Comments on: Does #AmazonFAIL actually matter?

By: Digital Crisis Communications - what matters | Social Media Group

Digital Crisis Communications - what matters | Social Media Group — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:28:13 +0000

[...] put something together that is accurate and meaningful? That addresses the issue? Not likely. And, as I posted about #AmazonFAIL, that will not change. You still need time to craft your message. But the point is, you don’t always have to have a [...]

By: armpit44

armpit44 — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 22:45:15 +0000

Amazon sells dog fighting publications, so I wouldn’t do biz with them. I say #Amazonfail forever!

By: Maggie Fox

Maggie Fox — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:14:56 +0000

@peter, exactly my point – when there’s no broader spread to the mainstream, will these tempests in tea pots eventually come and go without impact?

By: Peter Kim

Peter Kim — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:59:02 +0000

The other side of velocity is that these issues evaporate as quickly as they boil up. Maybe even faster.

By: maggiefox

maggiefox — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 10:57:15 +0000

@sheila without question, if the intent was purposeful the whole thing matters from a right/wrong perspective, I’m with you there. However, I wanted to take the 30,000-foot view and assess whether the impact Twitter can have on brand reputation today will still be the case in six months after another dozen of these type of incidents.

By: contempt for the public? we haz it! « Sting in the Tail

contempt for the public? we haz it! « Sting in the Tail — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 07:25:08 +0000

[...] left the below on a blog this morning that asked if the whole Amazonfail thing actually mattered. Yes, i think it [...]

By: Michelle Evans

Michelle Evans — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 04:48:53 +0000

Will it matter to the company in general? Long term? Probably not, but even if it is just a few thousand people talking about a serious error or questionable policy, it’s worth addressing as soon as possible. In this world in 2009, people expect everyone to be available within hours tops. I do monitor my company’s reputation even on weekends and evenings. If I were part of the Amazon team, I’d want to sort it out and clarify within just hours, rather than days. We saw it with Motrin Moms and we’ll see it with AmazonFail too… people are forgiving once they understand what happened or they get a genuine apology. People screw up. And it’s kind of nice that social media may just be the thing that draws integrity out of people and companies whether they like it or not.

By: Carla Arrigo

Carla Arrigo — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 04:41:44 +0000

I love the way information is spread so rapidly. Information at twitter speed. I am new to this twitter and loving it. I am amazed at the information that I have been able to tap into. 4TogetherEveryoneAchievesMoreHelpingOtherPeopleExcel

By: Sheila (@stinginthetail)

Sheila (@stinginthetail) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:50:27 +0000

I was on Twitter over the Easter weekend, so saw #amazonfail take off – Amazon first said in email to an author that “the company was excluding “ ‘adult’ material from appearing in some searches and best-seller lists.”” (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/technology/internet/14amazon.html)

For ‘adult’, read ‘gay & lesbian’ – there were anti-homosexual books still available, along with very adult sex toys, and hetero erotica – funny how the catalogue works, huh?

Then Amazon changed their tune (perhaps realising it didn’t actually stand up to any serious scrutiny), and blamed a cataloguing error. It’s laughable. I’d take them seriously if they admitted someone had censored their lists of books, and they’d now fired that person/s. Instead, we got dribble – which however well-worded is still corporate spin to control the damage. However, the damage to their reputation is ongoing – #amazonfail is still on Twitter.

In six months, i think people will still be picking up stories like this from the net – after all – it’s news. Censorship, right wing religious views being forced on the book-buying public, and bigotry – it all works for me.

By: Mark Stuhmer

Mark Stuhmer — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:12:47 +0000

Companies that react quickly (e.g., the Tylenol scare, to go back a little in time) will tend to fare better than their sluggish counterparts. So does #AmazonFAIL matter? Sure. We had an event that popped up on the marketplace’s radar and the company reacted fairly quickly.

Like many other applications, Twitter serves to increase transparency. Twitter will evolve, social media will evolve, society will evolve, but it’s a good guess that the trend toward transparency will continue and, if it does, future #AmazonFAIL-like events will matter too. Companies can’t expect that they can hide in the noise created by increased transparency.