While the case for social media as a marketing channel is compelling for consumer products companies, I’ve been particularly interested in how it is being used … or not … by mainstream industrials.  Earlier this year I assessed the social media presence of most of the major Fortune 500 B2B giants looking for case studies.

I found some great examples, but for fun, I’ve decided to start out with the WORST companies I found out there. With few exceptions, major industrial companies are not utilizing – and in many cases ignoring — social media as a stakeholder connection point. A few fun facts:

• Number of Top 25 B2B companies with more Twitter followers than me (None)
• Worst B2B corporate Twitter-er (by far) — DuPont. An example: “Back off weeds! 4 new herbicides are coming to get you …”
• Most popular corporate social media platform: Facebook
• Percent of companies with either Facebook or MySpace pages: 75%
• Percentage with both: 25%
• Most popular use of social media: A place to post press releases

With no further delay, let’s take a look at the Top Five biggest B2B social media screw-ups.

5. 3M Corporation – I love 3M. I’ve always cherished their heritage of innovation and product development. If any company in America could take advantage of the awesome power of global community it should be 3M. Where are you guys? We need you out here.

4. General Dynamics — There is a not-very-good techno rock band called General Dynamics who dominates the social media bandwidth. That’s a problem for a Fortune 100 company with the same name. This is the time for the company to flex some legal muscle and tell them they were there first! In the corporate world, this ID theft is tantamount to a porn starlet naming herself “Pepsi.” You have to take action on this, General Dynamics! Go kick some techno butt!

3. Oracle Corporation – You would expect an ego-laden company like Oracle to be sucking up the social media space, but not so. The Twitter account is exclusively a press release machine and their other sites are ill-attended placeholders. Larry, look at what SAP is doing with social media. Work it baby.

2. Johnson Controls — This Fortune 50 titan has had their name usurped on Facebook by a bunch of disgruntled employees. An example of social media gone very wrong when you’re asleep at the wheel.

1. Dow Chemical Company. The pinnacle of social media mayhem. The first search result for Dow on Twitter is called “spillspill” and the largest company-related Facebook page is called Fuck Chemical Valley and Fuck Dow (42 members). The MySpace presence has also been hijacked, complete with fake logos, fake employees and a mission statement that includes: “minimizing damage by angry citizens who have been affected by our pollution through legal suits and PR campaigns, making sure scientists who find our products to be dangerously toxic are not allowed to publish.” Dow has a proud history of PR fubars. The legacy continues.

Disclosure: My ex-wife had family ties to the chemical industry. While clinical tests have shown she is toxic to humans, she is not associated with the Fuck Dow campaign.

7 Comments

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  By Anonymous, June 15, 2009 @ 5:20 pm

  Hilarious. Thanks! — SL
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  By john.bottom, June 15, 2009 @ 8:58 pm

  Interesting stuff Mark. I guess that once the hijacking has started, it's almost impossible to stop. But the point is that something is always better than nothing. If Dow explained that they were making honest attempts to have an open dialogue with people about their perceived shortcomings, that would help their image. And if of course they don't do this because they do have something to hide, then so be it: their reputation deservedly gets torn apart in front of a rapidly growing audience. One of the things I love most about social media is that it has the power to really bring about change.
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  By MARK W. SCHAEFER, June 16, 2009 @ 8:57 pm

  John and Sam, thanks for your comments.

  I've seen a couple of questions and commentaries about brands getting hijacked — what to do? This might be a blogpost idea in and of itself!

  John, I like your insight that companies are reaping what they sow and that social media might provide a way to exepedite change. All interesting insights as usual!
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  By Christa M. Miller, June 17, 2009 @ 1:40 am

  I came here by way of LinkedIn. Interesting stuff – I do a lot in the law enforcement/public safety arena, and was really excited to see TASER establish a social media presence. While I do think they could stand to be a bit less corporate and a bit more personal, compared to these examples, they are doing a GREAT job. LOL
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  By Big B, June 17, 2009 @ 2:04 pm

  First thanks for the post and providing a different perspective on this topic. 3M actually did begin participating in the social media community a while back with their Post-It brand on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/postitnotes. It was actually pretty successful. I believe they focus on the product brands and not the corporate 3M brand when it comes to social media or other marketing efforts. Also, I am sure Oracle would jump in if they could tie it directly to sales. They are a very sales/financial driven company.

  Anyway, thanks for the post and the thought provoking conversation.
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  By B2B Online Mktg, June 17, 2009 @ 3:47 pm

  Great post, Mark. For B2B companies to really understand the potential of social media to help them better connect with customers/prospects and grow their busineses, we need to be actively examining what's really working in B2B social media and what's not.
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  By MARK W. SCHAEFER, June 22, 2009 @ 5:38 pm

  Figuring out what works and what doesn't is probably THE question. Connecting social media to traditional measures is difficult. I see this as a huge hurdle to B2B adoption.

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