PR Crisis Management 01.17.12
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Managing a Crisis in Today's Digital World It is a well-known fact that “bad news travels fast.” From small town gossip to national news headlines, reputation management has always been crucial to companies and personalities when a crisis erupts. Now, in the new world of social media and mobile connectivity, where communication is both incessant and instantaneous, brands are more vulnerable than ever to public relations blunders and crises. There is nowhere to hide and avoiding an issue almost always makes it worse. How can your company prepare for and respond to a crisis (both online and off) using social media? AJ Gerritson, Founding Partner of 451 Marketing, will teach attendees how to manage online reputation and face crises head-on in this FREE webinar. Attendees will learn to leverage digital public relations tools by monitoring brand reputation, understanding how information travels online, creating a comprehensive crisis plan of action, and learning from brands who have done it right (and those who have failed miserably). By learning how to prepare for a crisis, companies can turn problems into opportunities.
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PR Crisis Management 01.17.12
- 2. AJ Gerritson Founding Partner 617.986.0224 aj@451marketing.com linkedin.com/in/ajgerritson @ajgerritson www.451Marketing.com
- 4. Mistakes • Didn’t properly harness its social outlets to manage/respond
- 5. BP was not new to Social
- 6. April 27 …7 days later
- 8. Still #1 in Search for “BP Twitter”
- 9. May 2 …2 weeks later
- 10. A “Boycott BP” movement sprung up with 356 groups on Facebook alone More than 400,000 members
- 11. Mistakes • Didn’t properly harness its social outlets to manage/respond • Made crisis worse by buying search engine ads without first tracking sentiments
- 12. Purchase "oil spill" ad words - Results linked to BP's website with the tagline “How BP is Helping"
- 13. Reports later surfaced that BP’s CEO, Tony Hayward, had recently cut the budget for public relations and media throughout the company
- 14. Instead of… They should have… Updates Listened Responses Engaged Statements Discussed Briefings Conversed Broadcasts Understood Distributions
- 16. 311 Million 164 Million 152 Million US POPULATION US ADULT FACEBOOKUSERS US INTERNET USERS Sources: Blogher (4/11), Pew (5/10), US Census Bureau (5/11)
- 17. 1 in 8 minutes online spent on Facebook
- 18. 156 million + registered users 5.4 Billion+ updates per month 7.8 million brand 31 % of users recommendations follow a brand per month
- 20. 4 Billion mobile phones in use 27% are smartphones (1.08 Billion) 75% are SMS enabled (3.05 billion)
- 33. Day Two Timeline * 562,627 views (8am) * 636,000 views (11:15am) * 690,000 views (1pm) * 728,816 views (3pm) * 745,679 views (5pm) * 930,390 views (9:30pm) >1 million views on YouTube within 2 days 5 of 12 top search results for Dominos
- 34. Dominos waited until a crisis occurred to start a dialogue with its customers …created a Twitter handle after the fact
- 35. …did not have an established following or community – no advocates or evangelists
- 37. Ensure that you understand the conversation and the context before you jump in (and make a bigger mess)
- 38. Ensure that you understand the conversation and the context before you jump in #notguilty
- 40. Don’t run away from crisis - they have a habit of blowing up in to something even worse. #notguilty
- 42. Important to respond to the audience that is most active in/started the conversation, even if it’s not your go-to platform #@%$$! Thank you for bringing this to our attention…
- 45. A credible source shows respect to the community and acknowledges the seriousness of the problem Andrew Mason (Groupon Founder)
- 47. Reach out (either directly or through your PR agency) to your traditional media contacts. Even if the event occurred online, it is important to have your voice heard offline.
- 48. The online community trust them more than traditional media sources – and they are increasingly important to search results.
- 51. Your Company’s Message …control the chaos by controlling source of information
- 61. “We are an organization that deals with life-changing disasters and this wasn’t one of them.” –Wendy Harman Social Media Director
- 64. – Founded in 2004 – 25 Communications Professionals Based in Boston & San Francisco – Partners Nicholas Lowe, AJ Gerritson, and Tom Lee – Named a 2011
- 65. AJ Gerritson Founding Partner 617.986.0224 aj@451marketing.com linkedin.com/in/ajgerritson @ajgerritson www.451Marketing.com
Editor's Notes
- Intro to 451 Marketing
- On April 20th, 2010, a horrific disaster occurred off the United States Gulf coast. The Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing eleven people and causing the largest marine oils spill in the history of the petroleum industry. Obviously, this was an environmental crisis of epic proportions, harming much more than BP’s reputation. However, there are things that we, as marketers, can learn from BP’s online response to the event. Two major mistakes were made by the BP in responding to this event online.
