2. As well as knowing when your brand needs social media, and what platform it’s
best suited to...
...you need to know what to do when it goes wrong
3. Brands are no longer in control
THE MOMENT A
BRAND OPENS A
FACEBOOK PAGE
OR A TWITTER
ACCOUNT, THEY
ARE HANDING A BIG
CHUNK OF
CONTROL TO THEIR
FANS AND
FOLLOWERS...
4. “Consumers can now openly challenge brands in an environment
where there is scope to make a massive amount of noise.”
“Companies can’t gag users, or ignore them. It is feasibly possible
to hold brands to a certain extent of reputation ransom, at least for
those firms that care about their reputations (not all do)”
Econsultancy
5. Where can it go wrong?
There is a big list of ways that social media end in disaster, but we will take a look
at examples that fall under these three areas:
Human error
1
Misjudging the audience
2
PR disaster
3
In some cases, brands have been known to fall foul of all three!!
7. Chrysler
THE TWEET WAS
DELETED AFTER A
COUPLE OF MINUTES
BUT IT WAS LONG
ENOUGH FOR
FOLLOWERS TO SEE
IT AND RETWEET.
CHRYSLER POSTED A
PUBLIC APOLOGY ON
THEIR BLOG. THE
MISTAKE WAS MADE
BY AN EMPLOYEE OF
THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA
AGENCY AND HE WAS
DULY FIRED NOT
LONG AFTER, AND
CHRYSLER PULLED
THE ACCOUNT.
8. American Red Cross
SIMPLE CASE OF
TWEETING FROM THE
WRONG ACCOUNT,
BUT THIS TIME RED
CROSS TURNED THE
FAIL INTO A SUCCESS
WITH A COMEDY
RESPONSE
WHICH LED TO
DOGFISH HEAD GIVING
THEM A #FF AND
INSTRUCTING THEIR
OWN FOLLOWERS TO
DONATE TO THE RED
CROSS, WHICH THEY
DID. WITH THE RIGHT
BRAND AND IF YOU
ARE QUICK, A
NIGHTMARE CAN BE
TURNED INTO A
SUCCESS STORY
9. Vodafone
ONE OF THE
COMMUNITY
MANAGERS WENT ON
A BREAK AND A
FRIEND SENT THE
ABUSIVE TWEET FROM
WHAT HE THOUGHT
WAS HIS COLLEAGUES
PERSONAL ACCOUNT.
IT WASN‟T
THE TWEET WENT OUT
TO ALL VODAFONE
FOLLOWERS AND WAS
QUICKLY RETWEETED
AND SPREAD AROUND
THE PLATFORM,
FINDING IT‟S WAY
ONTO NEWS SITES
AND BLOGS
10. Vodafone
The results were quick and damaging for Vodafone. The employee was suspended, thousands of users
tweeted their outrage @Vodafone and they had to dedicate a significant amount of resource to
apologising to angry consumers.
000s
Message retweets,
Staff
sent to 9k despite
member
immediate removal of
suspension
followers offending
tweet
11. Rules to avoid human error
1. Need to have approval and sign off processes in place...and always double
check after the update has been posted.
2. If it is wrong, take it down immediately and monitor the reaction. Were you
quick enough?
1. Yes - Amend and re-post where possible.
2. No - If you were not quick enough or the situation is serious, escalate
and follow your crisis management plan
But most importantly, run your personal Twitter account from somewhere
different to the brand account.
13. Kenneth Cole
THIS SHOWS THAT
EVEN WITH THE
OWNER OF THE
BUSINESS BEHIND THE
WHEEL IT CAN STILL
GO HORRIBLY WRONG
WHEN YOU MIS JUDGE
THE AUDIENCE
THIS WAS PUBLISHED
IN THE HIGHT OF THE
EGYPTIAN
REVOLUTION WHEN
TWITTER WAS BEING
USED BY EGYPTIANS
TO COORDINATE
DEMOS. THE RESULT
WAS PUBLIC OUTCRY
AND A FORMAL
APOLOGY FROM
KENNETH COLE
HIMSELF
14. Ragu
RAGU TWEETED AT
INFLUENTIAL DADS
WITH A SHORT VIDEO
BASHING DADS FOR
NOT BEING
ADVENTUROUS WITH
THEIR COOKING
AMONG THE
BLOGGERS
CONTACTED WAS CC
CHAPMAN, A KEY
INFLUENCER AND
PROUD FATHER, WHO
FOUND THE VIDEO
HIGHLY OFFENSIVE
AND BLOGGED ABOUT
IT, LEADING TO A
TRENDING HASHTAG,
#RAGUHATESDADS
15. Rules to avoid misjudging the audience
1. Think before you post.
2. Really think before you post!
3. Is what you are about to post relevant and value adding to the audience? If
the answer is „no‟ you probably shouldn‟t post it.
