Target’s “Off Target” Social Media
December 3, 2007
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With mine and Jim’s previous posts about Wal-Mart’s missteps in social media, I couldn’t resist the temptation to share a little about Target, who has recently been caught as it is learning its lesson on transparency and disclosure. 
To get a feel for what happened, you may want to read this article by Jackie Crosby over at the Star Tribune which gives a pretty good encapsulation of what happened. Basically, to put it in a nutshell, Target reached out to a group called “The Rounders” ( a group of students who receive discounts and products from Target to share with friends and to provide feedback) to promote its Facebook page.
This in and of itself is a valid effort - reaching out to advocates and promoting other social media efforts is always a smart move in my opinion (after all - that’s how Jim gets Facebook friends…). However, Target decided to tamper with the lines of transparency within social media and specifically encourage these Rounders not to disclose their affiliation with the program.
In fact, according to the Star Tribune article, the newsletter sent to this group stated the following:
“Your Mission: Try not to let on in the Facebook group that you are a Rounder,”
“We love your enthusiasm for the Rounders, and I know it can be hard not to want to sing it from the mountaintops [and in the shower, and on the bus]. However, we want to get other members of the Facebook group excited about Target, too! And we don’t want the Rounders program to steal the show from the real star here: Target and Target’s rockin’ Facebook group. So keep it like a secret!”
From this messaging, Rounder Rosie Siman (who I now want to hire by the way), posted her personal concerns of this request on Facebook - a concern regarding the ethics of asking paid/compensated advocates to specifically hide this information in a fan-related forum.
From there, after Siman’s posts were mysteriously archived/deleted, Target was forced to play a typical corporate crisis communication plan of action - including displacing blame to other affiliated parties and vendors, making vague corporate statements, and making it seem like they had no idea of how something like this happened. Target’s response was as follows:
“An e-mail from a company employee, identifying herself only as Laura, told Siman that her concerns “were completely founded” and that the newsletter urging Rounder members to stay anonymous “was not endorsed by Target.”
“Clearly it was a mistake from this vendor, and that’s why they did the follow-up,” said Target spokeswoman Amy VonWalter. Target’s intent, VonWalter said, was not to ask Rounder members to hide their affiliation, but to discourage them from dominating the Facebook site and making it feel like an exclusive, members-only club.
Now - I’m not sure either if Target wrote this newsletter or it’s vendor - or the exact details to how something like this happened- but it blows my mind how 1) a company like Target can claim that something clearly branded to their advocates is “not endorsed” by their company (in my world if you farm something out you are ultimately responsible for it) and 2) how whoever was responsible didn’t think that “it’s our little secret” sounds outright sketchy and unethical and 3) how large companies like Target and Wal-Mart haven’t hired a dedicated social media agency.
That’s all I’ve got to say. If anybody has answers to this please let me know!
Comments
8 Responses to “Target’s “Off Target” Social Media”
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The continuing nightmare of astroturfing is amazing. Really, I can believe it. I run into enough agencies that talk the game, but if you ask a couple of knowledgable Qs stumble quick enough. It’s really important to vet agencies and staff members, have clear ethics policies, and walk through them before anyone goes online as a member of the company.
Hire me!!! Haha ; )
No but really, thanks for covering this– I’ve got my google Alerts set up to let me know when people are covering it, and I’m trying to post the majority of the coverage back on my blog (at least the links).
It honestly still just blows my mind… But the fact of the matter is, I was probably the only one e-mailed them about it, maybe even the only one who thought twice about what they were saying. As consumers, we have lowered our expectations, especially with regard to how ethic large corporations are. Let’s raise our standards!
Best,
Rosie
(Oh, and PS. I graduate in May…) : )
[…] Ignite Social Media blog has several posts about this, so rather than re-invent the wheel, read their posts on their site. They summed it up with this paragraph: …it blows my mind how 1) a company like Target can […]
I’m wondering who’s really to blame here. If Target is allowing its agency to operate freely with no oversight of their day-to-day management of their social marketing activities then whoever is owning that relationship is more to blame.
Regardless, this is probably just one high-profile case of something that is happening very often.
@ Rosie - Great points - and thanks for following back up. Good to see you are monitoring the conversations out there.
Keep us posted how things are going and feel free to fill us in on the details. We can all learn from mistakes like this, even if they aren’t our own - and sometimes we can learn from the way the mistake is corrected.
I’d like for you to send me your blog and any contact information (are you on twitter?). We are growing fast and it’s always good to keep in touch with those who have a true understanding of this space.
My blog is http://rosiesiman.blogspot.com — I’ll warn you, though, it’s more of a personal experiment than in-depth reading. : )
I’m actually not on Twitter. I’ve thought about joining, but right now I just don’t know enough people on it!
I think the best details are on my teacher, Dr. Sweeter’s blog: http://www.kayesweetser.com/archives/58 but this is where I originally spoke out about it: http://rosiesiman.blogspot.com/2007/10/target.html
I’m pretty sure they classified it as over and done with a while ago. One new/interesting twist– A guy who works at Target (retail) in Minneapolis facebooked me and told me that The Star Tribune (the paper that ran the story front page) is always on their break tables, but that the day my story ran, it was no where to be seen. Haha!
Thanks again,
Rosie
rosiesiman@gmail.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/rosiesiman
Oh! And… do you guys have internship opportunities? ; )
I think what big corporates like Target don’t understand is the unbridled character of Social Media. Here you have to be good to win the accolades, not just appear good. And if you are trying to sell something, better not try to pass it on as charity. Good story.