Every brand wants to be your best friend. In the social media age, every brand will happily put on the mask of “Sarcastic, Gen-Z Tweeter with a love for the viral flavour of the month” if it’ll get you to buy their products. For many, this approach works like a charm. Wendy’s has become a nationwide name in the USA and grown its international recognition with its trademark biting comebacks. However, when this approach fails – it fails spectacularly. The latest victim of overzealous informality on a public platform is Amazon. One poor social media intern has put a strain on the almost untouchable empire of Bezos with one poor tweet.
How Does this happen? What can we learn from this? How can Wildfire help you avoid the same fate? All this and more below!
The Context
Amazon’s poor employee conditions have been a point of contention and controversy for the brand has been a sore spot on their reputation for years at this point. Countless tales of workers feeling overworked and mistreated have become commonplace. The latest to place a spotlight on this issue was Wisconsin Representative Mark Pocan; who tweeted:
Politics aside, this is a rather serious claim. One that any business owner can agree is not to be taken lightly – regardless of its validity. Of course, it’s not Bezos who runs the ‘@amazonnews’ handle. They’re simply following a corporate mandate. Be youthful, be bold, something along those lines. So, they responded as follows:
… Oh dear.
As you can imagine, the internet did exactly what you expected when faced with derision from a tech monolith. What followed was a volley of yellow-coloured bottles in Amazon vans, worker testimony and ultimately a humbled Amazon making a squeaky-clean, PR-approved apology for their self-described “Own-goal”.
Not really a good look, is it?
How does my business avoid this?
As we discussed at length in our guide to dealing with customer complaints, all issues must be taken seriously. No matter how unfounded, a degree of professionalism must be demonstrated. No matter how “with-it” your brand is, or ridiculous the claims are – Customer Service comes before marketing when dealing with controversy.
Check out any list of corporate Twitter fails. No one’s including the “We’re sorry to hear that!” Tweets. When you act unprofessionally in the face of criticism, customers notice. If you want to infuse a bit of meme culture into your customer service policy on social media, consider this quote from Futurama – the birthplace of more GIFs than most:
“When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.”
How can Wildfire Marketing Help?
Here at Wildfire Marketing, our Social Media team is well versed in communication of all kinds on all major platforms. We make sure each tweet and post goes through extensive approval, keep a consistent theme and brief per platform/client, and maintain open communication with each client to ensure their social media presence represents their vision for their business in the best light. Wildfire Marketing isn’t one underpaid intern behind a MacBook. We’re a team of top Marketing Experts ready to make sure your business navigates the feisty waters of the social media mob effortlessly.
Interested in our service? If you want to make sure you don’t become the next pariah of the Twitter mob, trust Wildfire Marketing. We are the Number one SEO Agency in Leeds, offering a comprehensive marketing plan we’re sure can be tailored to meet your exact needs as a business. Contact our team today to learn more.