The Good and the Bad of Blogging Online

Blogging means you can have instant awareness to millions of people. If they like what have to say, it may circulate. If they hate what you have to say, it could be a virtual wildfire.

This past Saturday a new ad was put up on the Motrin site. It was an ad about moms using slings to carry their babies [read the full description here]. Unfortunately they made the assumption that moms use slings to be fashionable, even though it made them tired and crazy.

Moms spoke back. Big time.

Within minutes, bloggers began posting about the video, and how they found it offensive. On Twitter, “motrin” zoomed to the top of the most tweeted subject. That’s the power of online media. [you can follow the #motrin trend on hashtag]

As of Monday morning, the video is gone from the Motrin site, though it will probably live on YouTube forever.

The ad company responsible for the ad didn’t know much about Twitter, though I’m sure everyone in the company is having a crash course on Twitter this morning.

Social media works both ways. No matter if they love or hate you, it can circulate very quickly. The key is to release to a select group and watch the reactions. Obviously larger budget items can do this better than small businesses. But the power of being online is being able to survey your audience.

1. Who do you trust? Release your message to a select few to find out how they feel about your new campaign.

2. Tweak. Listen to your audience, and tweak accordingly. You ultimately are in charge of deciding whether those you surveyed brought of relevant ideas. Make any changes, and move forward.

3. Release your campaign and wait. What are people saying about it? Ask for comments, and watch your statistics. You can learn a lot by following your statistics.

4. Communicate with your audience. If people are talking about you – good or bad – engage them in discussion. See if there are ways of improving the situation immediately.

5. Make changes. Only you can decide how much time and effort to put into negative comments. Can you deflate them with a post explaining the situation? Can you do it with a few emails? Assess the situation, and agree to make it right with those impacted.

6. Keep engaging. Even if you occasionally mess up [and who doesn’t?] don’t take it to heart. Try something new. Reach out to the community you wronged, and try it again.