When the Heat is On – Social Media Fails

The advent of social media has radically altered the context in which the reputation of an organisation is managed. Social media can be friend and foe. On the one hand, social media platforms are immensely powerful channels to reach stakeholders with your planned message but on the other, the same characteristics that enable this, namely speed of communication, prevalence and pervasiveness, can also precipitate and catapult an organisation into crisis.

The way that events transpire online and, more specifically, on social media platforms are now intimately linked to how organisations fare once times get tough. With 72% of all Internet users active on social media and over 500 million users on Twitter alone businesses can no longer afford to endure the potential for either reputational or financial damages that come hand in hand with todays social media crisis if poorly managed.

So, in the spirit of learning from the mistakes of others, we outline three top social media crises of last year and examine the lessons we can learn from them.

Crisis Management Planning 101: Learning from Asiana’s Mistakes

By Isobel Nicholas

South Korea’s Asiana Airlines was roundly criticised in the aftermath of its response to the crash of Flight 214 on Sunday 6^th July 2013 at San Francisco airport, inflicting severe damage to its reputation.  The criticism largely stems from its silence in the hours after the crash and the lack of information made available to support victims of the crash and their families as they struggled to find out what had happened and whether their loved ones were involved.

Here we review what happened and look at what lessons in crisis management planning and crisis communications can be learned.

Crisis Lesson #3 – Communication Integration

By Dominic Cockram

Our recent blog posts on the crises faced at NatWest, Ulster Bank, O2 and Progressive Insurance highlighted just how important communications can be during and after a crisis. In a crisis, perception can be more powerful than reality and emotions can become facts: no matter how well your company responds to and resolves an issue, if stakeholders and the public don’t hear this (with a healthy slice of humble pie on the side), your reputation can suffer the consequences.

Has social media changed strategic-level crisis response? Part Two

By Dominic Cockram 

Part 2 – Yes

After reading Sarah’s response to this question earlier this week, I have to disagree with her conclusions. I think that social media has changed many aspects of a strategic-level response.  However, there are many layers of complexity to this and it is never as straightforward as it seems.

Firstly, it depends on your brand and business.  If you are in retail and fashion then there is a huge shift in the way the strategic team now responds when driven by a social media storm.  Firstly they feel they now need to get decisions out there quickly and show action taking place, they are now listening to what they hear (or they should be) from their detractors and their supporters and using that information to drive and inform their decisions in many cases.  For them, crisis response has undergone a significant change as a direct consequence of social media.

Has social media changed strategic-level crisis response? Part One

By Sarah Nicholas

Part 1 – No

Social media may have changed the nature of crises, and the speed required for a successful crisis response – but has the advent of Twitter and co. really changed the key tenets of crisis management and core roles and requirements of a top-level, strategic crisis response ‘gold’ team.

I don’t think it has. Controversial, perhaps, but let me explain:

How To…Manage your social media in a crisis

There are numerous ways in which social media can (and will) play an integral role for your organisation during a crisis. Social media has been known to both amplify and even start incidents that may result in reputational damage. However, if managed appropriately, it can also be used to communicate with customers and mould public perception.

This guide covers the key points you should consider when engaging with social media during a crisis.

Number 1: HAVE A PLAN

Think how many times you’ve rehearsed for a tangible crisis, a bomb drill, a fire evacuation. Like it or not, social media is now an integral part of life and business. If you use any aspects of social media ensure it is included in your Crisis Communications Plan and rehearsed to trouble-shoot any pitfalls.

Planning Crisis Communications

Never has the need for a thoroughly planned, well-rehearsed, comprehensive crisis communications plan been more apparent: the recent incidents involving NatWest, O2 and Barclays (to name just a few) have amply demonstrated the complexity involved in achieving a ‘good’ crisis communications response when under considerable pressure both internally, and under the scrutiny of the press and general public.

The delivery of any successful crisis management response is reliant on excellent communications: a rehearsed, effective, integrated and ready-to-go crisis communications plan is essential. This involves much more than the day-to-day communications strategy. The plan should:

Corporate reputation: biggest asset, greatest vulnerability

By Dominic Cockram

What is it that companies fear most when a crisis hits? Or to put it another way, what do companies value most as a core asset?

Reputation.

We can see it in Barclay’s recent response to the Libor rate-fixing scandal. We regularly hear it first-hand from our clients going through crisis management and crisis communications training.

Crises present a unique opportunity for corporate reputations to be bolstered or battered, and with the vox populi stronger than ever, protecting reputation rightly finds itself among the top priorities of any corporate crisis response team.