There is a lot of fear about jumping into social media and having it go badly for an organization.  For one example see the writeup of the “Motrin Moms” event, in which McNeil Consumer Healthcare, maker of Motrin, ignited a small social media firestorm with a video advertisement which was interpreted very negatively by the very market that they were hoping to reach.

While some will use this as an example of the overall dangers of getting an organization involved in social media, it is pretty clear that the real danger is not getting involved enough.  Had McNeil/Motrin been more involved, they might well have either avoided the mistake made in the advertisement, or at least quickly turned it around before too much damage had been done.  Here’s how the whole thing could have been different, had Motrin been actively engaging their target audience through social media before the ad was even a twinkle in their eye:

1. Customer Knowledge - Had Motrin been engaging their customers before producing the ad, they might have better known their customers (particularly the social media-savvy ones who might be the first to see an online video) and their potential hot spots around maternal topics.  For example, they might have realized that there are a number of moms out there who do use motrin regularly, but who who do not like the associated stigma that they aren’t fully embracing natural health practices – a stigma that is tickled pretty directly in the video with regard to methods for carrying a baby.
2. Customer Trust – Once the video was released, an engaged customer community might have been a bit more willing to give the benefit of the doubt to Motrin.  That is to say, if these moms had already been using social media (blogs, Twitter, etc)  to communicate with the folks at Motrin, they might have had more trust that the folks at Motrin must not have intended the video to mean what it appeared to mean.  As it happened, there was no prior engagement of customers and therefore no built up trust.  As a result, moms assumed the worst.
3. Customer Channel - Diplomats know that, for international relationships to work, a country must keep “open channels of communication” with other countries.  The relationship between organizations and their customers is no different.  Let’s say that Motrin had been actively engaging the digital community of 500 Moms through Twitter and a blog (two of the major channels used against Motrin after the ad release) for the six months prior to the release of the ad.  And let’s assume that the ad was released, and that it did make moms angry, and that Motrin realized it after the fact.  First of all, there is a good chance that one of their community of 500 Moms might tell them directly and immediately through social media.  But perhaps more importantly, once Motrin did realize the mistake, they would very quickly be able to ping their community of 500 with an explanation or an apology.  As it happened Motrin’s only recourse (since they did not have a pre-existing customer community) was to post a very stuffed-shirt, legal-looking response on their home page 3 days into the controversy.

There is a fantastic lesson here for any organization considering the potential return on their social media investment.  While much of that ROI may come in the form of enhancing the brand image and awareness and therefore increasing sales, another dimension to that ROI may be in the ability to build knowledge, trust and open channels with customers which can help to prevent runaway public relations disasters.