photo by Amable Odiable

I will always remember the younger years growing up and getting in trouble with my brother. We would skate around Ft. Lauderdale for hours without a care in the world, fully aware that our mom told us to stay in the neighborhood and to be home by dinnertime. Then as the chicken and baked potatoes were being placed on the table a phone call would come in from two little boys who were halfway across town and needed a ride home.

We were coming clean.

Today’s social landscape is much the same. Brands can no longer venture out of their path, lie or mislead consumers and create odd messages without consequence. For my brother and I it was a weekend inside our rooms with no tv. For your business it can mean a backlash of unintended media attention, skyrocketed social media exposure and a loss of trust.

One of the largest examples was that of the Motrin Moms. Just over a year ago, outbreak occurred when Motrin posted a commercial that offended some mothers. These mothers were very visible in the social media landscape and over the course of a weekend was making huge headlines. A year later and the event is still damaging to their brand. Below is a screen shot from Google taken on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 for the search term Motrin.

The graphic shows that 3 of the top 10 results, including a video result coming from YouTube, are still having an impact on the brand.

The Root of the Problem

The advertisement in question is not the “real” problem here. While the ad may have offended some of their customers, the ad was consistent with their product and gave customers a situation where their product could solve their customer’s problem. The real problem was in how they listened, how they responded and when they responded.

Much like my childhood skateboarding story, I landed myself in bigger trouble not because of where my travels took me. I was grounded for the weekend because I failed to call and update on time and had a poor excuse. This was the same fate as the Motrin situation.

How To Come Clean

Many companies are going to be faced with problems similar to the Motrin case mentioned above in the coming weeks and months. Companies, big and small,  are having trouble adapting to the speed of social media and how rapid things can spread. The number one factor in coming clean is being able to listen to the conversations taking place online.

This is a repeated subject in many social circles and will continue to be as we still hear that many companies are still not listening. A quick example of a local case could be a small doctor’s office, where patients are Tweeting in the waiting room about bad service or long wait times. By not listening, the doctor and the business are not only missing out on communicating back with the disgruntled patient, they are faced with social friends telling them about better offices and even worse – not fixing the initial problem that is possibly upsetting even more customers and clients.

And it’s not always the bad stuff or customer service related messaging that is involved in this process. Hearing that patients love the attention and are going out on their own to tell everyone in their networks about it is a win-win. By listening and responding the company can build new relationships with the networks of their key customers.

The Response

My parents were mad that our excuse was poor. We were late skating and probably came up with a quick and tacky reply as to how we got across town and why our watch stopped working and on and on and on. Now that I am older I know that coming clean to them would have resulted in much less punishment, but also created stronger trust and relieved major stress that was boiling in my head from skipping around the truth.

Major brands and small businesses can feel the same relief by being more upfront and humanizing their brand. We all make mistakes in life. It is how we bounce back that determines how successful we are.

Think about the top stories of the year. There is always a comeback kid that makes their way back into our hearts. We forgive their mistakes after they own up to them and root them on when they come roaring back. Look at Britney Spears.

When jumping into online media think about being that comeback kid, even if you think there is nothing to comeback from. You can comeback from a bad client experience. You can comeback into people’s daily lives by offering better support or services. You can even comeback just by saying hello and showing that you care.

Coming clean is part of social responsibility and a more transparent marketplace. How have you come clean in your social media landscape?

This post was written by Greg Rollett. Greg writes about Lifestyle Design and Online Marketing from his home in Orlando, FL.

Tags: greg rollett, motrin moms, Social Media, transparency, trust