GAP’s Giant Social Media Mistake!

Sara Beaudoin is the Marketing Communications Manager for SearchPro Systems.

Recently, GAP changed their logo from the traditional blue box to a new, more modern logo.  Almost immediately, GAP fans and followers voiced their opinions and their distaste for the new logo.  Thousands of people commented on Facebook and Tweeted on Twitter, saying things like “Clearly majority votes for the old logo. I have to agree that this new logo is not as good. There is nothing better than the original, so keep it GAP officials!!!”  After GAP officials saw all of the comments, and the overwhelming requests to bring the old GAP logo back, they decided to ditch the new logo and keep the old one.  They explained that they wanted to update their logo to match the modern times and to mirror other updates the GAP line is constantly making; however, they admit they didn’t go about it the right way.

I think it’s important that we learn from GAP’s mistake.  Those of us working in SEO and Social Media are always looking for new ways to keep content popular and up to date, so on a positive note, all of the comments, Tweets, blogs, and articles about GAP’s new logo certainly kept GAP fans (and hundreds of thousands of others) intrigued!  On the other hand, when your company is getting feedback from hundreds of thousands of people, you most certainly want it to be positive!

So, GAP could have approached this new logo launch in a number of different ways to evoke a more positive spin.  First, as soon as they started to consider creating a new logo, they could have posed a question on Facebook or Twitter such as “Do you think GAP should update the traditional logo?”  After all, social media is designed for interaction.  Then, before spending any time or money on creating a new logo, GAP could have found out right away that their customers preferred their old logo.  They could have also announced they were creating a new logo and asked Facebook fans and Twitter followers to submit their designs and even offered a prize for the best one, or they could have given fans and followers the option of voting between a few top logo options.

Not only would they have encouraged more positive feedback and fan/follower interaction, but all of the comments, tweets, blogs and articles would have a huge impact on SEO ranking.  Obviously a company like GAP would have been doing very well in the SEO arena prior to the new logo launch, but imagine what this type of publicity could do for a smaller, local business!