- First, they didn’t properly harness their social outlets to respond to concerns about the disaster online.
- Prior to the Gulf disaster, BP was active on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube.
- Despite having these branded communications channels available, there was a big delay between the event and BP’s response via social media – there was no mention of the event from the company’s handle until seven days after the explosion.
- for Twitter satirists and Facebook boycott groups to dominate the online conversation. A fake BP Twitter account (@BPGlobarPR) was created and gained nearly 200,000 followers after the disaster.
- Because of the huge response, this account is still the top organic result in Google when you search “BP Twitter.
- the company did not acknowledge the crisis on Facebook for a full two weeks
- ,more than 300 “Boycott BP” Facebook groups with more than 400,000 members were creating, essentially dominating Facebook search results for BP.
- BP’s second huge mistake in their digital response was purchasing ads to combat the escalating public relations nightmare without first gauging the sentiment of the online community. So, when people went online to search for breaking news about the accident, their search results included paid ads from BP. This, along with several public gaffs by BP senior management, further enraged an infuriated online community.
- BP’s response to this disaster is a great example of how not having a thorough and thoughtful crisis communications plan, ignoring online communities, and neglecting to gauge audience sentiment can make a terrible situation even worse. Although social media and online response would not remedied the crisis in the Gulf, proper execution would have mitigated the firestorm online.
- More than half of all US residents a more than ¾ of all US adults are online
- Source:Comscore, 2/11
- Source: tweet reports.com
- It is absolutely essential for brands to have a crisis communications plan in place for their business. Usually, this plan is created for a brand working closely with their PR agency to ensure that all angles are covered. Social media and online communications should be an integrated part of an overall strategy for responding to any type of crisis. Working with different teams in the company, you should be able to identify topics and areas that are particularly vulnerable. This plan should include who responds from each team, on what format responses are made, and messaging around different types of issues. Obviously, materials created prior to an event would have to be altered based on specifics of the situation. While every industry and company is different, there are many things that should be included in a crisis communications plan. Think about including the following in your crisis communications plan:Internal contact list/formalized phone treeList of potential weaknessesDrafts of press releases blog posts for different types of crisesList of online influencersList of media contacts
- In crafting a thoughtful social media presence and protocol, it is of the utmost importance that a brand is aware of how they are perceived by both fans and naysayers online. There are several simple tools that a brand can utilize to set up initial monitoring. It is important to listen to what is being said about your brand, even though you may not always be able to fix a problem, or respond to a customer. There are several free and paid tools available that a company can use to monitor sentiment
- Social networks can be used to effectively communicate during and after a crisis. However, if a brand doesn’t have an established fan base online, communications through these channels will be significantly less effective. Your customers should know where to turn if a crisis comes into play; they should already be following your accounts.
- As the world’s second largest search engine, YouTube has become a game changer in the way that people find and experience content on the internet. In April of 2009, two Domino’s Pizza employees took advantage of this fact, posting lewd videos of unsanitary treatment of customers’ food at a Domino’s in store.
- Video gone viral on YouTube after two employees tamper with customer’s foodTwitter account was nearly deserted before incident so Dominos had no effective way to address the issue
- Customer ReactionOver 1 million views on YouTube within daysSEO: 5 of 12 top hits for Dominos referred to the incidentCustomers made use of Twitter to express their disgust and concernMajor downfall: Dominos realized more than a day later that the crisis did not go away and turned to Twitter and YouTube to extend an apology
- While the act in itself was reprehensible, Domino’s reaction online wasn’t stellar. Domino’s waited until after the crisis occurred to react, creating a Twitter handle to join the discussion. Because they had no online community in place, they had no fans or advocates to support, or even hear, their appeals and apologies for the incident.
- Many would argue that Domino’s is still paying for their sluggish response to this incident. Incredibly expensive ad campaigns promoting a new, transparent Domino’s have been the centerpiece of their overall marketing communications. And while these “transparency” campaigns have been incredibly successful, they are expensive steps that may have been unnecessary had Domino’s established and nurtured their online community prior to this YouTube fiasco.
