Many Critics, Few Do'ers
It’s the 80/20 rule. While 80% of people complain, less than 20% of people act.
Remember the outrage over Facebook’s Terms of Service? Oh my. The cries of indignation went on for days. In fact, the critics were so vocal that for the first time ever, Facebook reversed one of their changes. Then, Facebook revised their Terms of Service and for a period of x weeks allowed users to weigh in on them. Facebook did a fantastic job of promoting the ability to vote to its users. The call to action was everywhere – messages at the top of news feeds, ads, virtual gifts, news feed stories of friends who voted and reminders on their blog. Yet, how many people took the time to vote?
Well, a whooping 650,000 users voted. Facebook expected 60 million. That’s kind of a big difference. Like a 99% difference.
While there’s a lot of screamers out there, how many of us are do’ers?
- - Did Motrin see a dip in sales after the Motrin Moms fiasco? Nope.
- - What about Skittles’ website reimagination? Did it increase searches? Nope. Search traffic is on a nice slope down.
- - And Domino’s? How long did you go without eating pizza? I was grossed out. I ate pizza this weekend.
The takeaway? Take what your critics have to say with a grain of salt. They like to yell a lot. Tomorrow they’ll be screaming about something else
On a side note, I’d love to see a company not respond and track what happens vs. those companies that did respond.

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