cash4gold (attempts to) cash in on internet pr

I was surprised to overhear at the office today that the infamous sell-your-jewelry-get-cash consortium "Cash4Gold" has established a presence in the Web 2.0-sphere. I decided to check them out on Twitter, and as I suspected its mostly pro-Cash4Gold propaganda being shelled at followers, with some damage control thrown in for good measure. They are, afterall, involved in a lawsuit for term-infringement and under investigation by the Florida attorney general.

I question the wisdom of their decision to enter into the web-o-sphere. It seems largely motivated by a desire to do some reputation-building and damage control, both of which I'm confident could easily backfire on them. With all the negative press surrounding their business, Cash4Gold is making themselves extremely vulnerable to vengeful consumer attacks.

We've seen in the past how a web presence of a less-than-reputable company can backfire. Admittedly, this is less underhanded than the infamous fake Walmart blog, but consumers generally meet such attempts at spin control with hostility and warranted skepticism.

Sox First has some great advice on their list of six ways to avoid PR disasters that Cash4Gold would be wise to follow:

2.Be upfront providing the public with information and apologise. But won't an apology increase the risk of litigation? Not necessarily. There are hundreds of different ways of saying sorry without jeopardising your legal position, but in the end, you need to express regret and sympathy. Otherwise, you just come out looking like you're protecting your backside.

3. Go out of your way to show you are doing everything possible to solve the problem.

4. Identify your vulnerabilities, find ways to stop them blowing up, have a plan for what to do when the worst happens and keep the plan updated.

5. Develop strong relations with employees and customers.

So far, its not looking great for Cash4Gold if we're grading against the above rubric. Rather than create a plan to stop their vulnerabilities from opening up, they have opened themselves up for a backlash of consumers in a public setting. Chances are, even if they do offer some rebuttal to claims, it will fall on deaf ears of consumers who have already made up their minds.

Let's take a look at their Twitter strategy thus far:

So far, the strategy seems to be consisting largely of paid pro-Cash4Gold blog posts, and general information regarding the gold market. There are no satisfied customer testimonials, no answers to questions regarding their business practices, and no real responses to recent allegations.

Hate to say it but... Cash4Gold: sending out spammy, self-serving blogposts on Twitter is probably not going to grow your buisiness (especially when you're sitting at 19 followers), or repair your reputation. There is no target, no focus and clearly no strategy. It has been demonstrated that social media marketing is not about selling, it is about building a brand or reputation through a relationship--not blindly flinging corporate blogposts out into the Twitter-sphere.