MOL created quite a buzz in the online space this month. Actually, it happened twice. The first development, a major virtual currency deal, resulted in creditable headlines like ‘Facebook Ties Up With Friendster's Asian Parent’.

The second incident, a misguided guerilla marketing attempt by MOL's CEO, sparked humiliating headlines like ‘Facebook's newest part is... an Internet troll?’

"This partnership continues MOL's momentum to build the largest end-to-end content, distribution and commerce network in Asia," said MOL CEO Ganesh Kumar Bangah, after he struck a deal to sell Facebook ‘credits’, a virtual currency used for online games, applications and virtual goods.

The blogosphere and Twitterverse were in awe of what Ganesh had achieved. It was indeed a major coup for MOL, a home-grown Malaysian company that had recently acquired Friendster.

That awe turned quickly turned into shock though when Ganesh visited a competitor's Facebook page and attempted a hard-sell tactic so buffoonish it would not have been out of place in a comedy.

In very quick order, he proceeded to commit one social media faux pas after another. Ganesh started off by claiming his product was better than the competitors ("buy from MOL better...").

NONE Then when some people remarked that they preferred his competitor, Offgamer's product, Ganesh suggested that they were not very smart ("sorry for commenting but im sure that the intelligent ones among you know which one is the bigger brand... MOL is More..").

When the page's administrator, in a gentlemanly gesture, offered to sell MOL's product, Ganesh did the unthinkable. He not only brushed aside the offer but added insult to injury by telling them they were of no use to him.

NONE ("Offgamers, thank you for your offer to sell our cards. I know you guys have been trying to approach us to sell our cards for some time but unfortunately we do not see the value in your service because we have all the channels that you have and much more. Thank you anyway. I understand that you may be upset that we are gate crashing, but this is social media.")

How to behave

This is social media, indeed. Word of Ganesh's boorish behaviour spread like wildfire through Twitter and Facebook and even spilled over into online forums like LowYat.net . Bloggers had a field day with it.

Public relations practitioner, Ben Israel, was aghast at Ganesh's total misreading of what social media is all about.

"What baffled me the most were Ganesh's final words: 'I understand you may be upset that we are gate crashing, but this is social media'," Ben wrote in his blog analysis of the debacle.

"Social media is made up of people and communities, and the same rules of engaging with people offline apply online," Ben wrote. "What is rude offline, is rude online. What is considered shameless promoting offline, is still shameless promoting online."

Ben also provided some bullet points on how to behave on social media networks:

  • Don't be rude
  • Don't say what you wouldn't want to see on your own page
  • Don't spam
  • Don't be a troll

  • Respect the on-going conversation
  • Understand the intent of the community before you participate
  • Add value, don't just push your own agenda

    • A useful reminder

    Online marketing consultant David Wang also weighed in on the MOL public relations disaster with his own list of proper social media behaviour:

    • Don't bad mouth or snipe your competition
    • Always be respectful
    • Always be humble

    And he ended with a useful reminder: "Remember that every action you take online today can and will be recorded for posterity in Google’s cache, Archive.org, tweets and blog posts like this one, and some marketing case study."

    I can't agree more. Ganesh's big boo-boo is one destined for the text books. The fact that he happens to be the Group CEO of Friendster makes it an instant classic. If you ever wanted a case study on how not to use social media for marketing, branding and engagement, you couldn't find a better example than this.

    My book on social media had already gone to press when all of this happened, so it was too late to include this story in it. But it's never too late to write about it in my Malaysiakini column. Sorry, Ganesh, this is new media.

     

    OON YEOH is a new media consultant. His book on social media for business , ‘Like Me, Follow Me’, has just been published. You can connect with him via Twitter and Facebook .