An Opportunity for Twitter, Recognized as Aching Mothers Band(wagon) Together

Written by Russ on November 17, 2008 – 11:05 pm

I swore that I would not jump on the Motrin bandwagon myself and talk about how awesome it is that all of the moms came together to rally against the big bad advertisement.

So, I won’t.

Most people are observing the groundswell, sharing the videos, talking about how powerful Twitter is, and the voice of the consumers really is.

I say that’s only partially true, and to be honest, the voice of the consumers was only effective to a point–and then largely ineffective.

Yeah, I said it.

I think the voice of the “Motrin Moms” did a great job of “getting their way” and getting the advertisement pulled.

And Motrin did a great job of saying, “We heard you” to a select handful of people who are a small margin of the users of the web, but who have the power of Twitter, the blogosphere–and may, or may not, actually sell a few of those damned slings that seem to get everyone so riled up to begin with.

But, as Gabby Hon poetically said:

“Okay motrinmoms, now that you’ve “won”, so what? What did you honestly achieve via your twitter tantrum?”

Anyone who’s dug a little deeper into this blog will know how much I love the “So What?”, so I’m totally hearting what Gabby’s saying.

Michael Rivera takes things a step further and makes suggestions (which, by the way, seem to be in short supply out there–lots of criticism, but few people trying to be part of the solution) for what Motrin could do:

Build the Motrin Mom’s Advisory Board

Own the idea of “mommy ergonomics”

Co-brand with a baby sling manufacturer and send out free, and branded, baby slings to all the offended twittermoms, with an invitation to join the Motrin Mom’s Forum.

Good, solid suggestions–for Motrin.

In fact, I’ve been saying all day that this whole fiasco is a brilliant opportunity for Motrin!

I mean, OMG! Like, thousands of “Motrin Moms” all started twitter-screaming at the top of their lungs that this is ridiculous! This is hurting my feelings! Motrin doesn’t get moms!  Slings are totally FTW!

All. Weekend. Long.

Oh–for an ad that was released on September 30th of this year, for what it’s worth.

Somewhere out there, one rather vocal–and rather popular–twitter/blogger/etc. social mom got her feathers ruffled and shared those feelings outward and the pond rippled from there.

But, as Gabby says:

So what?

This is where the Twitter opportunity comes in to play.

The joke I made today about all of this to Cindy Chastain was:

Twitter was great to allow them to bully and megaphone their way into getting attention–from Motrin to the New York Times to David Armano, Jeremiah Owyang and anyone else who could catch on.

Good for them.

Bad for Twitter.

The reason this is bad is because this group of “Motrin Moms” had a somewhat collective voice–they were all pissed off. Most likely, this was all for similar reasons, however, there appeared to be no true leader identified–regardless of who posted what first to uncover this egregious ad that had been out for nearly 1.5 months.

They had no Jesse Jackson of their own.

They had no single point of contact to make some demands, to stand up as an organized mob and get more than just an ad pulled down.

So, to a point, they achieved an unknown–yet mutual–objective. But, now, they go away.

Fade…fade away…

(Oh, and thanks for all of you standing up and providing Motrin with an idea of who all the right people are to talk to–seriously, you just made it really easy for them, and I would personally relish that opportunity if I were them!)

So What?

So, Twitter, your opportunity is here. Allow the disorganized mobs to organize. Allow them to find their leadership and voices and share within their sub-communities inside of your Twitterverse.  Allow new communities to form, grow and thrive with focus and purpose.

Heck, I bet you could even make some money at it.

Posted in Community, Social Networking, Viral | 8 Comments »