Hi Erica and Gillian!

Nice post!

I do think, however, that while the focus of your post is social media and the customer, you may be doing somewhat of a disservice by not providing the other side of the story of Horizon. After all, this not just a social media story.

Amanda Bonnen had filed a class action lawsuit against Horizon prior to Horizon's filing of the libel suit. Yes, I think they overreacted with their suit and by not contacting Bonnen directly about her Tweet. Surely, they made HUGE missteps, the largest I think with their ill-fated "We're a sue first, ask questions later kind of organization." (Who wouldn't question living in a property where the management company had stated that?) The fallout from their overreaction to the Tweet and their remarks still remains to be seen.

I do applaud them for searching social media sites in their due dilligence in defending their suit. Clearly, they do have somewhat of an understanding of social media. Unfortunately, that understanding wasn't nearly deep enough to see what their "Tweetsuit" would do to the blogosphere.

In researching the Horizon media debacle, it appears that Bonnen, in fact, may have made a libelous claim. She seems to state fact (that Horizon tolerates mold) rather than opinion ("I don't like the way Horizon handled my complaint") If she indeed made a libelous statement, Horizon has every right to vigorously pursue a defense. An accusation that you have and tolerate mold in apartments is serious indeed.

Do I think Horizon screwed up? Without a doubt - and in a way that could very affect their bottom line so significantly that $50K is a drop in the bucket. But I also think that blog postings on an industry website that appear to inflame Horizon's suit (The response from Horizon was a lawsuit!) do not necessarily help the members of this site understand the entire story.

Your points on SM are well taken. But I believe that as an industry, we need to look at both sides of the story to learn a well balanced lesson on this entire Horizon/Bonnen story.

LT

Lisa,
Thanks for your feedback. We agree. There are more sides to this story than that of social media, however; the initial fallout from this situation proves how powerful social media is, as well as word of mouth and customer service.

I’m sure you are familiar with Yelp.com, the community-based Web site that helps people find local businesses, and the 25 less than favorable reviews Horizon received on that site. It appears as though concerns were raised long before Amanda. Although these were reviews from only 25 (22 of which were overwhelmingly negative) people, some who weren’t even residents, it is still interesting to note the power behind word of mouth and social media. As of today’s date, more than 333,000 blog posts related to the keyword “Horizon Realty” were indexed into Google. This is an 11,000% increase just from 7/29.

Horizon could have taken a more proactive response to the situation, instead of helping it spiral out of control. Here are a few suggestions we have that could have helped Horizon use their new found Internet buzz to their advantage.

1.Get Proper Training and Education on Social Media: It is imperative that companies large and small are properly educated on social media and understand what may take place, know how to respond, and are prepared for the possible outcomes.

Bonnen only had 20 Twitter followers, which likely means she didn't use the service much, wrote uninteresting posts, or didn't engage with other users beyond her immediate followers. Which probably also means very few people were actually or potentially going to read any of Bonnen's tweets. If Horizon had a true understanding of Twitter then they probably wouldn’t have feared Bonnen’s lone tweet from the beginning.

2.Listen To What Consumers Are Saying: Use brand listening tools to track your presence and monitor your brand to prevent a PR/social media backlash. Horizon could have benefited from using FREE tools such as Google Alerts (http://Google.com/alerts) to track mentions on Google, Technorati.com to track blog posts, Backtype.com to search blog comments, and Twitter Search (search.twitter.com) to search Tweets.

Another great recent example outside of our industry is, United Airlines, who blew off musician Dave Carroll after breaking his expensive Taylor guitar during a flight. His video, "United Breaks Guitars" instantly went viral and -- while the $180M drop in United Airlines value may be overstated -- cost United some brand equity for certain.

3.Everything Negative Can Have a Positive Spin: If you are going to bring out a topic that involves social media, you need to understand social media. Bonnen aimed her tweet at 20 followers, but Horizon's lawsuit--and the questions Bonnen raised about the company's management practices—made global news. We applaud Horizon for searching social media sites in their due diligence in defending their suit, but as a result, the relationships developed weren’t necessarily beneficial ones.

Horizon could have turned the situation around if they really had a handle on Twitter and were prepared to use this medium to their gain. Horizon could have been making a good impression before thousands of potential customers or business partners; instead it created a groundswell of negativity that did little to enhance the company's reputation.

We hope these tips come in handy in the future, so property mangers can take the appropriate precautions and prevent a social media/PR mishap such as this from happening!