by By Bri Briggs | Twitter
Dear corporations,
Social media platforms have bridged the gap between us. Whether this is a good or a bad thing is up to you to decide. As we all know, news travels fast. Though this may or may not be an advantage for corporations, it has given consumers more power than ever before. It only takes one Tweet, Facebook post, or review to make or break a corporation. However, how you choose to respond to consumer conversations is the real game changer. With social media on our side, transparency is becoming inevitable for corporations like you.
We as consumers are skeptical of the authenticity of corporations. We are looking for values that match our own and are paying attention to the corporate social responsibility being demonstrated. To be favorable in the mind of us consumers, we believe it is vital for corporations to be an O.P.E.N book.
Out of these four pieces of transparency, Navigation is the most vital. How you choose to navigate and respond to our discussions is vital. Below are examples of the good, the bad, and the ugly that can follow depending on how you choose to respond:
The Good
As of March 2014, Chipotle decided to start labeling all ingredients in their menu items, including GMOs. This makes them the first American fast food chain to list the presence of GMOs voluntarily.
FYI: We are concerned about our health and want you to be too.
The Bad
McDonald’s “Our food, Your Questions” Campaign
FYI: Although we applaud you for attempting to be transparent, lying about what we already know is in your food and how it is prepared doesn’t count. We know what real chicken tastes like…
The Ugly
United Airlines broke the guitar of Dave Carroll and refused to take responsibility. The musician took matters into his own hand and wrote a song to explain his frustration.
FYI: you break it, you buy it. It’s not that hard
As you can see, we as consumers are powerful people. How you choose to respond to us puts your image, product and even your company on the line. We now live in a society where endless information is available at our finger tips; you can’t just turn the page and expect the story to end.
All we want is the truth.
Sincerely,
Consumers
Bri- I love the format you used for this, it really makes it feel like a personal conversation between us consumers and the oblivious corporations. I totally agree with you, and it’s funny to me that some corporations are too naive to see how much power us consumers have, especially with social media. The McDonald’s campaign is just plain crazy, I can’t believe they really tried to be “transparent” by completely lying about their ingredients. Why even be transparent at all? Maybe they should just own their mistakes and try to be better instead of having to lie about the gross decisions they make when “cooking” for customers. But hey, we all know that probably won’t ever happen.
Bri Briggs : Thank you, Alexis!
The approach McDonald’s is taking is fairly interesting. You would think they would focus on what they are changing to make their product better ( if anything at all) instead of masking their already controversial company with more questionable content.