When Number 26 on Forbes’ list of Most Influential Women in Media has a bad experience with your product, you have a problem. When she shares that bad experience with her Twitter followers — all 1,145,058 of them — you have a pretty big one. Maytag now faces a customer-service-meets-social-media crisis of the magnitude of the United Airlines busted baggage jingle or Domino’s Pizza viral video, thanks to one unhappy, high-profile customer.
Heather Armstrong, a.k.a Dooce, is the most popular mommy blogger ever — arguably the most popular personal blogger, period. She chronicles life as a stay-at-home mom in colorful language, sharing detailed accounts of everything from post-partum depression to her relationship with her Mormon family to natural childbirth. It’s hard to find numbers on her site traffic, but her posts draw anywhere from 300 to 1,000 comments, and advertisers on her blog include several blue chip companies. And her Twitter following is just as big.
When she was unhappy with the way Maytag responded (or failed to respond) to her almost brand-new, $1300 broken washing machine, she took it up with the same vivid gusto as any other topic.
It’s caused a big stir in the social media space, because when “Dooce” issues the call “DO NOT BUY MAYTAG,” it’s the Web 2.0 equivalent of a boycott. Her readers and followers have been supportive and amused, while others have called her a bully who’s been irresponsible with her media power. Either way, following #maytag makes for a pretty fiery read.
Maytag has put a toe in the social media water with a couple of Twitter feeds, neither of which is particularly active. But the company now finds itself thrust into the space — with zero control over the dialogue. Without an established social media forum to speak from, Maytag is at the mercy of Dooce, her supporters and her detractors to convey how Maytag may or may not be addressing the situation. Maytag has issued no official statement yet, but Dooce’s tweets on the subject indicate they are working quickly to resolve the issue to her satisfaction.
However Dooce and Maytag settle the issue of the broken $1300 washing machine, it’s yet another cautionary tale for brands that a meaningful social media presence is an essential element of public relations.
What makes getting on the bad side of a mommy blogger comparitively worse than the YouTube debacles of UA and Domino’s is that they have such an interconnected community of highly active social media users. I would venture to say that a majority of YouTube viewers are simply social media observers, whereas mommy bloggers are extremely active participants, more likely to re-post, comment, and stand behind the opinions of fellow bloggers.
The issue seems to have been resolved to Dooce’s satisfaction: http://www.dooce.com/2009/08/28/containing-capital-letter-or-two
[...] I know. Who ever would have thought you’d see something bad about a Maytag on the internet? [...]