4. When it goes wrong, it goes wrong very fast so be prepared with a robust
crisis management plan.
17. Nestle v Greenpeace
GREENPEACE
LAUNCHED AN ALL
OUT ATTACK ON
NESTLE FOR USING
PALM OIL FROM
UNSUSTAINABLE
SOURCES
WITH NO WHERE ELSE
TO VENT, ANGRY
CONSUMERS
FLOCKED TO THE
NESTLE SOCIAL
PRESENCES
18. Nestle v Greenpeace
RATHER THAN ADOPT
A STAND POINT OF
DAMAGE LIMITATION,
NESTLE BEGAN
DELETING NEGATIVE
COMMENTS AND
REPLYING TO POSTS
WITH SNIDY AND RUDE
REMARKS
ONE GENUINE FAN OF
THE PAGE WROTE “I
WAS A BIG FAN OF
YOUR PRODUCTS, BUT
NOW, WHEN I SEE
WHAT YOU GUYS
WROTE, I THINK I‟M
GUNNA STOP BUYING
THEM”
19. Nestle v Greenpeace
Share price
1.5 million
200K emails dropped 2
views of
sent points in 48
YouTube videos
hours
20. Kryptonite
TOUTED AS BEING THE
MOST SECURE BIKE
LOCK ON THE
MARKET, A VIDEO
POPPED UP SHOWING
THE „EVOLUTION 2000‟
BEING PICKED WITH A
BIRO
RATHER THAN
ACKNOWLEDGE THE
FAULT, KRYPTONITE
STAYED SILENT AND
MISSED A GREAT
OPPORTUNITY TO
CROWD SOURCE THE
R&D OF THE NEXT
GENERATION OF
LOCKS WITH THEIR
FANS AND
FOLLOWERS
21. Rules for avoiding a PR disaster
1. Depending on the scale of the issue, you might have to resign yourself to
damage limitation
2. Employ social media best practice and put that crisis management plan into
practice
3. Keep fans and followers updated. There is nothing worse than unchecked
rumours to fuel the fire
4. Is this a negative that could be turned into a positive?
But most importantly, TALK TO YOUR AUDIENCE, DON’T GIVE THEM THE
SILENT TREATMENT
23. Social media crisis management plan
In simple terms, these three golden rules should always apply:
Transparency and
honesty
Openness
Moving quickly
The
Speaking to Agility personal
customers in a
personal tone of
touch
voice
24. Social media crisis management plan
At a granular levels, you should be prepared for a range of situations:
REMOVE POSTS FROM
INDIVIDUALS OR GROUPS
DEEMED TO BE OFFENSIVE /
IS THE POST POSITIVE?
ABUSIVE LAUNGUAGE
WHERE APPROPRIATE
YES
RESPOND TO THE POSTER
NO (3 STRIKES AND YOU’RE
GREAT OUT APPROACH)
YOU CAN LET THE POST STAND MONITOR THE SITE FOR
YES
OR RESPOND WITH THANKS IS THE POST OFFENSIVE, PERSISTENT OFFENDERS
DEFAMATORY OR (WARN/ REPORT / REMOVE
SHOULD YOU RESPOND? DEGRADING IN NATURE? FAN AS APPROPRIATE)
NO RESPOND DIRECTLY TO
THE POST WITH THE
CORRECT FACTUAL
IS THE POST YES INFORMATION
FACTUALLY INCORRECT AND LINKS TO
NO YES
OR MISGUIDED? FURTHER DETAILS
RESPOND AND RECTIFY
NO
DO NOT THE SITUATION
RESPOND
SHOW GRATITUDE IS THE POST FROM AN ACT APPROPRIATELY AND
LET THE POST FOR POSITIVE UNHAPPY CUSTOMER, YES DEMONSTRATE HOW WE WILL
STAND IF FEEDBACK ( A POOR EXPERIENCE LEARN FROM THE SITUATION
IT’S A NEUTRAL INSTORE / WITH PRODUCT AND IMPROVE THESERVICE /
POSTING / FROM COLLEAGUE ETC)? PRODUCT IN FUTURE
25. In any situation...
Be
Take
Listen Prepare Be open consiste
action
nt
Listen to the conversation happening around your brand
Prepare a point of view and how you will aim to add value, or limit the damage being caused
Be open and honest in all of your communications, through all of your channels
Consistent communication across all of the stakeholders and consumer touch points to make sure there is
no confusion
And finally, take action and put it all into practice.
26. Doing nothing, and hoping it will fix itself,
is the worse thing you can do...
