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It's The Relationships, Stupid: Why J.P. Morgan's Twitter Chat Went Horribly, Horribly Wrong

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I can see the marketing meeting where this happened:

"We've got to get younger people interested in our products. How do we do that? Anyone?"

A just-past-middle-aged middle manager-type pipes up. "I know! Let's use the social media!"

"Yeah! We could have a-- how do the kids say it?-- Twitter chat!"

And then it all went downhill from there.

In case you've missed it this morning, JP Morgan decided to host a Twitter chat where folks--especially students-- were encouraged to tweet questions for Vice Chairman Jimmy Lee on career advice and leadership. The results, while hilarious for the rest of us, didn't work out too well for the bank. Here are some particularly solid gems that were shared:

Now, leaving aside the fact that Twitter might not be the best service to reach young people, and that young folks in general are leaving social networks for private messaging services in droves, let's talk about why this failed so miserably, and what JP Morgan could have done differently. The short answer: not hosted a Twitter chat. The long answer? A little more involved.

The first rule of fight club social media: These are not communications tools, these are relationship management tools. While JP Morgan did the right thing in attempting to use social media as a listening device for its relationships, it should have known that people are not feeling great about how the bank operates in the world--operating time after time in fraudulent ways, and no single banker ever receiving criminal punishment for it. (And let's be honest: Getting fined doesn't count; real money is like Monopoly money to those guys.) It shouldn't have been too hard to predict that opening up a forum on advice and leadership was going to spring loose a lot of that sentiment.

When I say these aren't communications tools, I mean it. Clearly, the JP Morgan marcom team planned this Twitter chat not as an actual relationship development tool, but as a communications stunt. "Let us show you how hip and down we are! And then ye shall buy our services!" The banking industry's public image is in the crapper (thanks, economic meltdown); the last idea I would suggest for them with regards to social media would be to ask for feedback unless they actually wanted to hear how people feel.  I just can't imagine what the JPM social media team was thinking, unless they're Occupy Wall Street plants. In which case: I slow-clap for you.

Social media can do a lot to manage relationships that are at least somewhat two-way in nature: by offering customer service, establishing oneself as a curator of good information, and connecting like-minded folks with each other. But with a company that's as stuck in the old way of doing business, while the rest of the population suffers for it, well... Social media is not going to solve your image problems. You'd actually have to change the way you do business, JP, and it doesn't look like that's happening any time soon.