Social Media Bizarro World

I was at Bi-Mart recently and noticed a list posted for the checkout chick.  It was a list of people from whom one should not accept checks, returns or sass from.  Obviously, these folks had demonstrated over the course of time that they were not to be trusted.

So, what if this simple example ended up being leveraged cross retail, cross vertical, or even Internationally? What if Social Media world was turned on its proverbial ear?  How, you might ask??

Today, we as consumers have a wealth of power in the Social Media world to rate restaurants, comment about hotels, or bitch about airlines smashing our favorite possession, ala United Breaks Guitars .  We’ve even gotten a bit smug and complacent about it….  So, what if the reverse was true?  In other words, what if companies rated us???

Some example scenarios one might expect to see in Bizarro World…

You undertip Karen at Machos Steakhouse one night: Waving you goodnight, she logs on to customers.net and uploads a photo she took of you from her cellphone, adds in your name from your credit card slip, tags you with “grouchy” “undertipper”.  Every night the reservations managers across the city check in on who’s on their list and seat the room accordingly.  Keep it up, and you’ll never sit in the window again.

You habitually harass the people at the airline counter to get a better seat: After a short delay as they access your profile, the agent smiles politely and moves you up a couple of rows to an aisle seat.  Next to the 400lb guy with a horrible rash.   Your call button doesn’t work.

Your tweet – “Hotel Estonia ran amok with cockroaches, smelled like Gran’s feet” Next time you file for a Visa to visit that lovely country, it’s denied.  It’s part of your sales territory … you lose your job because you’re now an “Undesirable”

Now, obviously this could stretch to everything from eHarmony.com to being a chronic returner to having poor personal hygiene for your massage therapist to abusing the 15 or less items lane at your local Supermarket.   In the professional world, it could even form an “alter-resume” to haunt you as you regret that year you goofed off at Machney & Machney…

All that said – don’t sweat too much, friends….   It’s just now that companies are learning how to leverage our complaints and praise through Twitter and other mediums. It’s going to be ages before they actually figure out that Strategy is as much about acting as it is about reacting!  Of course, I hope I haven’t given anyone ideas here… 

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