Communication Tools
Corporate Blogging Strategies
The rapid growth and impressive power of the blogosphere is changing the way corporations communication with their constituents. Below are a few examples of how a failure to understand blogging and its power as a social media tool has cost a number of corporations dearly.
The Bike Lock and the Blogosphere
Kryptonite spent 30 years building a superior reputation. For a mere 10 days, the company ignored a conversation in an unfamiliar new medium, and doing so cost it dearly—in dollars and reputation.
- Robert Scoble & Shel Israel in Naked Conversations: How blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers
Over a ten day period, Kryptonite became the poster child for how not to handle online buzz. Aft er noting complaints about specific Kryptonite locks in a cycling enthusiast online forum, tech-focused blog Engadget posted a video showing their success at unlocking the Kryptonite Evolution 2000 U-Lock with a Bic pen. While comments from bike-owning blog readers poured in, Kryptonite ‘responded’ with a statement that could best be described as ‘dismissive’ and neglected to address the problem. And then The New York Times picked up the story.
Kryptonite staffers immediately knew about the forum complaints and the Engadget video. They knew that the Evolution 2000 lock was vulnerable, and behind the scenes, were working out a plan to fix the situation. But they didn’t effectively use the blogosphere and online media to disseminate their side of the story.
Seven days aft er their story broke, they hadn’t even updated their own web site with information about the situation. Ten days after the first forum post, they announced that lock owners could exchange defective locks for free. The cost to Kryptonite? A bruised reputation and about $10 million.
Blog Entries
"The world just got tougher, and so did our locks."
- Kryptonite spokesperson in a statement to blog Engadget
"The world didn't get tougher, it got Bic pens, blogs and your locks got opened."
- high authority blog Engadget in a public blog post
Electronic Arts and Employment Issues
If you’ve got a computer or gaming system in your house, you probably have at least one or two Electronic Arts (EA) video games. But as savvy as they are in game design, they don’t know quite what to do when it comes to working with the blogosphere. They learned a hard lesson in online buzz when a blogger called “EA Spouse” posted about the working
conditions at EA—and she wasn’t complimentary.
What started out as one post on a relatively insignificant blog rapidly picked up—and the mainstream media asked EA for comment on the online allegations, to which EA responded with the standard ‘we can’t discuss employee issues’ line. The EA Spouse blog is, to this day, highly ranked in Google; EA recently settled a $15 million dollar overtime suit brought against it by employees.
Blog Entries
Mr. Brown did say that the company was interested in its employees’ opinions, as illustrated by its employee survey, conducted every two years.
- NYTimes’ Randall Stross describing Electronic Arts Spokesman Jeff Brown
If I could get EA CEO Larry Probst on the phone, there are a few things I would ask him... The main thing I want to know is, Larry: you do realize what you’re doing to your people, right? And you do realize that they ARE people, with physical limits, emotional lives, and families, right? Voices and talents and senses of humor and all that?
- blogger EA Spouse in a blog post that tells “The Human Story of Electronic Arts”
Electronic Arts Settles Overtime Lawsuit
- CNET.com news headline, 4/25/05