Conversational Media Marketing

By now, anyone who has been paying attention to Twitter at all has heard about the that so infuriated moms it resulted in McNeil pulling it. (If not here are some links to the backstory.) Whether or not you feel sympathy for the offended moms, you have to admit this leave lots of egg on McNeil's face (parent company Johnson & Johnson too).

What's the aftermath?

The thousands of moms who will, for the short-term, probably boycott the use of both Motrin and Tylenol notwithstanding, here's one that's enough to give Motrin's marketing VP a migraine. It's the on the term "motrin."

In case it's not clear (and you can click the image to see full-size), just beneath the Motrin PPC ad which tops the returns is a news result that says, "Offended moms get tweet revenge over Motrin ad."

Just below that is the official Motrin Web site which contains this apology:

(Again, click image to see full-size)

This is like having a sign on the Motrin aisle that says, "Don't buy this product!" right next to one that says "Do buy..."

What's the remedy?

David Alston, VP of Marketing at social media monitoring service Radian6, says in his post Will Motrin officially join Twitter and bring their beat back?, "The real silver lining in the Motrin clouds comes from the opportunity now for the Motrin brand to join the conversation, starting with listening. There are other successful turnarounds that exist out there for them to follow."

True, but Motrin took yet another misstep by failing to secure their brand name as a Twitter handle. Instead, it's been squatted.

Let's think about this. If Motrin paid enough attention to Twitter to recognize their need to pull the ad, why didn't they understand the need to reserve their brand's name as a Twitter handle? Not that all is lost. As David suggests, they could choose something like @motrincares or @motrinlistens.

That's the same refrain I could sing over a number of major brands, including Microsoft, Circuit City, Best Buy and McDonalds. (Check Twitter for their brand name. They've all been hijacked.) It reminds me of earlier days on the Web when domain squatters were buying up big brand's dot com names. These companies should not be so slow on the uptake.

Of course, the Twitter phenomenon is still so new and surprising that most advertising and PR agencies have yet to pay attention. (I bet they're paying attention now.)

David is correct that now is the time for Motrin (and other big brands) to start listening, responding and engaging customers. Whether they will remains to be seen. 

PS: For a little fun, take my which asks you to suggest an appropriate Twitter handle for Motrin. The gets, what else, a bottle of Motrin... and a copy of Gary Vaynerchuk's wines book. Tweet your suggestion to @pchaney.

If you need a case study as to how Twitter can serve business purposes, allow me to provide not one, but two.  (Just so you know, it takes a little while to tell this story.)

A Touch of Gray
I was setting up some segments on Blog Talk Radio for the Bizzuka Buzz radio show we do every Friday when an ad banner caught my attention. It said something like, "Listen to Jack Nicholson's last words in A Few Good Men." (I apologize for not grabbing a screenshot when I saw it.)

Being a Nicholson fan to begin with and in the mood to hear him say, "The truth. You can't handle the truth," I clicked the ad which took  me to a landing page for Just for Men's Touch of Gray product which included the clip as well as a call-to-action to get a free box of the stuff.

While I don't have a lot of hair left to color most of it is gray, so I clicked the button. That's when things went awry and where Twitter enters the story.

Something my boss said recently in regard to a weekly Internet radio show we started for Bizzuka got me thinking. "What you're doing (in terms of the show) will not just help us create greater awareness among prospects, but among those considering coming to work for us," he said.

It caused me to realize that marketing, especially social media marketing, is not just about building a prospect list. Sometimes, whether intentional or not, it's also about attracting quality talent and/or wealthy investors.

Marketing Pilgrim's Andy Beal recently talked about using a new Twitter-related app, Tweet Scan, as a tool for managing your online reputation. (Tweet Scan is a real-time search engine for Twitter posts.) I've got another spin on the use of the app, one that's not very pleasant.

Lately, I've received notifications that I'm being followed by those who've set up Twitter accounts strictly for marketing purposes. For example, I've tweeted that I was about to go on a diet. Within a day or two of mentioning that, I received notices that , and were following me.  It could be merely coincidental, but, then again, given Tweet Scan's ability to search by keyword, perhaps not.

Are we facing a trend where marketers/advertisers will use apps like Tweet Scan to search for prospects (suspects)? I'm thinking so. And I'm concerned about the consequences.

I'm fortunate to write a monthly article for Practical Ecommerce magazine. This month I chose as the topic, Online Reputation Management.

Like it or not, people are talking about you online. They're talking about your brand, your products, industry and competition. Do you know what they are saying? If not, why not? Can you afford not to listen?