Nikon’s Facebook page is blowing up with comments. But not for the right reasons

It's simple. Give the social media person who wrote this a nice new Nikon camera and 24 hours to come up with their best shot.

If it wows everyone, they've proved their point. If it fails, they can look for another job.

Only kidding - just let 'em kiss and make up with an "Oops, my bad."

I guess deep down, its not Nikon's fault its the media person who is managing their brand on FB to blame. Photography has nothing to do with expensive lenses, I mean look at Nick Brandt, have you seen his photos? That guy shoots critically-acclaimed, mind-blowing images of wild, african animals with a PRIME lens! Now that's what I call a genuine photographer! its not just the equipment, its the photographer's eye that differentiates between a hobbyist and a real photographer!

As if people will stop buying Nikon products because of this... This "episode" will pass like many other marketing "mistakes" did.

the new web 2.0 consumer is here. he knows his social media rights, he wants to be engaged with and have light conversations that reinforce his points of view. he is a whiny little bitch.

Nikon’s response: https://www.facebook.com/nikon/posts/10150317515979620

Although I do agree that this was not the smartest way to use facebook, I doubt whether it will change anything permanently. They still make great products, just like their competitors make great products. As a matter of fact, I expect Nikon to be focused on making their products better. They’re a camera manufacturer for crying out loud. I really don’t care if they have bad taste in photography :).

people need to stop crying... damn. This is great press for Nikon.

Someone obviously needs to fire their social media manager. /Cough.

If you go to the Nikon FB page you can see many comments from Nikon fans and non-fans, supporting that this was mistake and calling on others in the community to not be so critical of a company that has been a trusted name for decades.

It's actually refreshing to see people giving the benefit of the doubt to the company and not abandoning the brand because of a misguided SM hiccup.

I agree that this is mostly about not targeting your audience - for a less serious crowd, it would have been a relatively inoffensive post but given a great deal of their likers are going to be pros / serious ami's, they just didn't think about the consequences of potentially offending this crowd. Unfortunately, it has snowballed and probably those that wouldn't have seen it as an offensive post without seeing others' comments have waded in to have their say too adding fuel to the fire. If this was an agency, I think this is an example of the reputational risk that *can* come with entrusting such valuable, direct audience interaction with those further removed from those audience groups than in-house teams may be. I think the final kicker was the non-response - mistakes are inevitable from time to time, but brands must show their human side and apologise to those they may have offended. Would be interested to see how it has impacted on their page 'likes' - they may have had some drop-offs but I'd bet they had as many new 'likes' if not more, from the publicity generated by this little faux pas...

what they really need is a lesson in actual photography for all employees. including marketing and community management.

vvndfm

As a general hard-selling phrase could go, but what Nikon should have known is that their audience in FB is not just general public but photography fans - or pros - that take shooting seriously. Therefore the comment felt quite offensive.

Mistake when posting it, mistake when not reacting after 12+ hours, some head is going to fall at Nikon or is it some agency who manages their social properties?

No, that is not what this is about. The question is about selling their stuff and questioning the skillz of their adience quality of photography..Its always about the image and the vision of the photographer like the frase go's: ' A photographer is as good as their last picture. And besides it does not value their own vision which is' At the heart of the image. This is not heart at all, but hard selling.

Pfft, this is ridiculous.. Nikon were just making a simple statement to encourage their fans to post their photos and what lenses they used for them.

The 'guts' of what they were trying to say is true though.. a cheap lens will never perform as well as an expensive lens. You get what you pay for. Sure, in the hands of a 'hack', the expensive lens might as well be a toilet roll.. but when you start to push the limits of the lens it becomes very obvious.

Otherwise, why wouldn't we see professional photographers using little compact cameras - because they don't the images required. Simple. Storm in a teacup.