We analysed more than 77,000 social media posts and interactions following the news in December 2013 of a consumer data breach at Target. This ebook contains our research and analysis including: Which social media users had the most influence in the wake of the breach How Target’s efforts to address the news affected social media The three lessons for PR pros based on the findings For more, read our blog post: http://blog.mslgroup.com/the-target-breach-has-changed-everything-even-sxsw/

1. The Target
Data Breach
What it Teaches PR Pros About Social Media
Data Analysis: Dec. 17, 2013, 12:00am — Jan. 9, 2014, 12:00am
By Brenna Hagy,
Senior Account Executive
MSLGROUP in Boston
www.mslgroup.com
@MSLGROUPNA
(781) 684-0770

2. 2
The Target Data Breach: What it Teaches PR Pros About Social Media
We’ve all heard about it by now. It’s been plastered all over the news and could
reportedly affect up to one-third of the U.S. population. Target announced on
January 10 the theft of personal information of as many as 70 million additional
customers as part of the company’s payment card data breach in December 2013.
When added to previously disclosed numbers, that brings the grand total to 110
million impacted consumers.
110
Million
Impacted
Customers
Information Stolen
N
am
e
MailingAddress
Pin
Numbers
Credit + Debit
Card Numbers
Email
Address

3. 3
The Target Data Breach: What it Teaches PR Pros About Social Media
The tech team here at MSLGROUP in Boston wanted to go beyond the media
attention swarming the Target breach. We focused in on how this incident made
significant social media chatter, and what it can teach us about the relationship
between social and traditional media.
To do this, we turned to NUVI, the new Business Wire social media monitoring tool.
After setting up a search with specific terms and keywords , NUVI churned out real-time
data: who was tweeting what, who has the most influence, which links were shared the
most, the sentiment of the tweets and much, much more. We monitored the aftermath
of the Target breach from December 17, 2013 to January 9, 2014—more than 77,500
tweets; Facebook, YouTube, Reddit and Google+ posts; and mentions on blogs—and
came to three general conclusions.
Analyzed 77,646 social
mentions between December
17th and January 9th, including
the keywords:
@target data
@target breach
@target credit card breach
@target unauthorized
#target data
#target breach
#target credit card breach
target data breach
The peak of conversation happened
on December 19th at 12pm,
During this spike, there were 5,649
mentions. The most frequently
used keywords during that time
were Data breach, 40 million
customers, Christmas, Hackers
Stole Your Data and Massive Target
Breach.
(+) Positive conversations
included the words safe, want,
resolved, secure and free credit
monitoring.
(-) Negative conversations
included the words stolen,
affected, frustration, apologizes
and scams.
The NUVI report

4. 4
The Target Data Breach: What it Teaches PR Pros About Social Media
1. Target Was Able to Control the Message…Somewhat
Once the story broke on December 18,
Target stepped into action. Target issued a
press release on December 19 confirming
the breach, and the social media universe
consumed it. During our 23-day analysis,
the URL link to this release was the
third most popular tweeted and shared
URL overall within social media activity
discussing the breach.
Definitions
In•flu•en•cers:
The Influencers List and score
are determined by NUVI’s own
algorithm laid on top of Klout’s
algorithm. NUVI’s algorithm culls
information together from the topic
of the individual’s tweets, info in the
individual’s bio, what industry they
tweet about most often, etc.
Re•shares:
When one person retweets
another’s tweet.
Reach:
The direct number of people who
can see a tweet.
Spread:
The number of retweets of a
specific tweet.
Trending Now

5. 5
The Target Data Breach: What it Teaches PR Pros About Social Media
Target also released a slew of subsequent content including press releases,
blog posts and videos. We tried to determine if the videos increased the social
traction of those pieces of content. Because Target distributed the videos within
blog posts, it was hard to gauge with the NUVI tool how they impacted engagement.
However, no subsequent post was shared nearly as much as the original press release.
Overall, Twitter users shared the @Target handle 944 times, making it the second
most shared handle for the period covered. The moral of the story? Target did its best
to control messaging and to show its presence in both traditional and social media, and
did it pretty well. Rather than shying away and hiding in the wake of the breach, Target
got out front and center to address the story and make sure its message was heard.
MINNEAPOLIS — December 20, 2013
Target Data Security Media Update
MINNEAPOLIS — December 24, 2013
Target Data Security Media Update #3MINNEAPOLIS — December 21, 2013Target Data Security Update: Tips for Consumers
MINNEAPOLIS — December 19, 2013
Target Confirms Unauthorized Access to Payment Card Data in U.S. Stores
Issue has been identified and resolved
MINNEAPOLIS — December 20, 2013A Message from CEO Gregg Steinhafel about Target’s Payment Card Issues
MINNEAPOLIS — December 27, 2013
Target Data Security Media Update #4MINNEAPOLIS — December 23, 2013
Target Data Security Media Update #2

