Word of Mouth

On my way to lunch today, I spied this truck. I've seen it dozens of times as I've traveled down Main Street in Kansas City. But today, I simply couldn't resist stopping to take the photo.

I've often heard of people angry enough at a car dealership to put something like this on their car, but I had never actually seen someone do it. Louisburg Ford and other businesses might want to take a lesson here. It would appear this truck owner purchased a lemon. And he created a personal billboard to share his news.

And here's some additional news. Within a short time, a few hours in fact, Google will index my post about this truck owner. And the next time someone does a Google search for Louisburg Ford, my post and this photo will show up in the search results. I'll even spell the dealership in an alternative manner to help those people out who accidentally misspell Louisburg when they key it in so Google will display the results either way — Louisberg Ford. Now anyone doing a Google search will find this post no matter how they spell the dealership's name. Just doing my part for this obviously disgruntled truck owner.

The point is, every business is at risk for having this happen. And the risk is more than having a disgruntled customer plaster an "I Hate (insert your company here)" sticker on their car. What if they began a fervent series of posts about your company on their blog? What if every day for two weeks they went on a rant about your company? And then their friends in the blogosphere joined in. Once it's on the Web, it's always on the Web. This is the kind of PR businesses want to avoid.

Social media intertwine us all. It cannot be escaped. It can be guided, but only to a certain extent. As professional marketers, we must understand its power, work to guide it and be prepared for those times when we cannot.