Lesson 1: What Kills Brands in the Social Mediasphere?

There are many many things that can contribute to the downfall of a brand or product within the social mediasphere - and all of these things can be traced back to one thing - understanding the sandbox you're playing in.  I see this happen often - where someone at the corporate or agency level gets super-excited about launching a social media program for their new product, company, brand. They poor a ton of money into to and off they go!  And, then it flops and they wonder why. 

Simple answer - they didn't do their homework.  They didn't watch, listen and learn.  Its like my CEO, Pete Snyder, always says "Its like a cocktail party conversation - you wouldn't walk up to a group of people that obviously all know each other who are already engaged in lively discussion and start mouthing off on another subject that is totally unrelated and unfamiliar to them." 

No, of course you wouldn't.  You'd introduce yourself politely, listen intently, add in a few uh-huhs and nuh-uhs, gain their trust, add in a little bit more information to the conversation (only if you know what you are talking about on that subject), and once they begin to include you in the conversation, you can start to insert a little more of your opinion, until you are a full-fledged part of the conversation.  This is where brands completely ignore the rules that they abide by in everyday life.  You get them online and they forget all their manners!

Today, I saw something interesting occur.  YouTube, a very well-known brand in the world of online video-sharing platforms, launched a new toolbar for embedded videos yesterday - seemingly without telling anyone.  None of their loyal users; none of their brand advocates. 

So what happened?  They got slammed by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch.  And he told readers exactly how to remove the "fugly toolbar."  Which not only got published on TechCrunch, picked up by numerous other blogs (4800+ at last count), generated nearly 100 comments in 24 hours, but it got picked up by the Washington Post (traditional media!) and published there as well.  This does not bode well for YouTube - they got slammed by an "influencer" and the social mediasphere reacted accordingly. I would imagine that their " fugly embedded toolbar" is all but dead at this point, as the TechCrunchies and the rest of the social media world are all following Arrington's lead and removing it - thanks to his explicit instructions on how to do that.

(tx to Gecko & Fly)

How could YouTube have presented this better - in a way that would have gained favor and accepted?  Watched, listened, learned, and invited social media influencers and loyal users to weigh in on the decision & provide feedback for this new toolbar, then communicated to the YouTube audience at large - in a number of ways and in a number of platforms.  

If this had been their path, it would have been a successful one.  They would have already determined if their audience wanted one, gained critical insight into their users' perspectives on this toolbar, tweaked it accordingly, and then launched a product that they already knew people wanted and already had brand advocates bought into it.  Can you imagine what a positive Michael Arrington post would have done?