The burgeoning social media landscape has brought with it frightening new possibilities for brand-trashing on a global scale: people using Twitter or blogs to spread derogatory remarks about your company; a disgruntled employee posting an “insiders” video on YouTube. You have no idea how it all started, and even less of an idea about how to stop it.
It seems every @tom, @dick or @harry can have an opinion.
In recent years some of the biggest US companies have experienced the ugly side of social media’s reach and a recent Australian survey showed one in four of us would boycott a product after reading negative comments on social media sites.
The reach and speed of social media can be astonishing. Just ask Comcast, America’s largest cable operator. One of their technicians was called to an apartment to install a new cable, only to fall asleep for an hour on the couch as he waited for a call back. The customer videoed him sleeping, posted it on YouTube and to date the image of Comcast at work has been viewed more than 1.3 million times.
Then we had a Burger King employee videoed bathing in the restaurant’s kitchen sink. The employee is now an ex-employee but the YouTube image lives on for anyone to watch. Similarly ex are the two Dominos Pizza employees who earlier this year posted a video showing them engaged in disgusting food preparation at a store. The employees later claimed it was all a joke and that none of the food they tampered with had been sold, but once again cyberspace ensures their handiwork lives on.
So what are the rules for handling crises in the age of social media? How can companies resurrect their reputations in the face of malicious postings? What do you do if someone posts a negative comment in Twitter?
Here are some steps to consider:
1: Get your company engaged in social media space, and now.Use it to find out what your customers think, when they are thinking it, who they share it with, and for directly corresponding with those customers. If your business is not already regularly listening to and perhaps conversing directly with customers and potential customers through social media – Twitter, YouTube, blogs, etc – then you are missing an opportunity.
2: When a crisis unfolds you must think and move quickly.Social media can move information at an exponential rate, so have your response out there as soon as possible to counteract and hopefully nullify the negative information. That’s another positive to already being engaged and having a presence, plus you don’t have to waste valuable time setting up Twitter and YouTube accounts or establishing a blog.
3: Ascertain just how big the problem is.There are a number of sophisticated tools that enable you to quantify the amount of chatter about any one subject. If it is merely a Twitter posting from a disgruntled customer, respond politely via Twitter; likewise a critical blog. Remember, this comment can be public too. The beauty of social media is that it allows you to respond directly and quickly, giving you the chance to explain your position, right a wrong or apologise. You can ask the complainant to contact you by phone, or even to meet face to face so that you can personally try to settle the matter. In the Australian survey mentioned above, 60 per cent of those surveyed said if they posted a negative comment about an organisation on social media they would welcome contact from the organisation.
4: If you are confronting a full-blown crisis then you must react in a similar manner.For that you may also need professional help. In the Dominos case, the company initially decided not to respond, hoping the incident would die down of its own accord. However, in just three days, more than a million people had viewed the video and the company’s reputation suffered. After absorbing that damage Dominos posted a message on its website and asked employees with Twitter accounts to tweet a link to the site. They established their own Twitter account and tried to reassure people that the practice in the video was totally aberrant. They filmed a message from the company’s president and put that on YouTube. These steps were all correct, but a couple of days too late, plus time was lost as they didn’t have an existing social media footprint.
5: Enlist your fans in the social media landscape.This could be your employees, friends, and clients – those that know the company and don’t share the negative sentiment. You can utilise Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and your blog to allow them to post their messages. Establish a page on your website where people can post messages and videos, to which you can direct traffic.
6: Keep monitoring the social media landscape.Find out whether the conversation is continuing or abating. Continue to have a voice and consider responding to incorrect information.
7: If you have a data base of customers, contact them to set the record straight, asking for their continued patronage.This could be offline or through other channels.
Not an exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination, but a good start.
The tone and style is also important. Don’t preach. Don’t think of transmitting messages; instead participate in the conversation and allow people to engage and ask questions. Be informal and conversational. Your goal is to build a community (of fans), a community that can and will support you in trying times.