Back in 2011, we've noticed for the first time the huge impact of Social Media in the overthrow process of a country's government. The world got to see the power of Word of Mouth. The People of Egypt, fueled by messages from Facebook, Twitter or Youtube protested against the president.
Same in Turkey, where Social Media played a major role in the protests evolution.
They have used Twitter to share information about how to survive the protests; Facebook sites provide news updates on the situation in occupied Gezi Park; while photographs of the protests have been shared on Flickr and Tumblr and video on sites such as YouTube.
As the protests grew, the government (represented by the Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan) started out making out inflammatory slams:
“Now we have a menace that is called Twitter. The best example of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society.”
Despite the fact that protests existed in human history way before the birth of Social Media, this time the Word of Mouth effect amplified by the accessibility of Social Media is playing a huge role in the current Turkey protests.
But there are lessons that any marketer or business person can learn from these protests as they relate to Social Media Marketing:
1. People are talking about your company, whether you know it or not.
In the protests, the government was caught off guard because they didn’t know people were upset about the brutal attack against the Gezi Park activists. They didn’t know what was happening until thousands more people flooded into the park and the adjoining Taksim Square.
Takeaway: If customers are unhappy, they’re not going to reach your Support Department, make an angry phone call or write a postal letter. Some might, but still more of them will complain to their friends on the biggest, most widely read communication channels in the world: the Social Networks.
2. People hate censorship.
Even though the government tried to silent off the turkish Twitter community arresting some of its most active users, it doesn’t mean that people have stopped live tweeting about the events. Furthermore, the local media has chosen to not report the protests. This lead to an angrier mob.
Takeaway: It doesn’t matter whether you refuse to accept comments on your company blog, delete some user Facebook posts or ignore Social Media altogether. People will still find a way to talk about you. They may need to go outside their comfort zone to do it, but they will find a way to complain and make sure other people know about it.
3. If you make enough people angry, things can get out of hand.
Originally, just a small group of protesters “occupied” Gezi park, but after their demands were ignored and they got brutally attacked, the situation developed into huge demonstrations in the entire country.
Takeaway: When you don’t address customers’ needs, answer their questions or if you don’t give them a place to feel listened, they will remove you from their buying habits. And in today’s share-oriented online world, they will tell everyone this.
