#STFU please

Two more big brands stepped in it again using social media yesterday – The Gap and American Apparel both used Hurricane Sandy as an excuse to encourage people to shop online.

Nice.

As you can imagine, reaction has been anything but positive.

You'd think not linking your brand to the death and destruction of the largest storm ever to hit the Eastern seaboard would be common sense. Common sense, however, is the one thing that seems to be sorely lacking in a lot of social media departments and social media agencies these days.

So as a public service, I'm here to offer a few guidelines for companies that have Twitter accounts, send email blasts and post on Facebook before another such tragedy occurs.

The OBX Thinking 10 Rules for Social Media Messaging

1. Don't ever post anything you wouldn't say in public or want reprinted in the press.
2. Unless you're tweeting about where to send donations to help the victims of a natural disaster, don't. And do not tie this effort to likes, retweets, purchases or anything else that's even remotely promotional.
3. Don't post anything about politics. Ever.
4. If your tweet is supposed to be sarcastic or ironic, run it by a few people before hitting send. Communications that usually require body language or vocal inflection to be understood rarely work online.
5. Issue anyone who manages your social media accounts a dedicated mobile device. No one should be allowed to post to a corporate account from a personal phone, computer or tablet.
6. Don't get into arguments online. Acknowledge customer criticism and use it as an opportunity to improve your product or service. If possible, deal with individual complaints via email, over the phone or in person, not in public.
7. Don't ask or incent people to retweet/repost your content. Make your content interesting and valuable so people will feel compelled to share it.
8. Remember, just because you created a hashtag subject doesn't mean you control it. Anticipate the worst place the conversation could go and if you don't like that possibility, don't do it.
9. Read the posts from your customers and fans before you post. You might just learn what they want from you.
10. It is perfectly acceptable to use social media as a place where interested consumers can learn more about your values, practices, people and company, but don't expect everyone to be interested. Most who follow you just want a deal.

One final piece of advice. If you or your team has a disagreement over whether to post something or not, don't. The cost of the lost opportunity will be a lot less than the cost of an epic social media fail that gets picked up by Gawker, AdAge, USA Today and every other media outlet that love these kinds of stories.

Good advertising

You may be wondering where this blog has been the last two days.

Let's just call it recovery mode.

Last Thursday and Friday, I had the enormous pleasure to participate in one of the best experiences of my 30 years in advertising.

Better than leading motorsports advertising for Chevrolet and getting behind the scenes access at Daytona and Indy.

Better than lunch with Dabney Coleman after a shoot for 7-Eleven.

Better than the agency-sponsored motorcycle trip that had me riding through the Colorado rockies with Wally Dallenbach, Kurt Russell, Malcolm Smith and 200 other motorcycle and automotive enthusiasts.

I had the opportunity to work 24-hours straight to help non-profit agencies in Dane County, Wisconsin with their marketing and advertising needs thanks to Goodstock 2012 – A marketing marathon developed by a colleague and great friend of mine, Andy Wallman and his agency KW2.

The idea is simple. Take two days of the agency's time (every employee participates) and use it to help area non-profits with their marketing needs. Everything is done in two days from writing the brief to final production.

This year, the team wrote, designed and produced TV spots, long form videos, full websites, posters, print ads, marketing plans, media plans, pr plans and events, logos, banner ads, billboards brochures and more.

The total in donated time and services was over $300,000. In addition, media partners donated television and radio air time, outdoor locations, web ads and printing.

Because of Goodstock, more abused and neglected children will get the support they need, more women will receive housing support and job training, more disabled people will be able to stay in their homes, Latino couples will know who to turn to for support when life gets tough, more dyslexic children and adults will learn to overcome their challenges, more school kids will learn the benefits of athletic participation as a means to reduce obesity, more people will understand the wants and needs of kids with autism.

That's good advertising.

Minimizing Apple

Here's your first clue that this Apple is different from the company that was run by Steve Jobs.

A couple of days ago when asked if he was concerned the iPad Mini was too expensive for cost conscious consumers who were attracted to the Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7, Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller said this...

The iPad is far and away the most successful product in its category. The most affordable product we've made so far was $399 and people were choosing that over those devices, and now you can get a device that's even more affordable at $329 in this great new form, and I think a lot of customers are going to be very excited about that.

What he should have said was this...

No.

It's not that Apple hasn't taken on the competition before – the Mac vs. PC spots come to mind – it's just that Apple has never made price a part of that comparison. It's always been about product superiority.

A weak reference to a "great new form" doesn't cut it.

People pay more for Apple products because they're easy to use, incredibly integrated, and bullet-proof. Yes the form plays a part of it, but without those substantive benefits the brand has no meaning.

Schiller needs to work on his schtick if he's going to keep Apple on top.