Following up to my previous post on Jeff Jarvis’ battle with dell – here’s proof that what goes on in the bloggsphere is picked up by mainstream media.
The whole sorry tale of Dell’s refusal to acknowledge problems with customer service is played out in the Media Guardian – the media supplement of one of a UK national paper. Jeff Jarvis explains his motivation for using his blog to attack Dell in the first place:
“I decided to turn this into a test: Was Dell reading blogs? Would Dell respond to me in our public forum? Would it recognise the PR crisisette that was brewing? Simple answer: No. Dell was silent. Dell failed the test. I emailed its marketing department: Anybody home? Anybody blogging? Nothing. I finally sent (and blogged) an email to the chief marketing officer and US VP (and the chief ethics officer, for good measure), begging for relief.”
… and the buzz that grew up around it – damaging Dell’s reputation:
“My blog saga garnered not only comments and links but also press coverage from tech blogs, newspapers, and magazines (see www. buzzmachine.com/?tag=dell). But the most telling moment came in a blog post by Toronto venture capitalist Rick Segal, who overheard a bank teller in his office food court saying, "I was going to buy a new Dell but did you hear about Jeff Jarvis and the absolute hell he is going through with them?" Says Segal: "Lots of people are making the assumption that 'average people' or 'the masses' don't really see/read blogs, so they can take a little heat and move on. Big mistake."
It just goes to show that good environmental scanning – by looking at what’s being said online – and using sites like Technorati.com or Icerocket.com to see what’s being said in the blogshpere – can help to highlight upcoming issues before they become much bigger, and more possibly costly, corporate issues.
Jarvis offers two other pieces of advice for corporations:
1) Talk with your consumers. A Dell PR executive told blogger and Houston Chronicle columnist Dwight Silverman that the company's blog policy was, in Silverman's words, "look, don't touch". How insulting: You ignore you customers. How much better it would be to ask their advice. Beats any consultant.
2) Blog. If execs at Microsoft, Sun, and even GM can, you can. Show that you are open and unafraid to engage your public. Beats PR.
None of it rocket science, though it does require a proactive corporate communications department with the clout to instigate some action when they see and issue arising.
Matt
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