“Is Your Mother a Prostitute?”

In April of 2010 Jeff Ireland, the General Manager of the Miami Dolphins, asks Oklahoma State wide receiver Dez Bryant if his mother was a prostitute in a pre draft interview. How the 6’ 2”, 224 lb college standout kept from reaching across the table and administering one hell of a beating on Ireland we may never know. Sports talk radio had a field day with this one. Just about anyone who offered their opinion was outraged. Mike Ditka chimed in on the topic, "I think the individual who asked that question, somebody ought to whack him in the head. You don't ask that question." Most people, celebrity or not, shared Ditka’s sentiments.

Jeff Ireland holds one of the top positions within the Dolphin organization. An organization that, in general, has a very good reputation. What does this say about the organization? Is this considered acceptable behavior? The Miami Dolphins is a brand and, like it or not, because of his positions Mr. Ireland is an ambassador of that brand. Actually, it has nothing to do with his position. Everyone who has access to customers is a brand ambassador. Can this kind of behavior change the public’s opinion of the brand? Absolutely.

Let me give a personal example of how one employee can define a brand in a customer’s eyes. In 1988 I had a bad experience with the service manager at Greenspoint Dodge in Houston, Texas. He had no concept of customer service and insulted me and my mother. This brand ambassador for the Chrysler Corporation left me with such a bad taste in my mouth that I sold the car as soon as I could and have yet to own another one of their products and likely never will. I have been into their dealerships when I was in the market for a new car, but could never bring myself to seriously consider their products as an option because of this one bad experience with this one individual.

I would guess that you have had a bad experience that has led to you not going to a certain restaurant, grocery store, shopping mall or other establishment. All because of an interaction with one individual who represented a brand.

Let’s consider social media. Get out and read articles on developing a social media strategy and you will come across multiple opinion and approaches. You will also find several common themes. One common theme is the idea of turning your employees into brand ambassadors through social media. I could not agree more. Think about what Best Buy is doing. Instead of relying on traditional marketing and communication methods, hundreds of Best Buy employees are on Twitter to assist in technology advice. That’s right, hundreds of brand ambassadors.

Do you think Jeff Ireland would be a good brand ambassador for the Dolphins organization? How about the service manager at Greenspoint Dodge? Obviously not. Or at least not without some serious training. I don’t know for sure, but I would guess that Best Buy has an extensive training program for the people who are communicating with customers through Twitter.

Companies who have an extensive social media strategy in place are evolving and changing their approaches regularly. It is the nature of the beast. You must remain nimble. In addition, social media is still a new concept to many companies. I still hear stories of miss guided executives and channel managers jumping into social media without developing a strategy. The most common story is that they hear about Facebook, Twitter and others and ask a young team member to create profiles. The end result is, more often than not, that the young person who was asked to create the profile is pulled onto other projects and the profile/account sits with no activity from the company. Customers and potential customers may even be active on these pages posting questions, making comments or even complaints.

So, what should companies know before diving in head first?

• Develop your strategy. What is the goal of your Facebook page? What do you hope to accomplish with your Twitter account? How will you get the word out about your strategy?
  
• Make the commitment. It is not enough to created profiles, accounts and pages. You must have people maintain them and check them every day if not several times a day.
  
• Turn you employees into brand ambassadors. But first, train them. Make sure they know your brand and have enough knowledge to be THE voice of your company. Make sure they know when to escalate issues and can respond to customers in a way that will build your brand and your customers’ confidence in your product.