The advent of granular search tools – capable of singling out specific conversations on social media like blogs, twitter, Facebook and others – means marketers can now find and track brand-related conversations.
Most marketers consider it a happy reality; they can now intervene when the muttering is bad for the brand (and take credit at the next staff meeting when the news is good).
Still, we have to ask: What happens when your competitor is watching too?
Engagement on the Rebound?
What happens when a customer is on the rebound from a negative interaction – and a competitor takes advantage?
Clearly, the effective storyteller would offer an actual example. Which I’m about to do.
My fly fishing blog’s content is regularly stolen by automated scraper sites, and in this particular instance, the company hosting the scraper’s site (Dreamhost) couldn’t have been less helpful.
After several frustrating emails, it became clear their “abuse” process was simply designed to drive away those with abuse complaints (people like me) rather than protect my intellectual property (as required by law).
Unhappy at their sheltering of an automated scraper site, I vented my unhappiness on my Twitter account.
Less than thirty minutes later, I received a tweet from a Dreamhost competitor.
Which offered me a free trial.
Ouch.
When the Online Conversation Spins Out of Control
For corporate marketers, the bogeyman of the online world remains the loss of control over brand messaging.
With the huddled, Web-surfing masses inconveniently ignoring those expensively crafted messaging documents, what’s left is an often unpretty mash of online conversations, including some featuring an unhappy patina.
Once a company has demonstrated a reluctance to make a customer or prospect happy, that customer’s ripe for conversion – raw meat to any marketing lion.
Since the advent of database-driven marketing, marketing departments have pursued “one-to-one” marketing with a fervor.
In recent years, the delivery of “relevant” offers has acquired a similarly rosy glow.
Reaching out to a potential customer – fresh off a disappointment administered by your competitor – combines “one-to-one” and “relevant” in a uniquely effective format.
And yes – given a little work with the right search engines – it’s entirely possible, though I suspect only in markets with high margins or customers offering significant lifetime value.
I typically describe true customer engagement as a linking of shared passions and values. What if that shared passion simply revolves around mutual loathing for a company?
I suspect most companies are just fine with that.
Stay engaged, Tom Chandler.
“What if that shared passion simply revolves around mutual loathing for a company?”
Sometimes that’s enough, at least in the short term. Like two ex-girlfriends of the same guy. They can warm themselves on the embers left behind from love spent long enough for a second round of mohitos.
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Roberta: Thanks for the female perspective – and for leading me to what should have been included in the post: “Hell hath no greater fury than a customer scorned.”
Or,
“An angry dollar is still a dollar.”
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