Crisis Management
Although social media presents huge opportunities for stakeholder engagement and brand participation, there is always the possibility that something can go awry the ‘wrong’ message gets out. One of the main threats which social media presents is the speed with which crisis situations can reach the public eye and the speed of this information spreading.
The following case studies demonstrate that when dealing to a crisis involving social media, it i most important to act fast, be authentic, proactive and apologetic.
The following case studies demonstrate that when dealing to a crisis involving social media, it i most important to act fast, be authentic, proactive and apologetic.
Case Study #1: Domino's Disgusting YouTube Video
In 2009 two Dominos employees filmed themselves defiling food in a Dominos Pizza kitchen prior to serving it up, and uploaded the video to YouTube. Dominos acted promptly upon finding out, but not before the video went viral and ended up all over the news. Dominos fired the two employees and had them prosecuted, and the CEO of the company created his own video apologizing profusely for the incident. While Dominos could not undo the damage that had already been done, they were able to move past the mistake and have since recovered their image. Four key tips that can be taken away from their crisis management strategy include:
- Be quick to respond, as this minimizes
- Be sincere and show that you are genuinely
- Be proactive and show that you are taking actions to rectify the mistake
- Use social media itself to respond on the platform where the crisis originally began
Case Study #2: Bonds Racist Baby Search
In 2011 Bonds held its annual Bonds baby search where proud parents were able to submit photos of their baby to the brand’s website and rate and comment on each other’s photos. The number of entries they had increased from 17,000 in 2010 to 52,000 in 2011, and unfortunately the deluge in entries overwhelmed the system and it went into meltdown. This in its own right is annoying and embarrassing, but the real problems emerged when the system began working again and disgruntled users started to make racist and offensive comments about the babies. Bonds eventually shut the campaign down, but the damage was already done. The main tip to take away from Bond’s rather unsuccessful attempt at crisis management is:
- Always moderate and pay attention to your community, as an unmanaged community can quickly spiral out of control.
Case Study #3: Telstra Security Breach
In 2010 Telstra’s Tribe platform (a social media aggregating service) experienced a privacy breach where its customers were accidentally given access to other customer’s social media login details. However instead of trying to hide this mistake, Telstra announced details of the security breach on its Telstra Exchange blog, including an apologetic statement from the employee who’s fault it was describing what measures were being taken to rectify the problem. Instead of waiting for the bad news to break and then trying to put out the fire, Telstra proactively took control of the situation and broke the news themselves. Key tips that can be taken away from their crisis management strategy include:
- Break the bad news yourself, that way you can control it
- Make a point of apologizing for the mistake
- Detail the measures you are taking to rectify the mistake
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Summary of points to remember when responding to a social media crisis:
Developing a social media policy is an effective measure a businesses can take to help prevent a crisis from occuring in the first place. Find out how to create one here. |