As the news of the Windows-crashing McAfee update is spreading across the globe, and the bad publicity is rising to the top of the organic results and Twitter is getting negative updates every few seconds*, there is little to be heard from the company. Wouldn’t this be a great opportunity to use search for communications?
The Search aspect
The first organic result on Google is the news section with several articles regarding the issue. It’s a similar scenario on bing.com.
Although McAfee is owning the paid search space (in the UK and several other markets) for it’s branded terms by using its own agency and up to three paid search affiliates, it is not leveraging this to communicate with it’s customer base, the IT community or the press.
While it’s too early to get any statistics from Google trends on how search interest for ‘mcafee’ related terms have been impacted, it should be fair to assume a spike in interest as plenty of people are seeking information on the issue.
Update: in the US the term ‘mcafee’ is already the 19th hottest search term according to Google hot trends.
The Social aspect
Since Twitter Search Ads are not yet open to the vast majority of companies, it’s even more important to maximise the organic Twitter presence. I’m expecting that these type of scenarios is where Twitter search ads will really excel to quickly communicate the official response.
While the main twitter handle @McAfeeNews and @McAfee have had two updates on the topic of the issue, the more popular @McAfeeAvertLabs (with 50% more followers) is yet to post any information on the topic. To me, the latter seem like an obvious channel with an audience that is apparently very interested in the latest security threats and issues, and also greater reach. This clearly highlights the issue that consumers don’t care about corporate structures.
It’s also awfully quiet on their Facebook page (at least from their corner, the users are getting louder), with no-less than 175,853 fans.
Note: as this post is written and published as the issue is still unfolding, things may change and I will seek to update the post accordingly.
* Realtime count based on search.twitter.com for term ‘mcafee’ and spot-checking and timing the update frequency 22nd April morning.
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BLOG> McAfee Update Failure a Missed PPC and Social Opportunity http://www.bravenewme.com/2010/04/mcafee... ##ppc #sem #social
RT @nilsson_magnus: BLOG> McAfee Update Failure a Missed PPC and Social Opportunity http://www.bravenewme.com/2010/04/mcafee... ##ppc #sem #social