the(new)mediaslut

(Update: Based on a respond from Nuffnang’s Timothy Teh, the respond to Brainy Bimbo was done by an impostor. This blogger will not change the content below, but will offer her sincere apologies to Nuffnang. 

Here’s a post dedicated to Nuffnang.) 

Mainstream media have been around for so long that to deal with them is textbook perfect.

The blogosphere is so new and still now, not many communication books will have a chapter on how to deal with bloggers.

Though textbooks don’t have the answers, the same rules actually still apply.

For the uninitiated, Brainy Bimbo posted in early January 2008 that she saw no ads coming from Nuffnang after she complained to Nuffnang about sending a unsigned cheque.

Briany Bimbio attributed it to discrimination from Nuffnang.

You can read her post here.

It seems Nuffnang came close to following the(new)mediaslut’s favourite “Drop the Pink Elephant” 3Rs (Regret, Reason and Remedy) of crisis communication but fell short on the delivery. Rather than to have douse the flame war with water, their approach added fuel to it.

Here’s Nuffnang reply in its entirety:

I feel obliged to write this entry and correct public impression because i found the discussions not very accurate.

First Bobo, we would like to apologise if you had a unsatisfactory situation with regards to your cheque from Nuffnang. However please bear in mind, we are not only handling one cheque a day. We can have several hundreds cheque going on any single day so mistakes are bound to have happened. Still i hope you can be understanding of our mistakes as we always strive to provide a perfect service to our customers even sometimes we are found short.

As to the allocation of advertisements, i have to say Nuffnang plays no part in deciding which advertisements go onto which blogs. The final decision lies with the advertiser’s choice. We can recommend but if they do not want to, we can’t do anything about it. Also, bear in mind, not all blogs are suitable for all advertisements, Nike may be suitable for blogs that touches on sports and others like Starbucks may be suitable for food blogs.

I believe bloggers are eager to place advertisements on their blog and make extra income, but please understand the nature of online advertising. In this line, it is not easy. The advertisers want good value for money. Bloggers want good value for money. We need to have business that is good value for money too. I can only say of all negative comments, we will try to stay relevant to you and strive to become even better than before. Please support Nuffnang, we are an honest advertising medium, not the same you can say of others.

There are two issues Nuffnang had to deal with; an unsigned cheque and the lack of ads on Brainy Bimbo’s blog.

For the unsigned cheque, first R, Regret, checked. Nuffnang did express regret over the unsigned cheque.

Second R, Reason, checked. Nuffnang provided a reason to why the cheque was unsigned.

Third R, Remedy. Nope, not there. While asking for understanding maybe great, but what has Nuffnang put in place to ensure that the possibilities of unsigned cheque never occur again? None.

So unsigned cheques will happen again, but Nuffnang says its all because of the hundreds of cheques they have to generate.

This makes the Reason rather boastful and lead to some commentators doubting it as a real Reason.

In addition, if I was Nuffnang PR manager, I would have thanked Brainy Bimbo for returning the unsigned cheque. If Briany Bimbo had banked in the cheque, the unsigned cheque would have cost Nuffnang a few more dollars in administration charges.

For the lack of ads on Brainy Bimbo’s blog, there was nothing Nuffnang had to apologise about but they did give Reason for why there was no ads.

But again, lack of Remedy. Nuffnang did not provide suggestions directly to Brainy Bimbo to make her blogs more attractive to advertisers. Nuffnang should have help define the type of blog Brainy Bimbo is, where her focus should be and how she can make it more attractive for advertisers.

Maybe do a survey on her readers.. Wait, isn’t that something a competitor already has?

Nuffnang’s parting shot didn’t position itself as wanting to apologise. Instead it created the perception of arrogance. Nobody likes an arrogant company especially if you suppose to handle a crisis like this. This shows why the choice of words is important especially when dealing with a crisis.

Furthermore, Nuffnang signed off the comments as Nuffnang.

Nuffnang is the name of a company, or a brand.

Mr Snuffleupagus is a name.

When commenting, especially in dealing in such a crisis, the receiver wants to be talking to a human. This gives it a personal touch to the reply.

For all we know, Nuffnang could have come up with text automated system that will can post comments to make it sound as if it was written by a human.

I am not dealing with a crisis on my own, so I am signing off as the(new)mediaslut.