Be Careful What You Say

If our experience in social media has taught us anything, it's that everybody should stop and think about what they're getting ready to post before they post it. Unfortunately, the immediately self-gratifying nature of the social web is just too much for most people to bear. Which is why it gets so dang noisy in there.

Call us crazy, but, as an advertiser, we think the true power of social media comes to those who just shut up and listen. Then think. Then talk. In that order.

In the past week alone, we've seen two instances in which this philosophy has paid off in dividends.

Our first anectdote comes courtesy of a disgruntled BC Clark Jingle fan.

Like most Jingle fans, he was pretty excited to find out people can now download the BC Clark Jingle on iTunes and make it a ringtone. What he wasn't excited about, though, was the $0.99 he had to fork over to iTunes to get the download. He obviously didn't realize that iTunes, not BC Clark, determines how much downloads cost, because he called us out and pledged his holiday gift-buying allegiance to a competing jeweler.

Because we're constantly monitoring what people say about our clients, we caught the review right after it was posted, alerted BC Clark to the disparaging remarks, and took action to rectify the potential bad publicity. Not only did we push out a note and status update to the Jingle's 4,000 Facebook fans, we found the naysayer on Twitter and sent him a series of @replies publicly addressing the situation. The contents of the note, status update, and @replies?

1. iTunes determines the price of downloads
2. BC Clark will give $10 off any purchase to anybody who brings their Jingley iTunes device into any of the three BC Clark stores
3. Or just flat reimburse them for their download(s), their choice.
4. A $50-off-any-purchase offer to thank him for bringing this misconception to their attention

As one Jingle fan commented in response to the status update, "BC Clark personifies the Oklahoma Standard. Thank you."

One of the best things about the social web, though, is that loyal fans have the ability to take care of business for you.

Our second instance of Look What This Dude Just Said About Us comes by way of a simple Twitter search with a client's name as the search term. About halfway down the results page, we came across a nice little post calling into question our decision to charge the client for an ad with a "crappy free font", and "HUGE logo".

A quick look at his info pointed us to his website, which revealed that he's a young, freelance designer in Okahoma City who would probably be on the receiving end of the most uncomfortable interview of all-time if he were to ever apply at Traction.

We of course followed him from every Traction-related account imaginable. To which he immediately blocked us and deleted the post.

The moral of this particular story would be: Don't publicly badmouth your local industry, especially when you're just getting started in it yourself.

Together, these two instances illustrate not ony the importance of being smart about what you say, but also how beneficial it is to step back and listen to what is being said about yourself and your clients... And if it's necessary to respond, keep that first point in mind.