In the world of Social Media, the aim is to get as many people talking about your brand as possible, and to promote the brand ethos in everything you do. Whilst it’s definitely marketing, it’s the aspect that most gives the company a voice, and so we’re reminded not to be too ‘salesy’ or too promotional. In fact, we’re often told to speak to our customers like friends, particularly when representing a ‘leisure’ brand, in the fashion, entertainment or sports sectors. If your audience are young and ‘hip’, they want things on their newsfeed that they can relate to, and not something that isolates them. Being colloquial and sharing content that will make them laugh, react, and most importantly, engage, is ideal. And then once we’ve got their attention, we’re taught to retain it, by responding, advising, helping and finally, encouraging them through our actions, to love – and buy into – the brand itself.

Enter Black Milk Clothing, an Australian clothing brand generally famed for their love of all things lycra. If you can think of a movie, a TV show, or even just a character with a cult following, the likelihood is they’ve branded it up and made it fashionable. Think Harry Potter ‘Daily Prophet’ leggings and Star Wars Swims – which don’t come cheap - and yep, you can definitely see why they’re on to a winner!

But something caught my attention recently. Black Milk Clothing were getting some pretty bad press from Buzzfeed. Why? Their social media campaign. I have to admit, I was shocked. I’d always heard… whispers… shall we say, about their attitude. Blocking their loyal customers who dared criticise them. Or even just allegedly sarcastic comments aimed at fans. But there was never anything that had blown up on a big scale, so I figured that it was just a case of not being able to keep everyone happy, all of the time – which is natural.

But then, this happened. They made a faux pas and posted this picture:

Credit: https://www.facebook.com/blackmilkclothing

What’s the big deal, you might ask? Well. In their efforts to be fair and favourites, Black Milk have their own series of ‘rules’ that they try and stick to, known as their ‘promises’. There are then strict ‘commandments’ that their 600,000+ fans on Facebook must agree to in order to stay part of the community. Totally acceptable, and totally awesome, when you see some of them. Like this one, a true feminist and sweet sentiment:

We see wayyyy too much of that, right? Black Milk themselves always try and feature a range of models in all different shapes and sizes on their page, and in this interview with their Marketing Manager Cameron Parker, he says that their strategy is to enhance the existing community by giving them their moment in the spotlight. In fact, he said: “I’d say about 2% of our content is something we’ve created, and anything else is user generated.” On fostering a safe and loving community, he says: “If you say to someone that they need to gain some weight, or wash their hair, or whatever, then we take it down. We find that inappropriate and it’s immediately banned.” So there’s literally no harm being done through judging others. All good then?

But hang on… doesn’t an image like this criticise the girl on the right? If you don’t know, that girl is the highly intelligent (both on-screen and off) Amy Farrah Fowler, played by Mayim Bialik, from the popular TV show The Big Bang Theory. This image looks like it’s saying that the girl on the left is hotter than her, because she’s been sexed up a bit. In all honesty, it is saying that, but doesn’t that go against their own commandments?

So you know, people pointed out this blatant contradiction, and were basically told to get lost. Even worse, Black Milk refused to back down in their defence, even when things got a bit heated, calling the subsequent deletion of the comments of a ‘vocal minority’ who were protesting, simply a clean-up. Now they were breaking their own promises…

And, to make things worse, they released a statement calling their own behaviour just a ‘joke’ and accused their customers of ‘negativity’. It was signed by ‘all’ of the team, leaving people who’d raised what they felt was a very valid point, feeling somewhat isolated – and thus their custom unwanted. Even though Cameron Parker has since issued a full apology calling the whole debacle a ‘mistake’, there are still people who doubtlessly felt alienated at the time.

You’ve probably got this gist of all that from the article I linked to. But what Buzzfeed failed to mention is that this hasn’t, by any means, been a brand who’ve always had problems. This wasn’t a case of a clueless clothing collection gone awry, and this post is not a hate-filled judgement of the brand. I’ve personally always had my eye on them, and for the most part, this has meant an eye firmly on their Facebook page (whenever I have that kind of money for what is essentially a piece of material, I tend to spend it on other things).

But I digress. Like I said, I’ve always admired them – albeit from afar – and one of the reasons has always been their ability to engage with their fans on Facebook. They’re chatty, friendly, and pretty cute, signing off their messages with kisses and their name – a nice personal touch, in contrast with a lot of faceless brands out there. From personal experience, upon logging in to be faced with their range with a ‘bees’ theme last summer, I commented that even the very sight of those awful creatures – whose name I won’t type again, hopefully ever – freaked me out. It’s just a personal phobia, I know it’s ridiculous, but that’s beside the point. I was met with an emphatically sympathetic apology, which was positively gushing. Although potentially somewhat OTT (although in fairness probably matching my own OTT-yet-polite style), I was touched that they’d gone to the effort of making me feel a bit better about what I had seen. The fact that I had to see the image again when the notification came through was hardly their fault! Since this incident, I have long cited them as a perfect example of how to ‘do’ Facebook.

I’m not alone in recognizing their achievements on the platform. According to Socialbakers, this was a brand with one of the most successful Facebook pages in Australia, with devoted fans from all around the world. Data shows that their fan base in the USA even exceeds that in their native homeland, and as recently as April, Black Milk Clothing were reported to be the ‘Most Socially Devoted Facebook Brand’ in the industry, giving a staggering 99% of their fans a response, often within a time period of less than two hours.

There is also a fantastic culture of inclusion; absolutely wonderful messages that the brand promote as core values, such as ‘all women are real’, which seems to go against the grain of a lot of fashion brands who want a certain ‘look’ and nothing else. Their endless posts and light-hearted memes to encourage self-esteem and self-worth should not be overlooked, and nor should their countless communities bringing people together from all over the world, including LGBTQ fans and other groups who may have historically felt marginalized.

So how did it all go wrong? Black Milk Clothing themselves admit that they’re halfway between a ‘cult’ and a business. When this means inclusiveness, that’s quirky and works just fine. But what we need to take away here and learn is that when you’re THAT successful and respected, you can’t throw it away by being careless. You need to ensure all those in charge of your social pages are on the same page, and learn to admit your mistakes, and never, ever put the brand into disrepute. The customer may not always be right (come on, we know this by now!) but they do have a right to express dissatisfaction with you.

A ‘cult’ online is all well and good, and gives the ultimate following – but when it shifts into the dangerous, murky waters of exclusivity and exclusion as opposed to community, that’s where you can start to slip. This was a prime example of taking colloquial too far. The people who have liked your page are people who you are supposed to treat like friends… but they are not your friends. Just because you’d call your friend out for being a bit of an idiot, or rude, or insensitive, does not by any means you can do the same to your followers, many of whom have spent very good money on your stuff. In the public eye, you cannot afford to be seen to look down on your customers, no matter what you think your relationship with them is. After all, Black Milk Clothing have a clear passion for what they do, so it would be a shame to let that go to waste.

So, as a rule, be friendly when times are good, but accept that times do get bad. That’s when it’s time to get your business hat on, making sure it’s a professional one. And that it’s not made from lyrca. There is more to life than lycra.