6. 6
The Target Data Breach: What it Teaches PR Pros About Social Media
2. The Most Important Influencer Was Hidden From View
One of the great security reporters,
Brian Krebs, broke the news of the
Target breach on December 18 at
2:33pm with a blog post on
KrebsOnSecurity.com. During the
first 24 hours after breaking the
news, Krebs’ tweet with his story
was the eighth most reshared,
and the URL link was the third
most shared. Over the entire period
of the study, the URL link to Krebs’
story was the seventh most shared.
While Krebs’ piece was not as highly reshared as other media stories, and his Twitter
account was not ranked as one of the top ten influencers for the period covered, he was
mentioned in 86 articles about the breach. Plus, his Twitter followers grew by nearly
3,000. This tells us that while Krebs influenced the media, the media influenced Twitter.
And, in this case, the most important influencer—the person who broke the story—largely
flew under the radar of social media monitoring.
• #8 reshares in first 24
hours
• #3 trending URL in first
24 hours
• Fell to #7 on list of
trending URLs overall
• Krebs had 86 media
mentions
Breaking News
Target
Investigating
Data Breach
-Brian Krebs, Krebs on Security
December 18, 2013

7. 7
The Target Data Breach: What it Teaches PR Pros About Social Media
NBC
news
98
3. The Top Influencers Were Professional Media Twitter Handles
Twitter handles owned by media outlets dominated the conversation
and the list of top influencers throughout the period of the research. Some of these
outlets had influencer scores in the upper 90s, and are among the most well-known
media brands.
The top ten influencers overall were:
Forbes
99
AP
99
HuffPo
99
LATimes
99
ABC
98
Yahoo!
98
NPR
news
97
WSJ
99
USA
Today
96

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The Target Data Breach: What it Teaches PR Pros About Social Media
A mix of media outlet-, journalist- and analyst-owned social media properties
socialized content with the widest spread.
The handles whose tweets spread the farthest with retweets and reshares were:
handle
@BenDiPietro1
@foxnewsvideo
@ABC
@germanotes
@KimBhasin
@GMA
@ABCNewsRadio
@NewsMatt
@ForbesTech
@PierreTABC
Spread
7,687,962
7,199,282
4,649,309
3,871,333
3,709,412
2,973,971
2,957,108
2,798,444
2,684,125
2,212,030

9. 9
The Target Data Breach: What it Teaches PR Pros About Social Media
In the first 48 hours, when looking at the data hour by hour, non-media Twitter
handles would occasionally appear on NUVI’s index of “Top 10 Influencers,” but
would quickly drop back off the list in the next hour. This all comes down to timing.
When a non-media Twitter handle created chatter by issuing tweets, that handle had
a chance to pop on the radar for a short period of time before competing with a tweet
from a media contact. These non-media handles—while boasting very high influencer
scores—were not able to stay on the list for any significant amount of time.
The non-media influencers who cracked the top ten list, at least for short periods of
time during that initial two-day period, were:
Influencer
@kellyhclay
@FabeWash31
@KidFury
@tedubya
@MatthewKeysLive
@TolkienLibrary
@WaterWayRealty
@jeffcarroll
@manuel_c
@KamalFaridi
Score
80
80
80
79
78
73
71
71
69
68
Influencer

10. 10
The Target Data Breach: What it Teaches PR Pros About Social Media
Lessons Learned
Taking a step back, what does this mean for those of us involved with
social media management?
1. Socialmediamonitoringisamarathon,notasprint:Flippingonsocialmediamonitoringonlyafter
a major event or piece of news will distort the reality of your social influence world. Media-owned
socialmediaproperties will“drownout”theinfluencersthatmatteraspartofanongoingcampaign.
To find the non-media influencers impacting your market, monitor the social media universe for
the long haul. When news hits, look within the resulting media coverage to find influencers that
are included in the articles. Track those influencers over a “quiet period” without news to gauge
their impact. Only with long-term monitoring and analysis can a company understand the key
social media influencers that will impact online engagement and community development.
2. Traditional crisis rules apply to new media: Follow Target’s lead on this. Be proactive, honest and
communicate. This is key to earn trust and try to control the message. As Target issued press
releases or posted to the blog, it also issued a tweet with the content to create consistent and
open communication across all channels.
3. For breaking news, nothing beats traditional media: No doubt about it—the social media universe
responded to the Target breach. However, the top ten influencers were all Twitter handles owned
by media outlets. Seven of the top ten most shared URLs were links to articles from the likes of
NBC News, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and CNN Money. While it is imperative to engage in
social media, nothing beats mentions in top-tier publications. That is what, more often than not,
moves the visibility needle for any brand.

11. 11
The Target Data Breach: What it Teaches PR Pros About Social Media
MSLGROUP’s technology practice works with innovators of all sizes, from venture-
backed disrupters to some of the largest brands in the world. Our clients leverage
innovation to transform business, power the connected consumer, and even save lives
and the planet. As a global technology agency, we’ve taken hundreds of companies
from garages to greatness, and re-ignited many established brands to expand
leadership and forge new markets. Our content-centric strategies are rooted in a deep
understanding of clients’ business and technology. We can draw the architecture on
the white board, but more importantly we translate those technical advantages and
innovations into fascinating content, connecting market and consumer benefits to
strategic audiences to boost engagement, sales and market brand and leadership.
Follow us on our blog at blog.mslgroup.com.
www.mslgroup.com
@MSLGROUPNA
(781) 684-0770