Controlling The Message - & The World's Most Obnoxious Barman
A while back I mentioned the cheesiest corporate video ever with the corniest line even sung: "We'll live out our core values..."Bank of America is having a bit of strife online at the minute after well known blogger Chris Hooley had his bank account cleaned out of $40,000 by a drugged out identity thief.
Other bloggers have joined the criticisms against Bank of America with some venom and, online at least, their brand is taking a battering.
I haven't seen any Bank of America responses to the backlash they're experiencing now and I think that's a bit of an error.
When your brand gets attacked online you need to respond and try and contain the message somewhat.
Bad Steak & Bad Service At Byron Bay
On the weekend I went away to one of Australia's holiday towns on the East Coast - Byron Bay.
We stayed at a nice motel and enjoyed the nightlife. We had burnt steak and the most obnoxious barmen ever at Hog's Breath Cafe who came out with the brilliant line when throwing one of our party out:
"I make 1 phone call and you wont get a drink or a meal in this town!"
Whoa Sheriff - they used to run 'em out town in the old days, pop the gun back in the holster and settle down!
These days the poor customer service or obnoxious behaviour of this angry little barman can come back to bite you on the a$ pretty quickly.
Simple things like mentioning the terrible steak and poor service at the Hog's Breath Cafe at Byron Bay can be enough to influence 1 or 2 or 20 people if they are doing searches for Byron Bay reviews.
Control the message as much as you can and monitor your online reputation on an ongoing basis.
Cheers
Brendon
[ comments ]
Just as point of reference regarding how many we all influence, I'd say your estimates are on the low side.
Years ago I read a couple good books from a fellow who was the Guiness record holder for the most new cars sold in a year ... IIRC the last record he set was 700 and something, more than two cars a day for a year.
This was pre-internet and pre-blog times, yet he readily sought out leads and always made them happy because he figured the average man with a job, kids in school and perhaps a church or service organization connection had direct influence on over 200 people.
Now I don't know if his estimate was accurate either, but he certainly had the experience and spoke from authority ... many bloggers, IMO, don't realize just how many people just might be listening.