Hey Marketing Communications Managers – Don’t Let This Happen To You

Twitter, the popular social media messaging site, has been all ablaze about “Motrin-Moms.”  These are the mommies targeted by the online ad campaign linking body aches and pains to the practice of carrying children in harnesses and slings.

Mothers who advocate this practice took great offense at the message in general and the following voice-over line in particular:

“Supposedly it’s a real bonding experience. It totally makes me look like an official mom.”

The perception that carrying your child in a sling was a fashion statement – and not a calculated parental judgment – was injurious. Disaffected moms got vocal. 

Taking It To The Tweets

Voicing their outrage on Twitter, the complaints grew from a dull roar to a full on media assault that hit the news wires hard. Result? A chagrined J&J pulled the ad.  Creative agency Taxi lost the account. And a lot of apologies have been proffered.

The Vocal Minority

Pundits call this proof positive that “social media” can no longer be ignored. They’re right.  The “Insulted Few” numbered at most a couple hundred people. But these were special people who “Tweeted” and blogged.  The nature of social media amplified their message to a far greater than expected.

The Digital Tsunami

The fallout from all of this is instructive for marketing communications managers: stay on top of social media.  Says Dianna Huff of Marcom Writer Blog:

Long story short, if you’re a marketer, small business owner, or a consultant to them, you MUST get onboard with social media.

Senior Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang on Web Strategy Blog provides a compelling blow by blow analysis which supports the notion that you ignore social media at your own peril.

Protect Your Online Brand With Online Tools

Before you rush out and hire an expensive vendor for your social media monitoring needs, consider investing an hour or two of your own time with a handful of tools:

1. Set up a free Google Alert for your brand.
2. Monitor Twitter with free tools like Twist, and TwitScoop
3. Check in with social bookmarking sites like Digg, Del.icio.us and Reddit
4. And If you’ve got the budget, look at Cision’s Social Media Dashboard or Sentiment Metrics

Because the online ad was launched over the weekend without this type of monitoring,  Johnson & Johnson’s McNeil unit got caught flat-footed and took a hit.  You don’t have to.

And Now The Motrin Mom Ad…

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