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An ex-coworker of mine and a very insightful and talented blogger, Garrett French has a post up on Search Marketing Standard where he is asking for tales of any recent cringe-worthy moments had during the trials and tribulations of marketing campaigns. Since I tend to jump right into the deep end whether there is water in the pool or not, my issue was not having a story, but choosing which one to use. Here’s my choice.

One of the areas that my company and I have been concentrating on for our clients is employee marketing. Very simply, it is marketing internally within large corporations to try to get employees on the same page and deal with issues internally before they spill out onto discussion boards for everyone to see. Companies are beginning to understand that these communities are growing at such a fast pace that in the very near future derogatory posts by employees can change from an internal issue to a true brand issue.

I was doing some initial exploration and I was surfing around this one particular discussion group. There were a couple of discussions that interested me so I signed up and began asking questions of the community. At first, I was getting some great responses from people. Though as Adam Schultz put it in his post, then “the trolls showed up”. I pictured them more as 400 pound women in moo-moo’s chain smoking Parliaments who have more hair on their lip than I do, but that was just me.

These people see themselves as the gatekeepers and I as a newbie was invading their turf and my intentions were unknown. They immediately began to circle the wagons and accused me of being a member of human resources, the CEO and one person raised the question on whether I was a member of Al Qaeda, don’t ask me where that came from. I initially tried to laugh it off and I think I might of said a thing or two making fun of some of these “trolls”. Big mistake #1. Never make fun of the host when you weren’t even invited to the party.

This just poured gasoline on a three alarm fire. That’s when they pulled out all the stops and began calling me names that would of made a drunk sailor blush. As Adam discussed with his post, I was left in a quandary of what to do now. Do I tuck tail and run? Do I wait until the hordes have calmed down? What? At first, I just sat back and watched the carnage. Though when people are speaking badly about either things I believe in or myself, I tend to not have a whole lot of patience or the ability to keep my opinions to myself. So I did EXACTLY what I should not of done, I jumped right in and began to mix it up with any and all comers.

Needless to say, it did not end well. Though I learned a number of important lessons that I have used since this incident. I know now that I should not speak until I have a good understanding of the environment I am working in and the people I have to deal with. I learned that just like in life, many times it is not about right or wrong or black or white. There is a huge gray area that must be recognized and understood. Finally, I learned AGAIN that you should never ever type while angry. It will always lead you down a path you don’t want to go.

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