????互聯網是一個精彩的世界，但要想通過它獲得真實意見，可要做好準備，因為互聯網世界不見得全是鮮花和掌聲。許多帖子、博客或者視頻中充斥著未經審查的評論。很明顯，互聯網在給人們帶來各種便利的同時，也為人們提供了發表批評意見的空間。不過，這些意見或許有建設意義，也可能并不盡然。

????麥當勞（McDonald's）早該明白這一點。1月24日，麥當勞在Twitter上發起了一項活動，但不久后就取消了活動，可謂馬失前蹄。所以說，如果對互聯網了解不足就貿然行事，并非明智之舉。當然，麥當勞此次活動的出發點沒有任何問題——發布幾條付費“微博”，鼓勵消費者與農產品供應商互動。起初，麥當勞發起了話題#meetthefarmers（結識農場主——譯者注）。但在活動過程中，這家快餐業巨頭又推出了話題#McDStories（麥當勞故事——譯者注），希望吸引消費者發布他們在麥當勞餐廳中愉快的用餐體驗。

????第一個活動內容是：“這些了不起的人在為我們生產土豆。”第二個則寫道：“請告訴我們您對麥當勞的看法。”而在互聯網世界，這樣的提問方式絕對是冒險的舉動。

????麥當勞隨后發現了這一點，但卻已經付出了代價。兩條推廣性質的微博得到了72,000條回復，麥當勞社交媒體部門負責人里克?韋恩發布發布微博稱，僅有2%的回復為負面評論。但多數回復內容平淡、粗俗，甚至非常滑稽，這絕對不是麥當勞想要的結果。雖然負面評論的數量不多，但麥當勞的反應卻堪稱敗筆，活動發起幾個小時后就匆匆收場。麥當勞沒有就本報道作出回應。

????羅切斯特廣告公司Partners + Napier的CEO莎朗?納皮爾認為，這自然算不上嚴重的公司危機。“這樣的事情不會死人，也不會改變我們的環境。只不過，這次麥當勞在推廣上確實犯下了一個愚蠢的錯誤。”她認為，公司一開始就不應該讓這樣的事情發生，并且，這樣的錯誤并非完全無害。

????杜克大學（Duke University）市場營銷與心理學教授加文?菲茨西蒙茲認為，負面的輿論可能傷害一個品牌，即便這些評論只是為了開玩笑，或者夸大其詞。菲茨西蒙茲表示：“一旦產生了負面聯想，就很難將它從人們的內心抹去。”

????所以，公司在遭遇社交媒體滑鐵盧之前就要了解這一點，這才是明智之舉。品牌咨詢公司Prophet美國區總裁安德魯?皮爾斯稱：“幾乎所有人都認為移動世界是培養品牌的完美媒介；但在面臨負面輿論時，公司也不應該感到意外。”

????要想做好思想準備，接受負面輿論，需要公司對社交媒體有充分的認識——比如那些成功的社交媒體推廣案例。2011年6月，寶潔公司（Procter & Gamble）發起了一次營銷活動，由演員以賽亞?穆斯塔法通過YouTube在Twitter上發布簡短而精煉的回復。寶潔公司稱，共有2,000人參與了提問，作為回應，公司發布了約200段視頻。根據公司最終公布的結果，此次廣告活動大幅提高了寶潔男性護理品牌Old Spice的銷量，并且在Facebook和Twitter上吸引了大批追隨者。這次活動也向我們揭示了什么樣的推廣才會在Twitter上大放異彩：那就是隨性且有趣的內容。

????The Internet may be a wonderful thing, but no one should expect sunshine and rainbows when asking for its honest opinion. Read an uncensored comment stream on pretty much any post, blog or video, and its clear that the Web provides people with, among other services, space to criticize, constructively or otherwise.

????So McDonald's (MCD) should have known better when it got knocked on its heels after launching a Twitter campaign on January 24. The idea wasn't a bad one -- pay for a couple of promoted tweets encouraging customers to get in touch with farmers. First, the company pushed the hashtag #meetthefarmers. But in the middle of the campaign, the fast-food goliath introduced the hashtag #McDStories, hoping to stir up good press about consumers' experience at its restaurants.

????The first hashtag was saying, "Here are the great people who make our potatoes." The second says, "Tell us what you think of us," which, in the Web world, is risky business.

????McDonald's found that out the hard way. The promoted tweets received 72,000 responses, McDonald's head of social media Rick Wion tweeted, and only 2% were negative. But many of the tweets were just plain mean, gross or, even worse for McDonald's, hilarious. There was enough of a negative response that McDonald's, which did not respond with a comment for this story, pulled the campaign a couple of hours post launch.

????Granted, this is not a major corporate crisis, says Sharon Napier, CEO of Rochester ad agency Partners + Napier. "It didn't kill people or change our environment. McDonald's just made a really silly promotional mistake." But the company should have never let this happen in the first place, she says, and mistakes such as these aren't harmless.

????Bad press can hurt a brand, even when comments are meant as a joke, and even if they are over-the-top, says Gavan Fitzsimons, a professor of marketing and psychology at Duke University. "Once you have a negative association, it's almost impossible to just remove the link from people's minds," Fitzsimons says.

????Companies would be wise to know that before they stumble into a social media fiasco. "As much as everyone believes that the mobile world is this wonderful petri dish, companies should never feel caught by surprise when news turns negative," says Andrew Pierce, U.S. President of brand consultancy firm Prophet.

????Staying prepared for negative press requires knowing the medium -- consider social media success stories. Procter & Gamble (PG) released a marketing campaign in June 2011 with actor Isaiah Mustafa dishing out pithy responses via YouTube to tweets. According to P&G, 2,000 people sent in questions and the company posted almost 200 videos in response. The advertising stunt boosted P&G's Old Spice sales and attracted tons of followers on Facebook and Twitter, P&G claims. The campaign tapped into something that generally gets great play on Twitter: irreverent, funny content.