Hecklers Have Their Own Microphones
Online Reputation
09.11.2008
In:
Social Media
Several months ago, on their Internet Explorer blog, Microsoft celebrated the first anniversary of Internet Explorer 7’s release by putting out a post touting IE 7’s rapid uptake and tightened security. “Happy birthday IE, super-successful Web browser” was supposed to be the idea. But the real news happened a few screens down in the comments section, where a deluge of scorn and frustration was heaped on the Internet Explorer team by the general public — the regular people who use and build the Web.
Microsoft is widely regarded as being pretty good at advertising and marketing its products, but they’ve occasionally allowed 1984-style doublespeak into their messages. Microsoft proclaimed they were fighting for their “freedom to innovate” in response to the U.S. Department of Justice’s anti-trust action a few years back. Action launched, of course, because Microsoft’s monopolistic practices were squishing innovation. But it’s one thing to ignore customers’ clamors for better security and features, then brazenly lead your marketing with, “We Heard You.” It’s quite another to bring that kind of thinking over to your corporate blog where unhappy customers are free to call you out.
What could Microsoft have been thinking when they provided the time, place and catalyst to turn customers into an angry mob? Well, say what you will about Microsoft, but one thing you can’t say is that they’re dumb. I can only imagine that what happened here was that they were relying on a conventional tactic — one they probably feel they’ve been successful with in the past — but they brought it into the wrong medium. What’s important to learn from Microsoft’s gaffe is that communicating online is like doing live comedy, and totally not like doing a sitcom with a laugh track. You can make it work, even if you have a tough crowd, but you’re going to need to be able to read your audience and adjust on the fly. You don’t have the luxury of being lame because there are hecklers out there ready to roast you. And in the online world, those hecklers have their own microphones.
