Yes that is very true Kim. I feel like recently Kim Kardashion had something like that happen to her. She "pretended" she used the product and then in an interview she had no clue about it or the media saw her using something else, I am not completely sure what happened. I will have to try and look that one up! I do remember a while back a celebrity (maybe Britney Spears) was a brand ambassador for Pepsi and was seen drinking a Coke. Same kind of thing I guess.
ReplyDeleteHi Kim,
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine how frequently this type of situation occurs. I am so curious to know what kind of financial reward or perks athletes and other celebrities make to post these type of "prepackaged" comments on their social media. I am guilty of trying products based on celebrity comments. Kara's example above is just a reminder to trust customer feedback and reviews instead of celebrity endorsements and comments. This is an official "duh" moment for me.
I think your example of remedying the situation would have been perfect. Poking fun at the error and reposting some genuine comments and pictures would be the best approach to regain some of the genuineness lost.
Great example Kim! When we think of athletes misusing social media, we immediately think of inappropriate content, I love how you approached this week's topic from a different angle. It is funny that a big part of my social media "training" with students that are looking to support Marist online is "just be yourself!" I instruct them to communicate the way you (the student) would communicate, now how you think the college wants you to communicate (obviously as long as it is appropriate). High school students have not know TV without being able to fast forward through commercials. Their entire lives companies have tried to find new, creative ways to get their brand in front of their target audiences. These students can IMMEDIATELY see though this "creative marketing." They can tell what is genuine and what is just another cleaver marketing approach. I think the only way we are going to be successful as social media marketers is to listen more and be genuine.
ReplyDelete