Mass Mass Media Wars

Call it the ‘Social Media Revolution’. Or ‘The Fans Strike Back’. Better still the ‘Mass Mass Media Wars’!

In new unprecedented twist the people – the minions and the masses – are no longer quietly accepting the overarching power of major corporations and are making their opinions felt, rapidly and virally.

Take the case of Harry Potter. The Potter franchise is the heftiest in history making $4.5 billion in box-office revenue worldwide. Its fans are a big part of that success and although its producers, Warner Bros. have accorded the fans their respect, they vastly underestimated how quickly the tide could turn against them if the fans didn’t appreciate any decision they made.

Within hours of Warner Bros’ August 2008 decision to postpone the release of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” to July 2009, hate mail and death threats began pouring in. Warner Bros executives’ private email addresses circulated via the Web and Youtube posts of angry homemade videos flooded the Internet. The studio retreated with an apology and the promise that “Half-Blood Prince” would now open closer to the studio’s seventh planned Harry Potter film, due out in November 2010, which still didn’t appease die hard muggle fans who’re still muttering about it.

Then there’s the Twitter Effect, the make or break power of tweets, which last week broke Bruno’s poise. Sacha Baron Cohen’s offbeat comedy about an oddball Austrian stylista made $30.4 million in its opening weekend. However the sharp drop from Friday to Saturday in box office figures implied that the film’s apparently insipid comedy and bland writing didn’t wash over with most moviegoers — fans just didn’t dig it and they twittered heavily about their disappointment leading experts to speculate and conjecture about Brüno being the first movie to be defeated by the Twitter Effect.

Another brand getting browbeaten by the social media multitudes is Jamba Juice. Bliss is only being found in their blackberry shake flavour as the company fights off accusations of ripping an ad concept from cult cartoonist David Rees’ Get Your War On. The news broke on Twitter and the masses have made their angry protests, but the Jamba Juice still haven’t said a pip … nor responded on their on its Web site or Facebook page.

Its obvious that brands, corporations and entertainment juggernauts are now more vulnerable to the masses, the consumers, bloggers and growing twitter community and are either unaware of the growing influence of social media, and if they are, are unsure of how to deal with it or handle its unrestrained power.

Rohit Bhargava (Fast Company) says that launching a blog, or a Facebook page or Twitter account isn’t the hardest thing for a major corporation to do – “The hard part is deciding how to use these tools. Ironically, the thing that most brands have to worry about isn’t negativity (as they often fear), it is indifference. The most common “backlash” against company sponsored social media initiatives are the embarrassing sounds of crickets. No one visits and no one cares.”

Rohit goes further and advices corporations to understand their audiences first. To do what they first did before they launched their product – research! Then “Instead of focusing on your shiny new blog or cool new Facebook app, the place to start is to figure out who will be the people behind it. Find the individuals who will be interacting on behalf of your brand in social media, and then give them the tools and support to do it well. All the companies that get credit today for doing social media well – Zappos, Dell, Comcast – have all become comfortable with letting individuals from their company become the faces for their brand. These are the voices that I often call “accidental spokespeople.” Within them is the real secret to using social media to be a brand that actually matters: offering a real human connection.”

Social Media is here to stay so corporations can either ignore it at their own peril, misunderstand it at their own demise or approach like you would any wild animal; slowly, quietly, reassuringly and consistently and in doing so, master social media whispering for the best results. Peace Out!