the perils of annoying your peers
“Russ, what have I done?”
A question you would never give one of your superiors at work, but Russ being Russell Hirst and a social media manager he was best equipped to calm my nerves. “Have you got many followers because of this?” ermmmm “an extra 40 and counting”. Russ looked at me, I looked back and he said “good, that’s how you get them”.
The incident had only happened 15 minutes earlier, which also goes to prove a point, social media is real time communications. I was observing my twitter stream and two of my contacts had made, well, contact with each-other. @GomezGooner and @InsideFerrari. The first, an avid F1 and McLaren fan, the second, the official Ferrari F1 team. The most unlikeliest of people to get on with each other.
@GomezGooner decided to post a rather derogatory comment about Ferrari. Apparently due to their recent run of success, that makes them more likely to post information on Twitter. @InsideFerrari wasn’t too happy with that. Enter @Ginodb. Yes me and my big mouth, I couldn’t resist; time to get one over the McLaren boy and please my childhood team.
“@GomezGooner in all fairness @InsideFerrari have a terrible Social Media strategy, and as a real Tifoso that hurts.”
Famous last words.
Instantly I was being accused by Ferrari of not being a real fan. Of being derogatory to my team. The team that I have supported since birth, the team that is in my blood. The team that gave me an opportunity to drive around Monza for a development programme. The team that if you are Italian surges through your blood like velvet haemoglobin should.
I was destroyed.
I answered, I apologised, Ferrari had taken it the wrong way. I offered my services of updating their status for free; I told them that Social Media was about conversation, creating it, being part of it etc. They could do so much more, and then they answered;
“@ginodb you have to consider that we cannot be as open as we would love. Confidentiality must remain a priority….”
What? Confidentiality? What? I wasn’t asking for the blown diffuser dimensions, nor was I asking about load weights on the front “flexi” wings. I don’t want to know about telemetry readings or what fuel loads you are using in the qualifications; as if I would want my team to give another man’s team an edge!
I do believe however that Ferrari has so much to offer, it’s the oldest F1 team on the grid. It’s got a history unlike anyone else’s. A passionate fan base spread across the world. A consumer base that is expanding across different continents, and it’s all known because of the success on the track.
Enzo Ferrari believed that the road cars were a way to finance the F1 team, the real passion of his and his engineers, social media can be the mechanism to ensure that this remains true.
The trick is to utilise social media to leverage the popularity of the team, and drive business for the rich and famous.
And if you think that there aren’t many rich people on twitter, Nielsen’s 2009 report of social media users posted over 5,000 millionaires on Twitter alone. That’s not taking into consideration the ones on Facebook, Myspace and those who have a blog. Ferrari must but don’t talk to these people. Future generations of millionaires and budding entrepreneurs whose relationship can start today with this very precise communication channel aren’t being utilised enough.
Aston Martin are great at communicating, posting commentary and for the first time in my life the other day I said, “I want an Aston Martin”. I felt like I committed a sin, like I had betrayed my “wife”. But the reason was simple, Aston Martin were communicating clearly. They were open enough to tell me about events they held, people that drove their cars - famously - and even make activities fun.
So, Ferrari I hope you are reading this (I did send you a twitter message). I have some really clear ideas on how to leverage social media for you, I am a tifoso, through and through. I will walk to Maranello in bare feet if you ask me to and kiss the statue of nonno Enzo if required. I will give you a day of my time to talk to you about a social media strategy - and reference everyone that has helped make it possible - I’ll do it in Italian, English, French or Spanish, but please, please start doing something about it.
As Enzo Ferrari once said, “He (Villeneuve) made Ferrari a household name”, let’s make sure no-one ever forgets it.
