Recent Muslim protests about the You Tube video (which you can see here http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/09/people-are-being-killed-for-it.html) , prompted Newsweek to run a cover story "Muslim Rage: How I survived it, how we can end it" as a serious attempt to start a debate on Muslim tolerance. Or lack of it.
But an old world publication like Newsweek, showed little understanding of Social Media and invited responses on a hashtag 'muslimrage' in order to promote debate. And boy did they get a response....
"I'm having such a good hair day. No one even knows. (hash)MuslimRage". Was one.
"Lost your kid Jihad at the airport. Can't yell for him. (hash)MuslimRage". Another.
"Head & Shoulders still hasn't made a beard conditioner. (hash)MuslimRage"
Newsweek covers and hashtags are to "spark debate" said a Newsweek press release and indeed they are. It was the most trending topic in the USA on Monday with 75,000 tweets that very afternoon.
Actually too, some of it was funny. Although not intended to be, clearly, it helped "break the ice" as it turned out and some Muslims responding in a funny way too.
Interestingly, a number of Arab sites are giving out about the image on the cover not the tweets. Ironic.
Brands like Newsweek, need to understand that once they enter Social Media and notoriously Twitter, they automatically lose control of their brand. You hand it over.
There's no problem with that, provided you know what to expect. In this case it had the risk of making things worse, not better. And a dangerous game to play given the underlying mayhem that this issue has caused.
But it could also have given the public a chance to tell Newsweek, on Newsweeks own twitter account, why they hated the publication. It's that loss of brand control that's an issue.
The lesson here is don't venture onto Social, unless you understand what it is.
Brands need to understand that and this is an example how not to do it.
It can be lethal.
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