Planning for a Social Media Crisis
crbrowning | Nov 21, 2008 | Comments 7
[cross posted] Marketers need to understand that the dynamics of conversations with online audiences have fundamentally changed. The lessons from Motrin, Dell, WalMart, JetBlue and others that have been called out by bloggers, Twitter-storms and others enabled by social media is not a passing fad, but something that needs to be recognized as a new marketing reality. As such, marketing organizations need policies for when (not if) there is a backlash to something that their organization has done that is unpopular.
The following is a broad outline of a social media crisis policy:
- Establish Employee Awareness: Empower employees to participate in social media while reminding them that this participation is very public for co-workers (past, current and future), customers, prospects and competitors. Put simply, employees should be smart.
- Crisis Levels: Agree on the categories of a crisis. Include how your organization responds to each level and who should engage. Provide this list to everyone in your organization. For the individuals responsible for responding during the crisis (ideally your PR and Community manager) provide the proper PR crisis training.
- Listen: Ensure that you are listening on all social media channels with the appropriate alerts. There are a wide range of powerful tools from Radian6 to Techrigy or the free tools such as TweetBeeps or Google Alerts. Social media is now providing incredible real time feedback to brands. Quick response can prevent escalation.
- Engage: Directly engage in the conversation within the medium (blog comments, twitter, ect) during a crisis. Yes, PR and Marketing teams – you need Twitter accounts! Be sincere and honest in your conversations. It is far more likely that you will be judged more by how you react to the crisis than by the marketing miss-step that is being discussed.
- Apologize and move on: Depending on the guidelines that you have agreed on for the crisis level, swiftly make the appropriate apology, both in the original medium (Twitter, blog comments, etc) and a mass medium (website and Youtube – again depending on crisis level) and move on.
We have seen various companies react differently, what would you add or change? Please add to the comments below.
/Colin
Filed Under: Reviews
I love this as an overview– of course, I crave some more depth in some of these points– especially in #1, where you have to be prepared for blowback based on liability and executives who may have trust issues when it comes to realizing employees should be talking about brand- at some level- and do anyway
I agree with Doug — good overview.
But I disagree with #5. Motrin posted a very corporate apology and then “moved on.” It was like trying to feed a hamburger to a vegetarian. They’re just not gonna bite.
If your audience is engaging you by reaching out, interact with them in their playground. I’m not suggesting you drag it out, but by suggesting you drop an apology and go is a bit counter to the very good point brought up in #4 which is that folks are more likely to judge how you react vs. the issue at hand.
Excellent overview. The key to success with #5 is to proffer the apology immediately. The mistake Motrin made was in being completely oblivious to the Twitterstorm that raged for 48 hours. Only when it started to filter out through the blogosphere and hit more traditional media outlets such as Forbes and the NY Times parenting blog did Motrin sit up and take notice. It’s interesting to me that so many of the social media faux pas are generated by advertising rather than public relations agencies. Perhaps it’s because public relations has continually broadened its scope while advertising hasn’t.
An excellent issue, and a good overview.
I do think that things like assigning crisis level categories are just way too bureaucratic. While some manager spends time trying to categorize the crisis, the crisis deepens. And I don’t even know what you mean by “Establish Employee Awareness,” and how that relates to their intelligence.
I enjoyed your post, thank you for the synopsis. If you were looking to build on this line of discussion/thinking, you might consider how a company that has yet to reach social media acceptance–as I gather was the case with #motrinmoms–can suitably function and respond when faced with a social media crisis situation. Essentially, when there’s insufficient time for a well-crafted SM crisis strategy (preplanning), how can a brand jump in with both feet and work to mitigate a situation out of control?
Maybe that warrants 2 or 3 posts, actually
Might give it a try myself.
This is, again, a great overview and adapts some well established crisis PR practices. With all the things going on in social media, the timeline is so incredibly fast that it’s difficult for organization leaders to always see the value. PR and brand managers should recognize the value of quick response without wasting time perfecting messages. The point about moving is a very valid one. Much of the social media population is more likely to be outraged by a marketing misstep rather than taking any great pains to defend the offending brand.
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onPlanning for a Social Media Crisis | Constructing SocialHere’s a quick excerptYes, PR and Marketing teams – you need Twitter accounts! Be sincere and honest in your conversations. It is far more likely that you will be judged more by how you react to the crisis than by the marketing miss-step that is being … [...]