3 Idiots/Five Point Someone And The Rising Power Of Social Media
Jan
Five years ago, it was unimaginable to see a famous, renowned director create an explanatory video and upload it on YouTube. On January 3rd 2010, it actually happened. Rajkumar Hirani, one of Bollywood’s well-known editor, director and screen-writer was seen in a video titled Rajkumar Hirani breaks silence on 3 Idiots & Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone. In this 8 minute clip Mr. Hirani takes his viewers through the various points of contention around the controversy (for the unitiated, read here and see this for starters) and offers clarifications. Typically, big-wigs were never required to clear the air and/or break their silence. They had enough clout. At the most there would be a press conference, interviews – the regular route. Except this time, its different. Its different because firstly Chetan Bhagat is a celebrity himself in the literary space. The other more important differentiating factor is that he’s social media savvy. His Twitter handle has over 42,000 followers, his blog is well-read (check the number of comments on the last five blog posts). In short he has a substantial online presence which he has used to communicate with his community of fans.
So what has that done? Well it has leveled the playing field. It has turned the notion of controlling information and communication channels on its head. When a seeming wrong was done, the other side had tools, a voice and a fan base to counter-argue with.
There is a significance to this controversy that I’m hoping to draw out. It can serve as a huge lesson for brands (atleast the smart ones!). Lets port this analogy into a corporate setting. Let’s say Rajukumar Hirani is a huge corporation and Chetan Bhagat is a customer. Make that a jilted customer. The consumer feels he has been wronged and wants the wrong undone. A few years ago, there wasn’t much he could do. Today is a different story. He can energize his already active online presence and use it to offer a detailed account of his experience, provide facts and invite participation from his community. Given the inherent nature of social media, things DO tend to go viral, here’s a random tweet and a not so random blogpost for example.
Eventually the big corporation will feel itself dragged into a medium that it is unfamiliar with (notice the comments on the YouTube video are closed?) and offer one knee-jerk reaction after another.
Social media makes brands flinch for this very reason: its transparent, it accords equal status to everyone and most of all, its here to stay. Perhaps a better approach would be to be part of the conversations from the get-go, way before its time for damage control.
I’d love to hear your take.
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