Why every corporate communications department needs a social media contingency plan.

1. Social media contingency
planning
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Why your organization needs one, today
DANA CHEN
OCT 2012
Dana Chen 2012

2. What makes a crisis?
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— What constitutes positive reputation?
¡ At least 20% stories in leading media positive
¡ No more than 10% stories negative
¡ The rest is neutral
Dana Chen 2012

3. Assessing the situation: Should we respond?
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4. Assessing the situation: Should we respond?
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5. Assess situation: How NOT to deal with a crisis
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6. Assessing situation: How TO deal with a crisis
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7. What causes a crisis?
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Individual
Corporate
External
Dana Chen 2012

8. What makes a crisis? - Individual (1/4)
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— Individual
¡ One of company people makes a mistake in public
÷ Poor attempt at humor
÷ Misdirecting a private message
÷ Insensitive response to events
Dana Chen 2012

9. What makes a crisis? - Individual (1/4)
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Sometimes it’s not what you do …
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10. What makes a crisis? - Individual (1/4)
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But how you rectify it …
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11. What makes a crisis? (1/4)
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Or the community response
Result: situation neutralized and everyone
came out winning
Dana Chen 2012

12. What makes a crisis? – Corporate (2/4)
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— Corporate
¡ Customer service or marketing failure
÷ Unhappy customers take to the web
÷ Protestors or campaigners highlight an issue
÷ Corporate malpractice or policy is exposed
Dana Chen 2012

13. What makes a crisis? (2/4)
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14. What makes a crisis? (2/4)
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15. Corporate (2/4)
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— Toyota 2009 recall due to faulty brakes
— Initial rough patch
— Then leveraged social media to diffuse crisis
¡ Monitor conversations 24/7
¡ Youtube: President Jim Lentz apologizing
¡ Youtube: updates posted via
¡ Digg Dialogg interview
¡ Twitter chat
¡ Facebook to direct people to Twitter feed and microsite
¡ Tweetmeme: own branded channel
¡ Brand loyalists invited to tweet and blog, turned to brand advocates
— Post crisis:
¡ 41% increase in sales
¡ Grew online fan base by 10%
¡ Responded quickly across large number of networks to reassure customers
Dana Chen 2012

16. Corporate (3/4)
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— Corporate
¡ A customer service or
marketing failure
÷ Dismissive of customer
feedback
÷ Pretending to be something you
are not
÷ Remaining silent and refusing
to engage
Dana Chen 2012

17. Societe Generale trading loss vs. BP oil spill (3/4)
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• Reassure stock exchange
• Use employees as symbol of legitimacy
• Not defensive
• Reduce rumor of collapse by acquiring
another bank, business as usual
• Focus on communicating with
• Clients/shareholders by hotline
and mail
• Does not communicate unnecessarily
• No more publicity campaigns
• 160,000 employees • No more sponsorship campaigns
• 4,9 billion euros trading loss • Limit media exposure
Result: Media pressure decreases
Dana Chen 2012

18. Societe Generale trading loss vs. BP oil spill (3/4)
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• What it did wrong:
• Focused on speaking to shareholders, not
the general public
• Shifting blames, always defensive
• No apologies or re-assurance on
environmental impact of spill
• Failed to accept blame
• Communicating on social media failed:
• Fake BP feed had more followers
than real one
• Found to be faking certain rescue
• Largest marine oil spill in history efforts
• 4,9 million barrels of crude oil • Buying keywords on Google to spread
leaked corporate message
• PR agency specialized in financial
• 11 workers killed, 17 injured
comm, not crisis management
Result: CEO replaced, brand damage for years to come
Dana Chen 2012

19. Societe Generale trading loss vs. BP oil spill (3/4)
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— Focus on the right stakeholder(s)
¡ Some issues require extra sensitivities w.r.t. public opinion,
other issues not
¡ Accurately read public perception of events
— Truth is preferred to “cascade of revelations”
¡ It is also ok to say “we are in unchartered waters”
¡ Acknowledge responsibilities
— Putting the right face forward
¡ Usually the highest ranking executive but not always
Dana Chen 2012

