Monday, November 5, 2012

SoMe for Big Biz: You're Doing it Right


Sometimes using social media, even when it comes to extra-large enterprises, is to see the humour in engagement as opposed to the negativity. When you're dealing with consumer products, on (more than a few) occasion(s) people are going to have something less-than-positive to say about your product... take the #McDstories fiasco for instance... so the best thing to do in that situation is turn it on it's head!

An excellent example of a company (and/or their agency) doing just that is the Bodyform Facebook Win

You see, when you have a Facebook Page, you have a wall, and with a wall you're opening yourself up to anybody posting anything. Now, you can monitor and delete whatever you want, but some people would see that as censorship and since social media is all about free speech and free will to be as socially engaged or un-engaged as we'd like, censoring the crap out of your page isn't going to do anything but annoy your "fans".


So when funny-but-somewhat-truthful young Richard Neill posted this hilarious but negative comment about their products (maxi-pads) and how periods aren't nearly as happy as Bodyform's previous ad campaigns would have one believe, most companies would either delete the comment altogether, or their social media team would post a basic canned response and that would be that... 

But instead, Bodyform (or rather their marketing agency, Carat) came up with a brilliant and poignant rebuttle post... but not just a post! Their response was in the form of a full-scale production video shot with "CEO" (aka Actress) Caroline Williams responding to Neill's initial comment... which in and of itself had gone viral with over 85,000 people liking the comment alone! 

Here's what Bodyform had to say in response:


The response itself has gone viral with over 3 MILLION views on YouTube. I know that I myself had never heard of Bodyform or it's products (I believe that it is a UK-based brand) but since this story and the video has gone viral I'm completely aware of them. I'm certain that Carat is going to win some sort of media award for this what can only be called a stunt, but is really a moment of epic genius and great timing!

Suffice it to say that this is a great example of what you SHOULD do if someone is trashing your brand! As the old adage goes "All news is good news" the same goes with social media, sometimes what may be construed as negative or silly can be just the right thing for your brand to go viral, so consider that next time someone has something less-than-stellar to say about your business or enterprise!

Until next time! See you on the twittersphere!



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