Kyle J. Brazil

Image via Wikipedia

The recent decision of Target Corp. to donate $150,000 to the political group, Minnesota Forward, was probably one of the biggest blunders in their recent history. While simply trying to support a pro-business candidate they ended up funding an anti-gay aspiring governor. The company, which was previously heralded as one of the most supportive of the LGBT community, and diversity in general, has now become the object of political backlash, postests, and boycotts. The PR nightmare that ensued was something every business fears and in the age of social media must be handled quickly and proactively. That is where Target failed.

As the news of the donation began to circulate around the Internet and mainstream media a flurry of outrage descended upon the company’s social web destinations. Those mainly included their Facebook and Twitter accounts. While common logic would have been to respond to comments and to voice the opinion of the corporation through these channels, creating a two-way conversation between them and their consumers, they decided to go silent. Target stopped tweeting, stopped posting to Facebook, and seemed to have disappeared. Anyone who, prior to the incident, followed these accounts knows that they were very active in the social media realm. Simply going quiet doesn’t stop the voice of the masses. Negative comments continued to roll in. Target even took it a step further by attempting to censor the dissent by switching the preferences on their Facebook account so that  posts from fans no longer appeared on the page. There was even rumors of them deleting some posts. All of this culminated in even more anger towards the company.

So what did they do next? They must have redeemed themselves by doing something heroic and winning back all that had been lost. Sorry folks, no happy ending here. The CEO, Gregg Steinhafel, said he was “sorry” but that is about as far as it went. No rescinding of the money, no donation to a LGBT group, no dialogue with their customers via social media, no change in their settings as to who can post, nothing. In fact, Target seems to believe the situation has blown over. They’ve gone back to posting sales, deals, news, and generally being their jolly old selves. Unfortunately, the issue hasn’t disappeared. It’s still very alive and many people are very angry.

I get it. It sucks to be a company who tries to take advantage of a new political law. Often times (as in this case) you will get the spotlight put on you for all the wrong reasons. Your decisions typically have unseen repercussions that the public will bring forth. In situations like this it is all about how you handle yourself in a world that now revolves around the realtime voice of the people. Target failed to care. We live in a new age, a press release and apology from the CEO just doesn’t cut it anymore. If you want a business lesson on how not to handle a PR disaster with social media, use Target. Hopefully they will not make the same mistake twice (both with donations or with social media).

Personally, I still believe my company is a great one. They still support the same diversity they always have and is a great corporation to be a part of. The growth and development of talent is unmatched at most others of this size. They are innovative, forward thinkers, and only want what is best for their guests and employees. I hope this situation does not stain their polished record very much. For a company that prides themselves on feedback, they should take this as a case study for future actions on the web.