What does “We are Sparta!”, “United Airlines Breaks Guitar,” “#Amazonfails,” and “Leave Britney Alone!” all have in common? Well, if you answered that they were Internet Memes, you would be correct!
Rumors and “he / she said” stories of course have been a common factor to address among friends and family, but for public relations professionals, we have to deal with them all the time. Whether it is questions raised about what is going on with the latest CEO and his or her personal life, or discussion about a potential merger to addressing an immediate crisis – these are all situations where rumors come into play.
However, it has been interesting to see how these “rumors” and stories have appeared and impacted businesses and individuals online. These are what we like to call Internet memes, which can be defined as either a catchphrase, popular picture, or word that creates a certain amount of buzz or attention online and is shared in the masses. Internet memes in public relations are used as promotion tools, getting awareness of product or individual, and using it as a new strategy for a PR campaign. Some call this also viral marketing, which has definitely been implemented in several campaigns to promote certain products (ex. “Snakes on a Plane” movie) to addressing a crisis (Amazon) to the recent United Guitar crisis.
So how can Internet memes appear specifically in social media? Well, with Twitter- people put #in front of a hashtag name, and it appears on Twitter for others to look at and copy. This is what happened to Amazon and their recent crisis. Amazon was caught in a middle of a crisis when they were found to have taken certain gay/lesbian books off of their online system and this impacted whether or not they would be seen by their customers. The story appeared about Amazon on Twitter under the #amazonfail hashtag. Some say that if this hashtag wasn’t part of the Amazon story, it might have not gotten the amount of exposure that they received.
Another corporation that has to deal with Internet memes through social media is United. David Carroll, a musician with the band Sons of Maxwell, came out with a couple of songs about how United broke his guitar on one of his flights, and refused to compensate him for the damage guitar. Mr. Carrol has not only created three songs about his experience, but he is allowing people to download his songs for free. The YouTube video has already gotten a HUGE amount of views. Wow, I am sure that United Airlines is not too pleased about this in terms of their reputation and customer service relations.
So, what lessons can we pull away from Internet memes and social media as PR professionals? Well, as I have written several times in the post – it all starts with the individual and their treatment of others. If people behave and act ethically, then they have nothing to worry about. We are living in an age where anyone can post, write, or create videos and other multimedia to post online, which can influence how others perceive us. We need to have a strong social media crisis / communication action plans in place for these types of cases for specific social media outlets. It is a time where we as PR professionals have to make sure that we are aware of these trends ahead of time (ex. using social media search engines like Samepoint) to prepare ourselves for these situations and act accordingly.
Hope you all are having a great day! 🙂
Best Wishes,
Karen
0 Comments