- Using hashtags in Tweets is (usually) a smart and effective way for a company to increase impressions by leveraging a trending conversation. To that end, brands that use twitter often search for trending topics in the news and craft tweets around those topics to maximize message exposure. One of the most important steps in using trending terms, however, is researching the meaning and context of a hashtag.In the wake of the Casey Anthony trial decision in July of 2011, the internet was buzzing with opinions around the not guilty ruling. This was especially true on Twitter, where the hashtag “#notguilty” quickly became a trending topic. Seeing this trending topic lead an intern executing social media for Entemann’s to craft the following Tweet: Who’s #notguilty about eating all the tasty treats they want?!?Obviously, the author had hoped to capitalize on the trending topic without first researching its meaning and gauging the surrounding sentiment. The tweet was later deleted after @Entenmanns followers, and others around the Twitter community, began tweeting their disapproval of the company's insensitive use of the hashtag.
- After removing the Tweet, Entemann’s acknowledged the mistake and let the Twitter community know that their intentions were not malicious, but that they were trying to leverage a trending topic. They were transparent, and their audience appreciated their honesty. However, shortly after the company pinned the blame on this event on the agency to whom they outsourced social media, unearthing a deeper issue – having disconnect between the brand and the individuals responsible for voicing the brand
- It is important to respond to the audience that is most active in or started the conversation, even if it’s not your go-to platform. For example, if you made a mistake on Twitter, and then decide to write a blog post apologizing, make sure you reference your blog post on Twitter so your followers don’t feel left in the dark.
- Advertising during the Super Bowl is the holy grail of promotion for brands. That being the case, Groupon released a series of commercials to maximize their visibility during the 2011 Super Bowl. And while these ads created a lot of buzz around the brand, the conversation was not the one that the brand had intended. Groupon’s commercials depicted celebrities, including Timothy Hutton and Elizabeth Hurley, in ads that were meant to be comical satires of traditional public service announcements. While these ads were meant to be comical, many online critics found the commercials offensive. Groupon immediately pulled the ads from the air, but the damage had already been done. The online community was in uproar, tweeting, posting on Facebook, and writing blog posts about the insensitive nature of the advertisements.
- Groupon reacted with a blog post, which might not always be an effective response. However, the voice and author of the post was Groupon founder Andrew Mason. By having an important figure from the company answer the outrage, Groupon acknowledged the problem as a serious one and showed respect to the online community
- When you want to get a message out, leveraging you connections with both traditional and online industry influencers is a must. Working with your public relations agency to leverage their connections in media, both online and off, is crucial in making sure that your message comes from a trusted source.
- You can control the chaos of a public relations crisis by crafting one centrally controlled message that will serve as your touch point for all conversations around this topic. While it is important to address crises on all pertinent social channels, pointing back to one focus point allows the brand to display their full message and control the conversation.
- A crisis offers an opportunity for your brand to prove itself to the community, further its reach, and find weaknesses in your current communications plans. It is an opportunity to exhibit transparency and show the human element of your company.
- It is common for social media professionals to manage several online accounts using one tool, including their own. This has led to mistakes like the one outlined below.As a non-profit, the America Red Cross had embraced social media as a tool to raise awareness, connect with donors, and communicate with communities. On February 15th, 2011, the following tweet was sent out by @RedCross, the American Red Cross’ national Twitter handle:Obviously, beer isn’t a normal part of the Red Cross’ messaging. This tweet was a mistake, made by one of the Red Cross’ in-house social media specialists who had intended to send the tweet from her personal account but inadvertently sent it out to the Red Cross’ more thank 270k followers.
- First, the Red Cross responded to their followers on Twitter, using humor.
- Second, their social media director addressed and explained the mistake on the company’s blog, even including an image of the deleted tweet.
- Because they were quick to respond, open and transparent with their audience, and maintained a sense of humor, there was very little backlash to the tweet. An unexpected benefit of the “rogue tweet” – Dogfish Head, seeing the trending hashtag “GettinSlizzered,” and appreciating Red Cross’ reaction, started promoting the Red Cross and donating, starting a huge viral campaign around the involved parties and the hashtag
- Last night we accidentally tweeted from our @RedCross account something that was meant to come from a personal account. Here’s what it looked like:We realized our honest mistake (the Tweeter was not drunk) and deleted the above Tweet. We all know that it’s impossible to really delete a tweet like this, so we acknowledged our mistake:In the meantime we found so many of you to be sympathetic and understanding. While we’re a 130 year old humanitarian organization, we’re also made of up human beings. Thanks for not only getting that but for turning our faux pas into something good.You immediately embraced this mix-up and many of you have pledged donations to the Red Cross:Huge thanks to Dogfish Head Brewery and the micro brew community forencouraging donations.2 words of caution:You’ll want to space out giving a pint of blood and drinking a pint of beer for health reasons.Be careful of Hootsuite!
- Intro to 451 Marketing
- Intro to 451 Marketing
- Intro to 451 Marketing