Brown Coffee Company – Lessons Learned

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You might have heard about the Brown Coffee Company (Brown) tweet earlier this week and whether you agree that the tweet was misinterpreted or not, the point is – it took less than 140 characters to virtually destroy Brown’s brand and lose significant clients.

Immediately after the tweet started circulating in the blogosphere and social media networks Brown locked up their Twitter account and deactivated their Facebook page leaving their blog to take the brunt of the aftermath and people looking for answers to the meaning of their tweet.

Let the above soak in for a minute.  One simple tweet and a company’s brand is suffering. The power of social media is incredible. It is instantaneous and global and if you are not managing it effectively it can hurt your business severely.

A subsequent statement from Brown insisted there was no malice intent but rather to wax philosophical about New York passing legislation for same-sex marriages.

As of this blog post Brown has lost one major client, their integrity and customer loyalty. So what can be learned from all this?

Lessons Learned

Gut Check
Most social media pundits including myself believe in business transparency within your social media strategy along with communication with your clients, customers, and potential customers. At some point though, there needs be a gut check before you click the submit button. Is my tweet, post, status, going to be misinterpreted? Will people understand what I’m sharing? Is this helping my business? Remember the old adage when you are angry to count to ten before you speak. Same type of rule can be applied. Count to ten – re-read your message – does it make sense? Think before you tweet.

Control Your Brand
Control who has access to your social media accounts. Establish a system of checks to ensure that what messages are sent out to clients and customers is consistent. This builds trust and brand loyalty. Social media when used effectively shows your credibility to current and potential clients and employers and creates a definition of your business and brand.

Obviously Brown’s brand loyalty has been hit hard. It is easy to accept all the accolades when things are going well. How to tell a company with a good social media strategy from a bad one is to see how they respond to the criticisms and negative press.

Brown’s response was to clam up and shut down social media outposts and relied on a simple message on their blog to hold back the flood of criticisms. Basically they went into hiding. What Brown should have done is openly say we messed up and we are sorry, this isn’t what we are about, and we have set up procedures to ensure this will not happen again. Oh, and here’s some free coffee on us.  Now, the free coffee notwithstanding, the point I’m making here is take responsibility, be honest with your clients and customers and hit the negativity head on and right the wrongs.