FIVE SIGNS YOU’VE PLANTED SEEDS FOR A SOCIAL MEDIA DISASTER
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 4:38PM 
The Towering Inferno: one of the great 70's disaster moviesI love disaster movies. They’re great, often cheesy, over-the-top fun. From 70’s classics like The Towering Inferno, Airport and The Poseidon Adventure, to the all-time blockbuster Titanic, disaster movies are built on the same formula. Early in each movie we’re shown how the seeds of the disaster are planted well in advance of the actual catastrophe. We then spend the next hour worrying, because we know what’s about to happen while those poor movies stars are clueless as to their impending doom. If they only knew what WE knew they could save themselves! Oh, the humanity.
Imagine if the recent social media debacle involving Kansas State University’s promotion of an environmentally friendly mascot named EcoKat were made into a disaster movie. In the first scene, the University’s in-house marketing team brainstorms an idea they think is great, but is actually awful. The audience, recognizing the seeds of a good disaster, knows exactly where the plot is headed while the marketing team innocently consigns itself to certain catastrophe.
What did they do wrong? How did they create a social media disaster weeks before the whole thing actually erupted. And why were they powerless to do anything to prevent it? The K-State debacle was based on several bad decisions, from assuming social media reacts in the same manner as traditional media, to failing to plan for negative reactions. From that mindset, K-State made five errors sealing its fate.
Failing to challenge a bad idea. Charged with coming up with a campaign to improve the university’s reputation and performance on environmental sustainability, the K-State marketing team focused on 
reaching students by creating a crusading eco-mascot, a sort-of-dumb, but benign idea better suited for reaching 8-year-olds than college kids.
But, when someone in the room suggested pairing EcoKat with Willie the Wildcat, K-State’s beloved athletic mascot, to promote the school’s participation in a statewide environmental competition pitting K-State against its archrival Kansas, the promotion morphed from a small, campus-only campaign into a major Kansas news event, peaking the curiosity of Wildcat football fans, K-State alumni (including an editor at the Kansas City Star, who received an innocently-sent news release promoting EcoKat) and, potentially, every resident of the state.
No one in that marketing meeting challenged this very bad idea. Environmental activism and athletic fanaticism do not mix. Football fans are, generally, less interested in conserving energy than they are in consuming alcohol, painting their bodies in school colors and rooting loudly for their team to beat whomever they’re playing. This is just another case of a lack of understanding the target market. The University was more focused on it’s own agenda than on the mindset of the people hearing the message, sowing the seeds for the disaster-to-come.
Launching a campaign without having a plan for social media blowback. The K-State marketing team rolled into action, promoting the debut of EcoKat with gusto, incorporating social media as part of the message distribution system. The University’s President and First Lady were among the K-Staters excitedly Tweeting about EcoKat’s upcoming debut. Teaser posts were made on Facebook. News releases were sent to media statewide. Public service television commercials were produced featuring both mascots and scheduled to run on the local television stations in Manhattan.
All of these steps were part of a traditional new product launch: build awareness, create buzz, stimulate interest and motivate action. In the old days of one-way message distribution, marketers did not have to account for negative reactions to a campaign because consumers had no way to voice their opinions. But today, everyone has the ability to say what’s on their minds-- to the entire world! As K-State’s traditional P.R. campaign took hold, negative blowback was beginning to build. And, just like the tiny electrical fire in the Towering Inferno, it wouldn’t be long before the entire building was engulfed in flames.
Thinking social media can be controlled. It took about two weeks, but once the alum/editor in Kansas City reread the University’s news release and Tweeted his thoughts about EcoKat, flames erupted almost imediately. Within a few hours Twitter reported EcoKat as a trending topic in Kansas City and other communities. Alumni, boosters and citizens alike weighed in. A website named EcoKat the “crappiest mascot ever.” The story even made it to the front of Huffington Post.
As the K-State marketing team began to realize what was happening, thoughts turned to ways of “getting control” of the story, mounting a counter-offensive or just trying to turn off the flow of negative comments. But, as one social media-savvy department member told her boss, “You can’t stop people from commenting. It’s too late for that.”
In The Towering Inferno, Steve McQueen and Paul Newman eventually put out the fire by blowing up several huge water tanks conveniently located on the roof of the skyscraper. The torrent of water was enough to drown the fire. Reacting to a torrent of negative comments is like fighting a huge fire with a single hose. Since the marketing equivalent of giant water tank usually isn’t handy, the easiest way to put out the fire is to attack it when it’s small. That means responding quickly, not by being defensive or attacking your critics, but instead by responding to the them, acknowledging the validity of their criticism.
Hoping for the whole thing to blow over. As the corrupt developer in the Towering Inferno, William Holden ignored Paul Newman’s warning about the severity of the fire, hoping it would be extinguished before anyone found out. Of course, the audience knew the fire was already out of control and the only sensible course of action was to evacuate the building.
While K-State’s social media fire raged, the University’s leadership stood at the door telling people to remain calm. The V.P. for communications said “a lot of people have a misconception of EcoKat. She is not an athletic mascot” (gee, wonder where they GOT that from? Oh yeah, from the SCHOOL ITSELF!). The president said, “It’s unfortunate that it was a creative idea that, by going viral, we’ve lost some ability to kind of manage what it was supposed to represent. (translation: I have no idea what just happened. Did anyone get the number of the truck that ran me over?”).
Defending a bad idea, especially after the marketplace has voiced its opinion, rarely changes people’s minds. The faster an organization admits its mistake, the faster the controversy will fade watch the most successful public mea culpa of all time: Jackie Gleason’s apology for putting an awful game show on the air).
Believing all publicity is good, even when it’s bad. This old chestnut has been around forever, but unlike the good old days, when today’s newspaper wraps tomorrow’s dead fish, the stink of negative online publicity always remains. All the stories are there for people to read. That negativity can be resurrected and pollute future marketing initiatives.
K-State was forced to scrap the entire EcoKat campaign. Weeks of work and media resources were flushed. The stain from the backlash reached across the entire university, all the way up to the president himself. While some people in the schools’ marketing department believed this was the most publicity K-State had ever received (the state school labors to get attention compared to its larger, more popular rival, Kansas University), the end result is still negative.
So, to avoid starring in your own social media disaster movie you must change your mindset. Online media is not like traditional media. Be skeptical of the validity of your marketing ideas. Whenever possible, test them first with representatives of the target market. Have a plan for how to deal with negative blowback. Don’t try and control the conversation; participate and respond instead. Don’t assume the matter will just blow over. The marketplace will keep up the pressure until you respond adequately. And remember: whatever happens online, stays online—forever. It may not be fatal, but it will always lurk in the background, so be prepared to deal with occasional flare-ups.
One final tip: before launching your next (or first) social media campaign, gather your marketing team together and show them your favorite disaster movie. It may give them the insight to avoid causing their own Towering Inferno.
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