So once again I say that the big companies just don’t get Social Media as well as the little guys. The reason can be debated in another blog post but here is the deal.
Pepsi launched a deal with Foursquare and just vomited it up all over the Blog Universe… Pepsi sent out this generic message to Bloggers telling them about their new venture and it didn’t go well with a very nice gentleman who is really worthy of blogging respect. Here is his response:
Once again I say that people throw around words like Social Media, Community, Members but they don’t really get the true power of the internet, the culture of it etc. The internet is a place that is looking for many things but one of the biggest is sincerity. Don’t try to sell us. Inform, educate if we ask you but marketing is changing and you better get used to it.
My guess is that Pepsi bought a list from somewhere, that the justified the cost based on a metric of how many names and email addresses were on the list and then measured the success of the campaign by how many people opened the email. All about the metrics. Forget that you can’t truely measure how this campign is now hurt by the reckless act of one person or one team on the whole brand. Yes Pepsi, you just got punched in the face. The question is do you even know it?
Yes you can measure ROI on Social Media but it’s kinda like measuring love by looking expanding eye retinas. It looses the true essence of project. Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs should all be created and used to enhance my experience on the internet. That experience is the value that we are all looking for. Having strong content provides value and worth to the reader.
Don’t worry Pepsi, its going to be okay in about a week. But tomorrow might be difficult.
