Mike de Block

How a press release can backfire on a Social Media/ PR agency

At this moment an interesting discussion is taking place in Holland. A Dutch comedian is setting up a campaign against T-mobile, since they deliver crappy customer service. He asked his 40.000 twitter followers to share their frustrations with him in order to give T-mobile a wake-up call. However, this could apply for every company that is perceiving their customers as a number instead of a stakeholder.

Nevertheless, the story took a surprising turn as the focus shifted from T-Mobile to a Dutch social media/pr agency, named Buzzcapture. This company published a research and announced that the T-mobile brand is damaged by 100k or 200k. Nevertheless, on the (Dutch) Blog of Alexander Klopping the research is heavily questioned, since the consequences of the research are rather vague. He accused Buzzcapture to collect “some” numbers and afterwards made up some random consequences. As the consequences would be more then newsworthy and given the timing also relevant, it was likely that most journalist would copy the research and spread the story and thus also the brand of Buzzcapture. 

Making use of the momentum with a (in)valid research could thus also backfire for a social media/pr agency. I therefore didn’t found the actions that the Dutch comedian undertook or the research from Backfire newsworthy, but the fact that readers are actually question themselves whether news is false or true. However, this is a direct result of negligent journalists who aren’t checking their sources. Nevertheless, this example once again underpins that it can backfire when irrelevant information is being spread. Journalist must be aware that it can backfire to publish false press-releases, solely with the purpose to be in the centre of attention for a short period. Social media users would like to engage in (real) conversations with a brand, but if denied or lie to they solely want (t-mobile or buzzcapture) blood. 

Consumers aren’t stupid. In the contrary they become more knowledgable by the minute, so it’s time that journalist leave their ivory tower and value their readers as experts and engage.

Don’t say, I didn’t warned you;)