The document provides several examples of brands experiencing social media crises:
- An Applebee's waitress was fired for posting a photo of a receipt with a disrespectful note from a customer on Reddit.
- The fashion brand DKNY used photos from the Humans of New York project without permission, leading to public backlash.
- The Associated Press' Twitter account was hacked, spreading a false report that caused stock prices to drop.
- Chick-Fil-A faced criticism over its president's comments against gay marriage, and fake Facebook accounts were later exposed defending the company.
- KitchenAid faced anger after tweeting an inappropriate reference to President Obama's deceased grandmother during a debate.
4. Applebee’s and the
Cheap Tip
•Pastor Alois Bell dines at Applebee’s with
nine others
•Automatic 18% gratuity added
•Bell crosses out tip, writing a “0″ in its
place
•Writes: “I give God 10%. Why do you get
18%?” Signs it “Pastor Alois Bell”
5. Applebee’s and the
Cheap Tip
•Waitress Chelsea Welch posts photo on
Reddit, a news aggregator site
•Bell gets a lot of hate mail, complains to
Applebee’s that her reputation was ruined
•Per company policy, Welch is fired
•Pastor feels “heartbroken”
7. Humans of New York
and DKNY
•Photographer Brandon Stanton has
700,000+ Facebook "likes"
•Takes artistic portraits of New Yorkers
on the street and posts daily
•DKNY asks to purchase 300 photos to
hang in store windows for $15,000
•Stanton asks for closer to $50 per photo
and DKNY declines
8. Humans of New York
and DKNY
•“Today, a fan sent me a photo from a
DKNY store in Bangkok. The window is
full of my photos. These photos were
used without my knowledge, and without
compensation."
•Stanton makes public plea for DKNY to
"donate $100,000 on my behalf to the
YMCA in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn."
9. Humans of New York
and DKNY
•By 10 a.m. the next day, the Facebook
post had generated more than 38,000
"likes" and more than 4,000 comments
•DKNY released a statement explaining its
error and announcing it would donate
$25,000
11. Associated Press
Twitter Feed Hacked
•Associated Press tweet appears "Breaking:
Two Explosions in the White House and
Barack Obama is injured"
•The incident took place eight days after
the Boston Marathon bombings
•The Dow Jones industrial average plunges
more than 128 points in seconds after the
report
12. Associated Press
Twitter Feed Hacked
•White House spokesman Jay Carney says
Obama is "fine"
•The AP quickly takes down its Twitter
account and announces it has been
hacked
13. Associated Press
Twitter Feed Hacked
•Group of hackers loyal to Syrian
President Bashar Assad claim
responsibility for the hoax, tweeting
out:"Ops! @AP get owned by Syrian
Electronic Army! #SEA #Syria
#ByeByeObama."
15. Chick-Fil-A and Fake
Facebook Profiles
•Chick-Fil-A president Dan Cathy takes
stance in opposition to gay marriage
•"We intend to stay the course. We know
that it might not be popular with
everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in
a country where we can share our values
and operate on biblical principles."
•Offended customers, observers and
celebrities take to Twitter to blast them
16. Chick-Fil-A and Fake
Facebook Profiles
•Jim Henson's Creature Shop Puppet takes
issue with the stance, saying it will not
supply toys any longer
•Chick-Fil-A recalls toys, saying there is
a safety issue
•Consumers dispute claim about a "safety
issue" on Chick-Fil-A’s Facebook page
17. Chick-Fil-A and Fake
Facebook Profiles
•Two Facebook accounts appear,
apparently solely to defend Chick-Fil-A
•In response, a girl named "Abby Farle"
argues the toys were recalled weeks
before the stance
•A Facebook user outs Farle as a puppet
account, created only eight hours before
18. Chick-Fil-A and Fake
Facebook Profiles
•One is deleted, and the other is "outed"
when the profile picture turns out to be
a stock photo of a random teenage girl
19. Chick-Fil-A and Fake
Facebook Profiles
•Chick-Fil-A posts on its Facebook Page
•"The Chick-Fil-A culture and service
tradition in our restaurants is to treat
every person with honor, dignity and
respect – regardless of their belief, race,
creed, sexual orientation or gender"
•Post receives more than 47,000 Likes and
10,000 comments in hours
21. KitchenAid and
Obama’s Dead Grandma
•KitchenAid Twitter account posts during
presidential debate
•The tweet references Obama's deceased
grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who died
in November 2008
•The company deletes the message and
apologizes, but it had already been
retweeted many times
•Many Twitter users write that the person
who sent the tweet would be fired
22. KitchenAid and
Obama’s Dead Grandma
•Hours later, Cynthia Soledad, who
identified herself as "the head of the
KitchenAid brand," took to Twitter to
explain what happened and apologize to
President Obama.
24. Kenneth Cole and the
Arab Spring
•During the Arab Spring uprising, Kenneth
Cole himself tweets about company’s sale
•Uses the hashtag #Cairo, which is
trending worldwide at the time
•Gaffe ignites media firestorm
•Hashtag #boycottKennethCole appears
25. Kenneth Cole and the
Arab Spring
•Satirical @KennethColePR account
appears
•Fake tweets and ads like "People from
New Orleans are flooding into Kenneth
Cole stores!" and "Wardrobe got you
water-BORED? GITMO of our new spring
collection" appear
26. Kenneth Cole and the
Arab Spring
•Cole apologizes on both Twitter and
Facebook within hours, saying he wasn't
"intending to make light of a serious
situation"
38. Graham Garner
Vice President for Marketing and
Communication
Wartburg College
Social media handle: garnergraham
graham.garner@wartburg.edu or
garnergraham@gmail.com