Crossing a Line in Social Media
03.16.09
Thoughtful Thursday
Recently, Royal Caribbean crossed a line. They found out who their biggest fans were (as indicated by their posting of positive comments on forums and message boards) and rewarded them. Now, if it stopped right there, it wouldn’t have been a bad thing. Actually, kind of cool to be rewarded for spreading good news…don’t you think?
But here’s what happened (along with my thoughts)…
Royal Caribbean gathered these prolific and positive posters and placed them in a group called the ”Royal Champions”. Harrison Liu, the manager of brand communications for the cruise line, maintains that this group remains “independent and share their opinions as they see fit.” And in the next moment, he explained that the responsibilities and benefits of being in the group are confidential.
Wait. Really? The last time I checked, responsibilities and benefits were directly opposed to the statement “independent and share their opinions as they see fit.”
Well, evidently, “they see fit” to post more frequently when there’s a special coming up and attack anyone that posts any negative comments. Funny how these happy, friendly posters have become like posting vigilantes.
Continuing with my thoughts
Royal Caribbean crossed a line. The reason is that social media should be the one place that a consumer can go to get real, honest opinons about products, business, life and experiences. By paying or otherwise rewarding people to post positive posts, you are in essence tainting social media and the experiences that people expect.
Not as bad as a Flog*, but really, really close.
Viral or Guerilla?
Some people (including the original poster of the article) may think that this a type of viral marketing. However, this was not viral marketing that they were attempting.
Viral marketing has the following characteristics:
- Give away product/service (could be an online video) – anything that someone would see as having value
- Make it easy to transfer the information to all of your friends (a link is the easiest)
- The transferer has to have a good feeling about sending the information to their friends (it’s going to make them laugh, they’re going to get some great free stuff too, etc.)
- Uses existing communication networks (video hosting site, forums, email, etc.)
- Easily scalable (infrastructure of the origin must be capable of handling increased capacity if the viral marketing campaign works; an alternative is to enlist the resources of the transferers…affiliate marketing is a good example of this)
Final Thoughts
Royal Caribbean wasn’t attempting to give anything away, show anyone a video or offer anything of value. Instead, they are using Guerilla Marketing Tactics. Guerilla marketers show up at unexpected places to influence people to buy a product. The fact that they were paying/rewarding consumers to conduct guerilla marketing is questionable. The fact that they were using a space (message boards) where people believed they were getting honest feedback is an unconscionable act.
Even if the posters were originally honest fans of the cruise line, the fact that they are now paid or rewarded for positive posts not only alters people’s perceptions, it also brings to question whether the posters will have honest feedback about a future cruise in which they do not have a pleasant experience. All in all, Royal Caribbean loses credibility at every turn with this move. Not a good social media strategy.
What could they have done differently?
If Royal Caribbean had the resources to search for supporters, they also have the resources to find their critics. They would have gotten a lot further and actually spread goodwill if they had spent their time, money and energy trying to engage with them.
What are your thoughts about what Royal Carribean did?
Deidre Hughey
Other Thoughtful Thursday Posts:
Is That What Social Media is About?
Crazy Weeks and Crazy Hours
Who Fills the Voices in Your Head?
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Deidre – this is a really good analysis on guerrilla, viral, and how Royal Caribbean crossed the line. The Royal Champions program puts all the wholehearted, positive social brand buzz that Royal Caribbean’s fans generate into question.