How Social Media Can Flourish or Fail Your Company....

"Where the Hell is Matt?" - I won't venture out and say that everyone who will read this has heard or seen this video, but I would assume that many have.  I didn't know about this video until last semester when someone from WKU came and spoke to my ENT Marketing class about the up-and-coming "social media marketing."  The video struck me, first of all, as really interesting - seeing someone who traveled around to so many places all over the world dancing with people from many different cultures; because although values, morals, and languages might be different around the world - everyone can dance; and dancing was Matt's way of making a small connection with strangers.  At the very end of the almost-four and a half minute video, Stride posts their advertisement for all of 3 seconds, and that's when I realized how effective "silly" videos on the internet can be.  Matt didn't attend college and his life ambition was to sit on his couch and slay over beating the latest video game. However, in 2003 he realized that he needed to do something with his life and that's when he saved up his money in order to travel all over Asia.  While taking a picture one day, one of his traveling friends suggested he do "his dance" in the picture.  And to quote directly from Matt's personal website, 

     "A couple years later, someone found the video online and passed it to someone else, who passed it to someone else, and so on. Now Matt is quasi-famous as 'That guy who dances on the internet. No, not that guy. The other one. No, not him either. I'll send you the link. It's funny.'
     The response to the first video brought Matt to the attention of the nice people at Stride gum. They asked Matt if he'd be interested in taking another trip around the world to make a new video. Matt asked if they'd be paying for it. They said yes. Matt thought this sounded like another very good idea."

From there, it seems, the rest is history. Matt did travel again and made another video, and yet another year later traveled back to Asia to record a third video that would include others dancing with him this time.  


Stride saw an opportunity and jumped on it immediately.  They realized how many people were viewing this video and seized a perfect opportunity to gain brand recognition from millions of viewers who would eventually see the video.  All they had to do was pay for Matt's trip expenses, although the trip expenses may have been costly, they realized their return would be much greater.  


Stride Gum is an excellent example of how social media can help your company flourish - don't be hesitant to try to something new.  


While poking around the internet while doing this research, I found one article on how social media can FAIL, rather than help, a company.


Back in 2009, Pizza Hut announced it was searching for a summer intern to manage their Twitter presence.  However, apparently whoever posted the job announcement had not yet been "schooled" in a professional social media presence -

 "A representative for the company stated that 'The successful applicant will speak fluent OMG and LOL and correctly use the terms DM (direct message), RT (retweet) and # (hashtag).'"  

Clearly, as a professional and global organization, announcing a job in such casual and "dumbed-down" format makes applicants hesitant to apply for the job because it belittles their importance and also educational level.  Also, Twitter is a VERY PUBLIC social networking site so why would Pizza Hut want an intern who knows nothing about the core values of the company posting tweets for the world to see??  It's obvious the announcement was meant to be quirky and fit the job-description; however, there is a fine line between being professional and witty, and just not consider the possible outcomes of the situation. 


"Where the Hell is Matt?" Video
Matt's Personal Website
Pizza Hut Article