DEATH BY SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook,
Twitter, et al, once considered super effective ways to build brands, are now
at te forefront of bringing them down.
CASE STUDY 1
Devorise Dixon,
an American citizen, claims he was served a deep fried rat instead of chicken
at a California KFC outlet. He posts a picture on Facebook that goes viral
across the globe. KFC denies the allegations, says it looks like a hoax.
A DNA test
confirms the product was chicken and the incident was a hoax. KFC asks Dixon to
apologize. Even KFC’s “fried rat” finally turned out to be a canard, for a good
10 days the brand was roasted on social media. But think of the damage done to
the Brand’s Equity.
“Social Media
has always been a word of mouth medium, and where there is a word of mouth
there are half truths and hoaxes”, says Rajiv Dingra, Founder& CEO of WAT
Consultant, a digital and social media agency.
CASE STUDY 2
UPFDA (Uttar Pradesh Food
and Drug Administration) finds traces of lead and high percentage of MSG in
samples of Maggi. The brand denies all allegations, says it’s safe for
consumption.
Rumors of Maggi recall flood social media.
The Brand denies the allegations, says its safe for consumption. Nestle also
conducts tests but no excess lead in Maggi.
On June 5, Maggi is taken off the shelf but
the brand still maintains that it is ‘safe’. Social Media is where it takes
only one person to call your bluff. So its best to be honest. If you know you
have messed up, its best o acknowledge, accept and apologize.
Brands it seems are learning the hard way to
deal with social media.
They(brands) better learn to be honest becuz u know,..........social media ke aage kisi ki nahi chalegi.............moreover, its popularity among the richest of the rich and poorest of the poor keep nothing hidden from people........and nice of u to post this article!!!
ReplyDeleteYa dats rite prachi..But its not always the brands but also the people...We sometimes do stupid things for fun and then the we ourselves have to have to pay for that...We shud understand that Whatever we do online is written with ink and not with pencil...We cannot erase it it keeps on spreading....
ReplyDeleteUmmm yes, we are equally responsible for the wrong things on social media.......we can call it as 'fatal awareness on social media'...right?:)))
ReplyDelete