A very well respected social media guru, Red Door Interactive‘s Crosby Noricks, sent me an e-mail yesterday detailing the enormous backlash aimed at Emrah Kovacoglu, the founder and CEO of a Total Beauty Media when he wrote an article for their newsletter warning companies not to converse with bloggers directly. Instead, he argues, organizations should use his services, claiming that doing so would help organizations “take the high road” in preserving accuracy and integrity in the world of social media.

What he forgot was that bloggers actually READ his article and promote his products.

Photo: http://www.lindamoran.net/blog_archives/2007/04/

This was the CLASSIC case of biting the hand that feeds you. The immediate, ensuing criticism was fierce, and became so loud that Mr. Kovacoglu soon responded by posting a video on YouTube explaining what he really meant to say, but didn’t. The result was even more uproar against the newly-appointed Mr. Popularity.

Herein lies today’s social media lesson – even if Mr. Kovacoglu had some valid points, it would have been much better for him to work with bloggers to raise the integrity bar in some sort of mutually beneficial manner rather than try and push them out of the process.  Truth be told, bloggers outnumber Total Beauty Media on orders of magnitude, so the CEO should try making them his friends and influencing from within instead of from the outside.

Use whatever cliche you want

• You can catch more flies with honey
• Keep your friends close and your enemies closer
• If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em

In doing so, Mr. Kovacoglu might actually help increase his subscriber base and his profits. If you’ll pardon the pun, I would highly suggest he try that tactic on for size!