AMD Case Study: How NOT to use Social Media

By looks of AMD's massive spike in activity in blogs and Twitter lately, they've made the calculated decision to "join the conversation". It's really something to behold... that is, if you're intrigued by multi-billion dollar companies end-running their PR departments willy-nilly. This kind of stuff makes Apple's no-blog policy look like true wisdom.

Rule #1: Don't assume people care to talk to you.
AMD is up in arms over battery life metrics produced by MobileMark 2007, claiming that the benchmark is skewed toward Intel. AMD illustrated their position via a blog post, which got coverage from the WSJ. An Intel spokeperson is quoted as responding with: "There are many ways to measure battery life... We believe the best way to determine how to measure battery life is by making proposals and debating it in industry consortiums and not [blogs]."

Fair enough. Intel doesn't want to discuss this issue via social media. One of the tenants of social media is that you can't control the conversation and that's because it's nothing but a new medium of communication; you can't force people to communicate with you your way.

Pat Moorhead, on the other hand, disagrees, and insisted on attempting to goad Intel on via Twitter in the hopes of having them show up at SXSW (srsly?), which was in progress at the time (wtf!), to talk about the issue with him. When that didn't work, he purportedly called Intel's refusal to deal with issues like battery life on blogs and Twitter, "offensive and derogatory to consumers".*

Rule #2: Don't be a jerk.**
"Neither irony or sarcasm is argument" -Samuel Butler. Being snarky should be reserved for us little people, not legitimate businesses who are paying people to communicate their messaging. It's just not a good, clear way to make a point. The tech industry in particular lends itself better to clear, direct facts: the end of this article, and with actual points instead of questions, would be an example, and this bogus mockery of an interview would not be.

Rule #3: Have a strategy.
AMD is a publically held company, after all. If I had some financial interest in AMD, "fast fail" just wouldn't cut it for me. VP Pat Moorehead says, "There are no experts here. Get in, have a simple strategy, hurry up and make mistakes". When you've got a strategy like that, it makes execution pretty easy, doesn't it? I'd say AMD's position in the market right now isn't one that would lend itself to not strategizing.

Ian McNaughton asks, "AMD does not have official Social Media Strategists, are we wrong in that?"

Yes.

My advice to AMD would be: Leave the publicity stunts to Jen-Hsun. Focus on using social media to communicate great things about your company to the market, not taking pot shots at Intel.

* Pat, you didn't think that one through, because you only had two potential outcomes there: 1) Intel ignores or simply doesn't see your tweeting, nothing happens, and your voice is lost in the noise, or 2) Intel actually shows up and wipes the floor with you (after all, would you show up to an "optional" debate if you thought you were going to lose?).

** Unless, of course, you are a jerk and can admit that.

As a followup to this post: "AMD Case Study: How Social Media SHOULD Be Used"