Over the past couple of days, I've been following Chris Thomas's coverage of video sharing gone wrong. The corporation in question may not be a household name -- it's a large multi-level marketer of beauty products called BeautiControl. But it's still a great case of "just because you can do something, that doesn't mean you should," not to mention a cautionary tale about what goes wrong if you lack a basic understanding of what motivates even your closest allies and what goes wrong if you approach social media as a tactic rather than a strategy.
I'd encourage you to check out the posts on Chris's blog -- here and here.
But in a nutshell, here's the story:
BeautiControl produced a hip-hop music video-style clip for it's sales conference, promoting the benefits of being a sales person for the company -- basically that you could make lots of money and get a company car (not that you'd feel pride in knowing that you're providing a great product at a fair price -- but I know that the material rewards are always a key factor for MLM sellers.) This is the video -- I suppose it was meant to be motivational (work hard and all of this can be yours) but it's absolutely atrocious:
Evidently, the company was so proud of this clip that they posted it to their very own YouTube channel and, almost immediately, the company's own independent reps used YouTube's commenting functionality to tear the video and BeautiControl apart. So the very people who should be the most vocal brand advocates -- their sales force -- became the brand's worst critics, and did so right out in the open. Interesting...
BeautiControl removed the video right away (Chris Thomas had actually grabbed it before they could pull it and reposted it under his own name - but alas the comments thread has been forever lost...)
Of course, at the end of the day, with the video still available on YouTube (albeit through unofficial channels) and at least a couple of bloggers writing about it, this debacle has become a permanent part of BeautiControl's online brand presence -- and that's an impact that the company had most likely never considered when they posted the clip.
In his posts, Chris offers some advice for how BeautiControl could have better handled the situation. Worth considering, but I think it's also important to question why the company would have posted this video in the first place (many embarrassing clips from insider events have found their way to YouTube though back channels, but this one was definitely posted by the company) or even why a company like BeautiControl would be using a public forum like YouTube to distribute corporate communications aimed at people with whom they already have a direct relationship.
This seems like the kind of thing that happens when a marketing executive has a checklist of "hot, new marketing tactics" and are hell-bent on working their way down the list, checking off boxes, regardless of whether any particular tactic is strategically sound and supports their overall communications objectives. I'd have to guess that BeautiControl has some kind of members-only web portal where salespeople get product info and place their wholesale orders. Even if they don't, they surely could have chosen a different video sharing platform -- one that offers password protection, for example. So what were they doing airing internal videos on YouTube? It defies logic...
It's easy to scoff at a company that makes this kind of mistake -- but it's hard to admit that our own companies might be making the very same mistake as we speak. So how about you? Are you approaching social media based on a sound, strategic approach or are you simply running down the list of hot new properties and checking off the boxes? And if it's the latter, have you thought through the potential downside?
