B. L. Ochman wrote an interesting article this week for Ad Age – Why Big Companies Are So Scared of Social Media. She briefly discusses Motrin’s recent venture into social media, in which the pain-relief product offended some young mothers with an online video. The video discussed the pain that can come with carrying a baby in a sling all day and suggested Motrin as a remedy. A large, vocal contingent of mothers complained that the video was condescending and out of touch through postings on Twitter, YouTube and other outlets. In no time, Motrin killed the video and accompanying ad campaign and issued a public apology. (You can, of course, still find the video and its hordes of detractors on YouTube.)
I’m sure this spooked many CEOs familiar with the incident. It provides them with ammunition against the use of social media and the notion that active, sustained engagement with customers and stakeholders is a good idea. I’d argue, however, that Motrin’s error was not in using social media but rather in failing to understand the consumers they were trying to engage. In the long run, avoiding social media and stakeholder engagement is only prolonging the inevitable.
For all the skepticism and distrust that surrounds modern corporations, we can never lose sight of the fact that they exist because they provide products and services that meet human needs and desires. Despite how it sometimes feels inside a corporation, most people don’t want to see big business disappear.
They do, however, expect corporations to live up to common principles of honesty, openness, fairness and justice. With the democratization of publishing made possible through social media, interested parties now have powerful tools to express how they believe those principles should play out in practice. Organizing protests and boycotts is easier than ever.
Smart companies will engage with their major stakeholders to come to common agreement on key issues – or at least to have an honest discussion of differences of opinion. Traditional executives still balk at this notion, protesting that no one other than directors and shareholders has a right to tell them how to run their business. But a company that ignores or hides from key stakeholders only riles them more, and it pays a price in more intense media scrutiny, heavier regulatory interest, and a more difficult time in recruiting and retaining employees.
The real fear in the C-Suite is lack of control. Stakeholders don’t take a paycheck; they can’t be fired or disciplined. Executives ignore them at their own peril, however, especially when stakeholders have more tools at their disposal to organize and be heard.
It’s always been an axiom of media training that you can’t control the media; you can only try to shift the odds in your favor by engaging with reporters and trying to be heard. The same is true in this new world of social media. Stakeholders can’t be controlled, but smart companies will listen to them, engage them and adopt their best ideas. It’s the way to build and strengthen reputation in this new, online world.
