All it takes is one little comment gone wrong to upset a whole slew of your social media fan base and that’s exactly what happened on Nikon’s Facebook page yesterday. Here’s what they posted.
Most of their Facebook fans did not take this status update well. They took it as an insult and felt like Nikon was saying that a photographer is only as good as his equipment, expensive equipment that is.
The status update, as you can see in the picture above, has over 3,000 comments. Here are a few of my favorites (fyi: Nikon misspellings – not mine).
- A chef is only as good as his oven
- Thanks nikkon, I guess I suck at photography then
- Wes; they are promoting their products by telling you that your skills, education, creative eye, etc mean NOTHING; that it is all in the equipment? Man, the kool-aid is getting to you Nikon folks!
- I hope Annie Leibovitz doesn’t use Nicon equipment
Not all of the comments are bad. Some fans are defending Nikon:
- What’s the big deal with this post? It’s a camera company marketing department. Their job is to promote Nikon
Nikon responded to the backlash this morning with this update.
Do you think their fans overreacted? Do you think Nikon’s social media strategist who posted that still has a job? Just another lesson in social media and how one little comment can create a firestorm of unhappy customers.
As a longtime Nikon user and photo geek, I would’ve reacted exactly as the other negative commenters did. Great photography gear helps accentuate the unique style and talents of a creative person, but it certainly doesn’t make the photographer.
A real photography enthusiast would never have made that statement they posted on their FB wall.
This is what happens when you let your community engagement get handled by someone who isn’t actually a part of the community.
Maybe their marketing lead should come to BlogWorld’s Social Media Business Summit to learn a few important things…Just sayin’… 🙂
I never saw this. However, I don’t see what the big deal is. They do have to promote their product like every other company.
Totally agree, promoting their products = good.
Insulting their customers = bad.
Whomever was manning their FB account and posted that didn’t understand that it would insult Nikon users, because the person wasn’t a photographer and wasn’t in touch with the Nikon community, otherwise this would’ve never happened.
The lesson learned for Nikon is the same for any company: Community managers and brand evangelists must understand the community, otherwise they can (and most likely will) hurt rather than help.
If customers are presented with a way to engage the companies they buy products from through social channels, only to find the channels are manned by folks who really don’t know or understand the user community (possibly giving the perception they don’t care about customers as people, beyond numbers), then the social channel is not one of true engagement, it’s broadcasting and superficial marketing. This is not only a sure way to alienate customers, it’s also a recipe for getting left behind by competing companies who use social for 2-way relationship building.
The smart companies are not only connecting with customers through social and furthering experiential branding efforts, they’re also learning about customers’ needs, habits, social networks, dislikes and more. This intel, truly “knowing” their customers, helps them improve products and services (and marketing), which leads to more satisfying experiences for customers–and to business success, which is the company’s objective. Truly a win-win way to do business.
This is why I stick with Canon 🙂
Just kidding! But I do think this was a kind of ridiculous statement by them.