I feel that as a blogger and a member of the PR and advertising industries I would be doing a disservice to not comment on the Motrin vs. Mom Bloggers news that is everywhere right now. If you haven’t seen the Motrin ad, here’s a YouTube link.
I’m amazed by the media frenzy this “social media case” has provided. There are a number of businesses who have been slammed by social media. It is simply part of the process. And every time I try to convince a client to create a blog or a Twitter account, they shy away because of these bad cases. But, this is where our industries are headed. People want to have a voice in the news and the comment function readily allows that.
So what’s the lesson learned by Motrin? Don’t do ads? Well, we know that isn’t going to happen. This is simply a lesson that every PR professional needs to be prepared for the impact social media may have on their clients. Just because your client isn’t jumping out into the social media realm with YouTube videos, tweets, blogs and flickr photos of their own doesn’t mean social media won’t affect them. You must proactively be prepared for a “social media crisis” and how you and your clients will respond to true and false social media news.
