by Mike Mulvihill
My last Buzz Bin blog post about Jackasses, F-bombs and Incivility focused on recent bad behaviors online and offline. This weekend, there were refreshing signs that bad behavior does have its payback (photo by Blumie the Koala). Kanye West, fresh off his Taylor Swift grab-the-mic dis, was forced to cancel his tour with Lady Gaga due to poor sales. Both Rolling Stone and Spin conjecture that a high ticket price ($150 minimum) in a bad economy, heightened by Kanye’s flaky behavior, led to the cancelation.
We’ve been dealing with a few client crisis situations as of late, so this got me thinking of examples of bad social media behavior of the poster child type most often cited – Walmart, Target and others – whose SM dabbling blew up in their faces. But did it?
David Letterman divulges that he has had affairs with multiple staff members, and his ratings are projected to improve. What was the price of these bad behaviors? Little for Walmart. They learned from their mistakes and improved at social media. They are a retail juggernaut kept rolling ahead throughout this time while other retailers were (are) happy to just tread water. Walmart’s sustainability initiatives are driving image repair as well as innovation.
Yes, there are plenty of cases of bad outcomes that are legend. But I am hypothesizing that these are the exception not the rule. While bad behavior by corporations in the social media realm are often cited, they do not seem to have a greater affect on corporate outcomes than any other type of crisis. So please help refute or confirm my hypothesis. Comment back with some of your favorite examples of bad social media behaviors/programs that have had a measurable, negative impact on the sponsor’s business.
I am posturing that in the end, like all relationships both public and private, if the company’s business proposition is so compelling or there is enough good will built and positive behaviors displayed over time, then isolated instances of bad behaviors not only are forgiven but have limited impact on business outcomes. This is especially true when the offending party follows the rules of good crisis remediation – identify the problem, stop the behavior, express regret, change their ways and institute improved practices – are combined with good communications and future good behavior.
This is extremely interesting. Do you think it might have something to do with the American people’s love of a comeback?
Perhaps. But I associate comeback emotional swells more with underdogs than top dogs. I think it has more to do with the American consumer — we like to talk about stuff, but what we say and changing our behaviors are two differentthings. Oh, and we love to rubberneck around other people’s troubles (e.g. reality TV). There but for the grace of God…