Amazon has become a case study. While so many marketers are frothing at the bit to jump on the social media bandwagon, #amazonfail is a very good example of the potential risks a brands face in the changing environment. And whether or not you embrace or reject social media, it is here now and you are going to have to deal with it.
In the age of dial up, we started to become a voice among many, our big-fish-small-pond selves moved to the big city where our worlds opened up. Pockets of subgroups, with interests, hobbies and fetishes you never even heard of formed, and like sought like. You could do and say anything anonymously and probably find someone who agreed with you.
And then the pendulum swung back. People needed to feel more than a voice in the wind. They needed to be where they feel they mattered, where everyone knew their name. And with that, social media evolved to the point where what you did on your day off while “sick” would be discovered by your boss because you got a little too comfortable with Facebook. In the flip of a switch we went from our big city living to small town where everyone knows your business.
And not unlike a small town, news travels fast.
#Amazonfail started to grow in leaps and bounds over the weekend. The very tag “#amazonfail” not only captured our interest, but conveyed everything that would generate a value attribution. We all understood the context of any words that followed “fail”. For the first short while it was all emotional response.
While we talk about the wisdom of crowds, we also need to consider the power of mob think. People will make an initial value judgment that can be very hard to change, especially after they have committed to it (let’s say, by tweeting about it to all they know). Human inclination is to stick with your opinions. Right or wrong.
Unfortunately for Amazon, time was not on their side. Social media runs with rapid speed, as individuals operate independently. Larger businesses simply can’t move that fast. They can’t afford to. A function of bureaucratic hurdles is to specifically to manage and minimize risk. There will always be individuals looking to destabilize perceived power and larger companies have a lot more to lose.
But in the meantime social media was feeding on itself. Every unaddressed hour was an example of how Amazon was trying to exercise control over the people. At best they did not care, at worse there was a sinister agenda. Every hour that went by was fuel for the fire.
And, unfortunately for Amazon, they failed to understand another component of human nature: if we were all screenwriters, we would instinctively know that the audience needs a payoff. No longer can we write our endings with “they woke up and it was all a dream”. Once the crowd gets worked up over injustice they require atonement. It’s human nature and the movies know all about this. The crowd will not be satisfied with “glitch” as an explanation at this point. The resulting #glitchmyass is good example of that.
The public wants an apology. Something sincere. And corporate speak is not cutting it.
The bottom line here is authenticity. When we receive a pat response, we know it is a pat response. It leads people to think there is a lie involved. But at one time, and some even suggest that even just a month ago, Amazon corporate speak was smoothing ruffled feathers when dealing with a few powerless individuals. Today for Amazon that has changed. The power has shifted.
To what degree this will affect Amazon’s business is hard to say. Their stock took a dip today, but not a significant one. All the same, some people are communicating that they will not support Amazon now. And even if it does not significantly affect Amazon now, it is one more tiny seed of mistrust that has been planted in general. It could be forgotten about. Or it could lie dormant until another time.
The gap between organizations and individuals is closing on many levels. If brands hope to enter into the social media Conversation as so many hope to do, they will need to understand that risks come with it.