Why I’ve stopped (for now) tweeting and posting on FB

This blog post has also been posted on to my Kinja blog at http://audiforlife.kinja.com.

If you follow me on Twitter, Facebook and/or Google+, you will have noticed that I have not tweeted or posted anything since posting variations of the following:

What if I would stop tweeting (or posting)
Would anyone give a darn?
What difference would it make?
If I were to stop right now…

So, why have I stopped tweeting and posting? Well, it sure isn’t due to the lack of time or other projects or things getting higher priority. I have always made time to at least post or tweet something, even if it’s only 2-3 things per day.

No, the reason why I have decided to stop posting and engaging is in protest to the lack of engagement and poor handling of the Audi USA social media account ever since HUGE took over for M80 about 5-6 months ago. I am definitely not the only one that has noticed the painful “transition” (or lack thereof), as the lady (and friend) who started the #WantAnR8 hashtag on Twitter has commented and posted several blog posts on her blog (posts 1, 2 and 3). I have already had several conversations with a contact within Audi USA’s internal social media team in hopes to see and help them improve themselves; even, with repeated assurances of trying to get things going the right way, there have been no real tangible improvements in creating really engaging conversations or material that the guys at M80 have done consistently.

It’s also pretty bad when the people tweeting and posting on behalf of Audi USA don’t even follow proper Audi naming and styling guides, for example: allroad and quattro are stylized with a lower case “a” and “q” respectively. There has been a huge lack of proper attribution of photos and content that get posted on to Twitter, Facebook and Google+. There have been several times where the original content creator has had to directly contact the guys and gals running the account to get it corrected or even mentioned.

I think that the #50StatesOfAudi hashtag campaign was a great way for Audi USA to get back into the game; but, after a few weeks of no real activity from them, a fellow #WantAnR8 contest winner asked Audi what was going on with the campaign.

What happened to #50statesofAudi @audi? Did that “campaign” just die due to lack of engagement? What was the incentive?

— Dan G (@Grosssman) July 10, 2013

Their response was pretty darn weak.

@Grosssman It’s very much still happening, Dan. Stay tuned over the next coupe of weeks. And thanks for asking about #50StatesofAudi.

— Audi (@Audi) July 10, 2013

The fact that Dan had to even prod Audi USA about it was shameful and would have never had happened if M80, or any other competent social media team, managed the account.

The Audi social media community has also seen I Am Audi go dark for several reasons. I can go on and list other instances of key community members and contributors that have either taken a step back, gone dark, or considered going dark.

I have decided to follow their footsteps and have gone dark until Audi USA gets their social media act together. And, by that, I don’t just mean tweeting PR or other news. Audi USA social media, when managed by M80, went out of their way to engage and bring Audi owners, enthusiasts and brand evangelists into the mix and actively shared content, links and created discussion points. Audi USA social media team has to get back to that… and then some. Also, that means that I will not be participating in #GermanCarChat.

That doesn’t mean that I am stepping away from the Audi community altogether; in fact, I still spend my time in Audizine, Quattroworld, ACNA and other community groups and outlets.