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CIPR Cymru | Managing a social media crisis
1. Managing Social
Media Crises
simon collister
CIPR Cymru | social summer 2012
2. Tonight, tonight!
> Social media crises in context
> Eurostar case study
> Some practical insights
> Show and Tell?
3. What is a crisis?
• Cornelissen (2004) argues an organisational
crisis is:
“a point of great difficulty or danger to an
organisation possibly threatening its existence
and continuity, that requires decisive change”
4. What is a social media crisis?
Altimeter Group define a social media crisis based on
the possible range of impacts for an organisation
A social media crisis is:
“An issue that arises in or is amplified by social
media, and results in [or is likely to result in] negative
media coverage, a change in business process, or
financial loss.”
5. Identifying crisis levels
Financial loss
Level 3
Change in
Level 2 business process
Negative media
Level 1
coverage
15. Significant because it shows that simply managing your own
platforms or communities is NOT ENOUGH to prevent or
deflect a potential crisis
Source: Altimeter Group: Social Readiness
23. > While we had a blog, Twitter account and
Facebook Page, these were branded with the
‘Little Break, Big Difference’ strapline
> ‘Eurostar’ branded profiles weren’t up-and-
running
24. • We used the
‘Little Break’ blog
to respond with
video and written
statements asap
• We engaged in
conversations
taking place on
the blog
25. • FAQs and
customer service
information was
collated from
customer queries
and published
• This was updated
in as close to real-
time as possible
31. > Be alert to new crisis triggers
> Watch for ‘meta-crises’
> New technology brings new problems
> Facebook timeline and crisis comms
> Don’t forget search
33. > Are these *new* triggers?
Source: Altimeter Group: Social Readiness
34. > What about meta-crises?
> Social media can
trigger a crisis within a
crisis
> This poses unseen
problems for PR
professionals that
Nestle’s inappropriate response actually
aren’t 100% social triggered and exacerbated a
further, meta-crisis
media savvy
36. > Adidas social media “Shitstorm”
The ‘shitstorm’ was caused by the fact that Adidas
appeared to be deleting critical posts creating a wider
‘meta-crisis’ for the brand
37. > Beware auto-moderation
> Some platforms, e.g. Facebook and
Hootsuite, apply automatic detection systems to
hold or even delete offensive content
> Great under normal circumstances but can be
a major issue when your organisation is under
scrutiny (e.g. Adidas Shitstorm) as it looks like
you might be censoring communication
38. > Twitter limits tweets
> Twitter limits daily
number of tweets for
accounts currently set
at 1,000
> Fine under normal
situations but not
during a crisis
39. > Facebook Timeline and crisis comms
> Greater control for
admins over page
content and layout
> Potential for ‘page
hijacking’ minimised
> Ability to private
message people
40. > But…
> History can potential trigger crises!
> Take Fanta for example…
41. > Greater personalisation limits control
> Brands can no longer get an exact overview of
what is being said about them on Facebook;
friends provide context for what users see
> Content only has to include a brand
mention, not be from a Page fan or be tagged
content
44. • Plenty to think about….
• The main insight is to not stop thinking… and
planning… and thinking… and planning
• Continual and rapid evolution of socially
mediated communications environment
means planning frameworks are good, but
require constant re-evaluation and updating
46. > Do you have a social media crisis plan in place?
> Do you know what a potential crisis might look
like?
> Have you mapped your key online influencers?
> Have you got monitoring set-up?
> Are there any internal barriers to real-time
engagement?
Reality is that most SM crises are level 1 & 2 crises….. Not financial lossThe fluid nature of SM can mean ‘low level’ crises occur/bubble-up regularly and dissipate
But the volume of crises is increasing – partly due to sheer increase of adoptionMeans PR professionals exposure to crises will rise and as per Nestle, handled badly can escalate into Level 3 crises…
Causes are also interesting…..- social media’s ability to expose bad practice,services or products is key cause of crisis… classic case of saying, not doingAlso influencer relations…. How many people have mapped the social media landscape to identify, understand and build relationships with key influencers?Are these triggers/causes new??? Discuss in more detail later on…..
No single source of crisis….. Problematic for effective management with limited resources
Managing your own platforms IS NOT ENOUGH…Monitoring of wider landscape is crucialInfluencer relations is crucial
Indicates the granular level of interaction – replicated many times over the crisis
Extensive and regularly updated FAQs on the blog meant we could sign-post people to single destination for informationBut real-time engagement was still essential – to answer specific questions and demonstrate proactive comms management
The Fanta brand was created as a way for the Coca-Cola company to continue trade with Nazi Germany and avoid trade restrictions…….!