Social Media Isn’t Easy to Control
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Covering something as sprawling as the Olympics in a way that will satisfy everyone is practically impossible. Theres so much happening that you cant cover everything in the way that pleases everyone. There are going to be complaints.
But the complaints arent the problem. The problem comes when instead of trying to turn those complaints into a positive experience, you perceive them as attacks, and try to prevent them, or failing that, try to insult the complainers for having the nerve to complain. Worst of all is when you take complaints and use those as a base for a counter-attack instead of a solution. This has been NBCs downfall in the networks attempt at leveraging the social media.
For example, on the first day of the Olympics, both the International Olympic Committee and NBC tried to convince people not to Tweet the results of games or medals won, apparently as a way to protect the networks prime-time lineup. This isnt surprising in regards to the IOC, which is legendary in its attempts to prevent the free flow of information. With NBC, its a little surprising. But more surprising yet was NBCs successful attempt to get Twitter to pull the account of a journalist who was complaining about the networks policy of using tape delays in televising significant events.
In this case, the network got Twitter to shut off the account of Guy Adams of the Independent for publishing the public corporate e-mail address of Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics. This is the same address that is on the companys Website.
NBC could have turned this into a win if the person in charge of the companys social media efforts, Vivian Schiller, had responded with an offer to try to have that changed, but she didnt. Instead Schiller (@vivianschiller) took to Twitter herself to demean people for complaining, such as suggesting that one Twitter follower should get a medal for Olympic whining.
The positive note is that NBC has shown that one well-worn saying Id heard for years was truethat theres always someone whos best use is as a bad example. If there has been a bad example of how to create and implement a social media strategy, then surely its NBC. If you want to know how bad, just search for the hashtag #nbcfail and youll see dozens of tweets stream by every second. By now, one must wonder if @vivianschiller has recognized that maybe this wasnt the best way to leverage the social media.
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Wayne Rash is a Senior Analyst for eWEEK Labs and runs the magazine's Washington Bureau. Prior to joining eWEEK as a Senior Writer on wireless technology, he was a Senior Contributing Editor and previously a Senior Analyst in the InfoWorld Test Center. He was also a reviewer for Federal Computer Week and Information Security Magazine. Previously, he ran the reviews and events departments at CMP's InternetWeek.He is a retired naval officer, a former principal at American Management Systems and a long-time columnist for Byte Magazine. He is a regular contributor to Plane & Pilot Magazine and The Washington Post.
