I've written a lot about how different brands use social media very successfully. So, this time I thought I'll go the other way and look at one of the biggest social media disasters that happened over the last year, JP Morgan #AskJPM Twitter takeover.
It all started with this Tweet on
@jpmorgan Twitter account announcing a Twitter takeover by the company's Vice Chairman. Sort of thing I've mostly seen done by radio shows or magazine twitter accounts when they have an interview with a musicians or an actors.
JPM's attempt to communicate with the masses soon turned into a hilarious commentary against the company when the Twitter community band together to making fun of JPM.
This is a reenactment of what happen on #AskJPM with some of the most colorful tweets that came to spotlight.
After six days JPM Twitted,
Though the damage was done. Adding insult to injury the next wave of media discussions further dragged on the story.
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| Huffington Post headline |
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| Bloomberg Discussion on #AskJPM |
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| CNBC report on #AskJPM |
What Went Wrong?
Remember that wonderful line from our textbook,
Groundswell, "Your product is not what you say it is but what your customers makes it to be". After the 2007 market crash it is fair to say no financial institution is in the general public's nice list, and JP Morgan is no exception. Add to the fact, Twitters are three times as likely to be Creators, more than twice as likely to be Critics and half-again as likely to be Joiners compared to typical online consumers in the social techno graphics ladder makes Twitter one of the most influential social media platforms and at the same time very dangerous place for a company like JPM.
So, what do you think? Do you think if JPM did similar campaign on some where like LinkedIn it may have actually succeeded?
I really like how you approached this from the other side of the spectrum-- what happens when a company uses social media and the groundswell poorly. Your question at the end is very thought provoking. After giving it some thought, I think that given the ease of use and accessibility of Twitter JPM's use of this social media platform in particular definitely contributed to the crazy amount of negative comments they received. I think using Facebook would have been equally as bad if not worse. And as for LinkedIn, I envision a forum on there would receive negative comments still, but probably more professionally written? Who knows!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kayla! you are right twitter is the best place do a "take over" live chat type event. it has the audience and pretty active one at that. there is also google hangouts but most people use the platform to delivering online courses
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