The ugly side of Social Media

One of Social Media greatest strengths also serve as a crippling weakness. This is their inbuilt outlet for customer feedback – praise and/or complaints.

What happens when you get an incident like Channel 7′s social media disaster a couple of weeks ago where the mother of a daughter killed on a quad bike had accused the channel of harassing her for the sake of a story?

 

‘I am the mother of the beautiful Molly Lord who was killed on a quad bike last week. I would just like to let everyone know of the pain and harassment we suffered as a result of channel 7. A reporter was on our private property very soon after the accident and whilst Molly was still on the ground. He walked up tp the house down to the stables anywhere looking for a story. I went outside at some point to go to her horse for some comfort when the channel 7 helicopter flew above me trying to get footage. My husband was overseas at the time of the accident but footage of myself sitting with my deceased daughter was put on the channel 7 website for the world to see before I had even told all of my family. Channel 7 you are a disgrace and what should ave been a private moment between a mother and her daughter was exploited for the sake of an exclusive story. You bastards.’

Or Target, where one mother sparked up massive debate on their Facebook page regarding their range of clothing for teenage girls after writing:

‘Dear Target, Could you possibly make a range of clothing for girls 7-14 years that doesn’t make them look like tramps … You have lost me as a customer when buying apparel for my daughter as I don’t want her thinking shorts up her backside are the norm or fashionable.’

Qantas’ social media disaster became more of a trend on twitter rather than a single off handed comment, but shows just how deadly social media can be.

The backstory:

Late last year, Qantas released details of a competition on twitter. The rules: A twitteree will make the most creative answer to a dream inflight luxury experience on twitter. The winner will receive Qantas branded merchandise – and not very nice looking merchandise at that.

The result was a inundation of tweets reflecting the ongoing labour issues and the grounding of flights. Definitely not the response that Qantas was going for.

 

Can this happen to you?

 

Yes and it can, and it will. Tune in next week where we take a look at how to handle comments or complaints in Social media.

 

For those having real trouble in this area and others, join us this year in November where we will be tackling to all issues relating to Social Media.