After the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11th Microsoft’s Bing Department sent out a tweet that was very negatively received. It appeared to many Twitter users that this department of Microsoft was using the disaster to promote themselves.
The tweet said:
How you can #SupportJapan - http://binged.it/fEh7iT. For every retweet, @bing will give $1 to Japan quake victims, up to $100K.
What users were angry about was the notion that the money would only be sent to Japan if enough people retweeted this message. Users with large followings soon started making their frustration with this tactic known. One example was Michael Ian Black, who accused them of using a tragedy as a marketing opportunity.
Microsoft eventually donated all $100K, which just shows how bad of an idea this retweet to raise money was. If they were going to donate the money, which they pretty clearly were going to do, they should have done it without these weird strings attached.
I think the biggest thing to take away from this is the difference between a company doing something good because it’s a good thing to do and a company using a disaster to get attention. There is a respect for the people going through the disaster in the former, and it is something that Microsoft neglected.
As PR professionals I think it’s important for us to think about whether what we do is respecting the people we’re interacting with or if we are taking advantage of them.
Paul I totally agree with all you have said about this blog. I can not believe what Microsoft was thinking in a disaster that is going on in Japan. Trying to get attention for there company rather then actually just donating money to Japan just makes them look awful as a company. And as PR professionals it is our job to show respect to the people we are interacting with like you said. If we just were all about ourselves then whats the point of even being in PR when its our job to make sure we are making the right decisions for our clients.
ReplyDeleteI think companies sometimes become obsessed with the idea of 'good pr' that they promote their good deeds to the point where it turns people off. This is a prime example. Microsoft wanted it to be known that they were going to do this great charitable gesture of donating money to the Japan Tsunami relief efforts and why not while doing this self- promotion get a few more followers? Win, Win. Or not. The whole idea of retweeting to donate comes off extremely insensitive to such a tragic event that has shaken the world. By simply donating the money and issuing a statement of sympathy and well wishes towards the country of Japan and those who were greatly affected, Microsoft could of looked like a hero instead of the villain.
ReplyDeleteThe wording is everything! We know that as PR professionals. When you only have 140 characters to work with, it can be daunting! Thanks for sharing, just goes to show how tricky tweeting can be for your clients.
ReplyDeleteTo add onto what Melissa commented, you do only have 140 characters to work with. Doing the tweeting for my boss, it is extremely DAUNTING especially when you work for someone isn't exactly up on the best ways to use Twitter. I feel that in this case, they should have realized that wording it that way would have upset some people, but to play devil's advocate, when limited to 140 characters, it can be difficult.
ReplyDeleteThere is a certain point you want to get accross, clearly here they wanted to show that they were supporting Japan and its victims. As everyone else has pointed out, it needed to be worded differently.
Paul, I didn't even hear of this. I guess I was out of the loop on this one. I think it is disgusting when companies utilize tragedies for their own benefit. They didn't even hide it with this tweet, which clearly got them into trouble. I respect companies that donate to charities, but don't over share when they do. I think class goes a long way in today's age because people are so inundated with alternative agendas from the big companies in America.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Alyssa. Sometimes companies have their priorities mismanaged and it shows. It kind of makes you sad to see that money and publicity is sometimes more important to people than acting selflessly. I dont think this was an accident/mistake and i dont think an apology can make up for it. The fact that it was the initial way for Microsoft to donate money goes to show what they're first thoughts were when the tragedy struck.
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