20. What makes a crisis? – External (4/4)
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— External
¡ Organization finds itself in an emergency
÷ Extreme weather, strikes, disputes
÷ Operations are disrupted
÷ Staff and customers seek clarity
Dana Chen 2012

21. External / When things go awry (4/4)
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— Shell’s Let’s go campaign
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22. External / When things go awry (4/4)
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23. External / When things go awry (4/4)
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24. External / When things go awry (4/4)
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— #MeetTheFarmers
— #McDStories
Lessons learned:
• Seemed self-serving
• No explanation as to
context
• Pulled down tweets as
soon as it went wrong
Dana Chen 2012

25. Don’t turn a non-crisis into a crisis (5/4)
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26. Don’t turn a non-crisis into a crisis (5/4)
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— Placating angry tweets is an art
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27. Don’t turn a non-crisis into a crisis (5/4)
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• Oreo’s rainbow Oreo in support of
Gay Pride Month
• Massive social media backlash,
35,000 threatening to boycott
product
— Lessons learned:
¡ Reasoning with people that can’t be reasoned
with does not help the brand
¡ Keep cool and do not feed the trolls
Dana Chen 2012

28. How to respond? (1/2)
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— Handling a social crisis: what’s different, what’s
the same?
Same Different
§ Ownership, with clear roles § Speed
and responsibilities still key § Social media is driven by trust
§ Mainstream media has a vital in people, rather than
role organizations
§ People want clear, § Audience have tools to
straightforward information investigate, record, publish
and mobilize now
Dana Chen 2012

29. How to respond? (2/2)
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— Characteristics of a good response:
¡ 1. From an individual professional with clear authority and
explanation of role (e.g. Dick, Corporate Spokesperson)
÷ Avoid having more than one voice speaking for the company
¡ 2. Is timely
¡ 3. Addresses issues clearly
¡ 3. Acknowledges negative perceptions, addresses causes and
facts – come across as reasonable human being
¡ 4. Links to help, sources or further clarification (e.g. “The
report/plan in full can be found at http:// …”)
Dana Chen 2012

30. Outline for handling crisis
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— Plan: skills, tools, resources
— Own: have well-established channels
— Monitor: be ahead of the curve
— Initiate: be communicative, clear, human
— Integrate: connect social channels to media handling
and customer service experiences
Dana Chen 2012

31. In Summary: Navigating negative news (1/3)
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— Preparation before crisis hits
¡ Evaluate existing SOP and consider possible crisis scenarios
— Create communications plan
¡ Develop core crisis management team
¡ Develop response plan
¡ Key messages for each scenario
¡ Update plan annually (at least)
— Develop contingency plans to handle post-crisis impact on
SOP
— Participate in table-top exercises and evaluate preparedness
— Continue online monitoring
Dana Chen 2012

32. In Summary: Navigating negative news (2/3)
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— Once a crisis has occurred:
¡ Bring situation under control
÷ Reduce public uncertainty
¡ Analyze and gather all facts
÷ Do not speculate, release only verified information
÷ Never purposely mislead key stakeholders, media, or public
¡ Keep internal and external stakeholders informed
— Communicate with media
¡ Expressing concern is not expressing guilt
¡ “I don’t know” is acceptable
¡ Always be accurate, always be consistent
Dana Chen 2012

33. In Summary: Navigating negative news (3/3)
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— Follow through:
¡ Maintain dialogue with key stakeholders, media, public as
appropriate
¡ Follow contingency plans to minimize impact on operations
¡ Post-crisis, evaluate what happened
÷ Make necessary changes to SOPs, crisis plan or protocols
¡ Seek opportunities to leverage what’s learned from crisis into
positive news
Dana Chen 2012