Social Media, Pranks & The Law

Over the last few months, I've talked about the power of social media especially amongst multicultural audiences. Social media goes beyond MySpace and Facebook, encompassing any place where groups can commune and share - YouTube, Flikr, etc. But what do companies do when consumers decide to share content they developed around a brand? And what happens if that content is a seemingly innocent prank that is potentially harmful to the brand?

Much has been written about the viral Diet Coke and Mentos experiment. Mentos shined while Diet Coke came down on the creators with a heavy-handed "cease & desist." This was rather harmless and if anything, helped both brands engage their base. In fact, Mentos launched an experiential marketing campaign around the premise and paid the creators to participate.

But today, Domino's is facing a much more daunting challenge. What does it do when two rogue employees upload a video to YouTube of themselves sticking cheese in their nose, waving salami behind their rear and place said items on a subway sandwich? The brand initially was cautious and tried not to feed the media frenzy. But just one day later, the video had been viewed over 1MM times and there was a warrant out for the arrest of the terminated employees. Heavy handed? Perhaps. But, web buzz metrics saw a steep decline in Domino's quality brand image in just one day. These types of precipitous drops are uncommon. Something they built over many years, erased in 24 hours.



The law is unclear on how to proceed. There are clear expectations of free speech on one side, and protection against defamation from the other. Only time will tell if legislators will move quickly enough to address the changing web landscape. One thing is clear, there are no easy answers and a lot of quivering brand managers out there.

Technically a Padre

Online Spanish-language content is still no where near the levels of English-language, especially targeted to U.S. Hispanics. Aside from the major Hispanic targeted portals, there has been few opportunities to target different mindsets and lifestages. This of course, is changing on a daily basis.

Case in point, an AOL-backed site, Techno Padres, launched today targeting Spanish-dominant mothers of pre-teen kids. The site's content is being powered by The Online Mom, a site targeted to tech savvy moms mostly in English. Techno Padres is a nice complement to an existing player, Todobebe, which targets pregnant women and mothers of preschool aged children. A Johnson & Johnson powered site, Baby Center en Español, also has robust content for expectant mothers, but they have yet to attract a sizable audience.

Until recently, parenting content online and in Spanish has been hard to find. Moms, hungry to find information on child rearing have flocked to social networks instead. There is a Spanish-language mommy group on MySpace with 2.7MM users. There they converse and exchange ideas on a host of issues like cold remedies and how to stop little Consuelo from biting her nails.

Becoming a parent is no doubt one of the scariest things in life. (Will I screw this kid up!?) Again, the universal human experience trumps language and culture.

Facebook Archetypes

You know a website hit critical mass when articles starting analyzing the audience that visits it. I just found this article about the 9 Facebook archetypes. It profiles that types of folks that we tend to encounter on social networking sites.

It includes archetypes like the Ghost - that guy or gal that signs up for an account, spends all but 2 minutes setting up an account with no picture - never to return again. All that remains are the sillouette of his/her missing picture and a few hundred unanswered friend requests. Or the showoff - the ladies that show too much decolletage or the guys who climbed K2 on their last vacation.

Sociologists and Anthropologists have their hands full with this one....

Facebook Privacy - What Privacy?

Facing extreme pressure from its users, Facebook rescinded their updated policy to essentially "own" in perputuity any content that a user uploads - even if that user deletes his or her profile. One would think that Facebook stole everyone's first born child with the firestorm the company endured this week. Blogs were abuzzing...

What I found interesting is two things - the idea of privacy on a social network and how Hispanics reacted (or didn't react) to the news. The easy one first: social networks are public forums! You may have implemented strict security settings, but in essence, the difference is between walking around naked in the street or on your balcony (either way, someone is going to see you.)

The second is a cultural understanding of Hispanics and their concept of privacy. I've scanned blogs and have seen few Hispanic surnames in the comments section. Hispanics don't seem to be that up in arms about this whole mess. Yet, Hispanics make up a healthy margin of Facebook users (in the neighborhood of 23% even though they make up only 15% of the population.) So what gives? Don't they care that Facebook wants to own their Quinceniera pictures?

The answer is not really. When you grow up in multigenerational households and alongside more siblings than non-Hispanics (3.2 average siblings vs. 2.3), you're idea of privacy is fluid. You understand and accept that your "business" is going to be shared with more people. You accept that your brother's friends are going to tell their cousin Maria that you threw up at the carnival and show her a picture of it. That's life. If Facebook wants to own pictures of your Aunt Teresa dancing salsa with Cuco, your pitbull, then go for it. Afterall, social networks are for sharing. Don't share what you don't want others to see or know.