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Surviving the Social Media
Storm
Sarah Barnett
Public Affairs Advisor, Special
Assistant to the COO
HSUS
@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

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• What is a crisis
• Prevention
• Responding
• Learning
@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

• Natural or manmade disaster
• PR Problems
• Organized Attacks
What is a crisis?
@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

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What is a crisis?

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What is a crisis?
@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

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Prevention
• Planning
• Monitoring
• Common sense
@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

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Why spend time planning?
Prevention: Planning
@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

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Prevention: Planning
Your online presence, and the
person answering it, is a
“face” of your organization –
make sure it’s a good one.
Who is your online voice?
@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

-Have a catch all person, and back up.
-Designate a point person to update and
disseminate responses
-Ensure employees and volunteers are aware
and informed
-Consistent messaging
Prevention: Planning
@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

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Prevention: Planning
Make your policy known – and fair.
If you delete something, tell your fans
and tell them why
Don’t delete because you disagree, only
delete if it’s a violation – stay
transparent.
Do you have a commenting policy?

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Prevention: Monitoring
-Social media platforms
-Monitoring services
-Daily checks

1 - Tone. What is the severity of the person's tone - are
they totally negative, neutral, seem like they could be
talked to?
2 - Influence. How many followers, friends, subscribers do
they have? How many people are they really talking to?
3 - Frequency. Is this a standalone argument / complaint
or does there seem to be a trend brewing? Is it the usual
suspects or does this person seem to be gathering a
following?
4 – Snowballing. Is it something that if your average
person were to hear, they would be horrified?
Prevention: Monitoring
@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

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Prevention:
Common Sense
@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

Prevention:
Common Sense
@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

Responding
• Be human: Address emotions
• Be quick
• Be transparent
• Acknowledge mistakes
• Above all, be honest
@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

Acknowledge, Rectify, and Move OnBe Human
@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

Be Human
@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

Example: Meet Fluffy
Be Quick
@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

Dec 8th: A recovering heroin addict, John Smith, brought his young cat, Fluffy, to a
humane society’s clinic on Dec. 8 after it suffered a laceration on a barbed-wire
fence. He didn’t have the funds to pay for treatment. His mother could pay via credit
card over the phone.
They were not able at the time to process credit card payments via phone.
Smith said that staff said he could surrender the cat and the cat would go to foster
and be treated.
Dec 8th - 20th: He called and asked for updates, and didn’t receive calls back. He
visited area shelters for two weeks looking for the cat. He went to the media.
Dec 20th: He is told Fluffy was euthanized a few hours after he was surrendered
because of lack of doctors/resources. The shelter said they didn’t have a way to get a
hold of him.
Be Quick
@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

Acknowledge, Rectify, and Move On
Both
Euthanized by
mistake
External: One resulted in dozens of news
stories even a week later, a shelter
director fired and numerous interviews.
The other resulted in a few news stories
after one press conference.
Internal: Both took responsibility and
apologized to the family and the public,
and put new protocols into place
Be Transparent,
Acknowledge Mistakes

It Happened
@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

It Will Blow Over
@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

Resources
www.charityhowto.com
www.nten.org
www.pro.petfinder.com
www.animalsheltering.org
Best Resource: Each Other!
@humanesociety @SarahHSUS

Contact Information:
Sarah Barnett
sbarnett@humanesociety.org
Twitter: @SarahHSUS
facebook.com/ldcrf.sarah
linkedin.com/in/sarahkbarnett/