Social media has become an excellent tool for managers in recent years but it has also caused increased scrutiny in instances of questionable decision making. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the popular response to NBC’s scheduling issue. At one time, such a decision would have had a relatively low response rate from the general population, perhaps a few angry letters and emails. Now, our ability to instantaneously communicate via social media has encouraged substantial backlash; backlash that only requires a few key strokes. The decision to give Jay Leno back his timeslot must have made NBC executives sweat in the first place but the online hype and a rash of publications can’t be helping them feel comfortable with their decision.
The coveted 11:35 timeslot was a trending topic on twitter and multiple articles pertaining to it top Digg’s 24 hour and 7 day rankings, in addition to being a highly commented topic on NewsVine for some time. A Facebook group called "I'm with Coco has over 470,000 disgruntled members; the next largest group "Team Conan" has over 182,000 members and it isn't alone. Other groups like, “Keep Conan O’Brien”, “I’m With Coco” and “Save Conan O’Brien” also have thousands of members. More startling is that the groups have mobilized and have formed rallies across the United States. Some enraged fans claim that they are boycotting NBC. Posted on Facebook, threats to boycott the network are injurious to NBC’s reputation.
Although reports suggest that viewership of Conan’s show has increased recently, there has to be fallout for Jay’s show. NBC’s integrity as a brand is at the whim of enraged computer and smartphone users. The Craigslist posting for Conan's show directly attacks NBC's choice to move Conan back to 12:05 and must be damaging for the network's reputation in its position as the third highest Digg on the internet.
It is clear that with social media people are capable of broadcasting discontent to a wide audience with great speed. More worrisome is the speed at which people can now band together physically and in great numbers thanks to online applications like Twitter and Facebook. The NBC situation is a great lesson to managers and PR personnel in the power of persuasion that each individual possesses when employing social media. In this environment companies must be more cautious than ever when they make delicate decisions and address crises, almost nothing seen as a “poor decision” goes unnoticed anymore. The situation proves that social media is not to be ignored as both a great tool and great threat for public relations practitioners.
Wylie out…
Want more info? Check out the Mashable article and the Craigslist listing
Update:
Seems Bnet also had an interesting take on the subject. I agree that "it’s always worth questioning whether the “crisis” will actually affect your company’s bottom line" but the explosion of opposition may be too fast for successful intervention. In some cases clean-up may be the only alternative.
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