Social Media Crisis Management

Copyright © 2010 Adonai Training LLP. All rights reserved. Social Media Crisis Management Presented By Adonai Training LLP 1 Copyright © 2010 Adonai Training LLP. All rights reserved. Table of Contents 2 Content Page Introduction 3 - 4 British Petroleum 5 - 10 Ford Motor 11 - 18 Nestle 19 - 27 Final Words 28 - 29 About The Author 30 About Adonai Training LLP 31 Contact Us 32 Copyright © 2010 Adonai Training LLP. All rights reserved. Introduction Social media has drastically changed the landscape of crisis management. With close to 23% of the time spent on the internet on social networks and Google providing three- quarters of a billion search results a day, the internet is a giant public library where users have the ease of discovering and spreading information around. What does this mean to companies facing a crisis? It means that when information released is not contained and acted upon quickly, it can spiral out of control. This is particularly applicable to bad news. A video can reach more than ten thousands of views, an article can be shared thousands of times through Facebook and Twitter all in a matter of 24 hours. Companies simply cannot ignore social media’s ability to aggravate a crisis and the need to harness it when managing crises. 3 Copyright © 2010 Adonai Training LLP. All rights reserved. Introduction In this ebook, we will explore the dos-and-don’ts of social media crisis management through an in-depth analysis of three case studies, each from a different industry. We will look at how British Petroleum, Ford Motor Company and Nestle manage their crises and find out what we can learn from them. This serves as a good introduction for any member of the company – from executives to board members, on the basics of know-how on crisis management using social media. For each case study, we will first provide an overview of the crisis on how and why it started and spread. Then we detail the turning points of the crises and the company’s reactions. Here are key learning points of the ebook: 1. British Petroleum Build relationships before a crisis Assemble a social media crisis management team 2. Ford Motors Communicate effectively Delegating a ‘face’ as spokesperson 3. Nestle Train your staff for efficiency Importance of creating a social media policy 4 Copyright © 2010 Adonai Training LLP. All rights reserved. BRITISH PETROLEUM The Largest Marine Oil Spill in History 5 Copyright © 2010 Adonai Training LLP. All rights reserved. Overview Deep Horizon oil spill crisis started from an explosion in an offshore drilling rig that killed 11 and injured 17 of its workers. Since then, oil has been spilling out into the ocean for a few months before it was finally capped. The crisis was fuelled by the BP’s inefficiency to stop the spill and blaming other parties for the explosion, and made worse by its then-CEO ‘s (Tony Hayward) insensitive comments about the amount of spill being “tiny” compared to the size of the ocean and remarking that he “would like his life back” from the crisis. Social media wise, BP is not new to this concept. It owns a Facebook page, YouTube channel, Twitter account, as well as a Flickr account. However, these tools did not come in handy for BP’s crisis management as BP has failed to harness these into managing its crisis effectively and made it worse by buying search engine ads without first tracking sentiments. 6 Copyright © 2010 Adonai Training LLP. All rights reserved. What BP has done… During the crisis, BP constantly update their social media tools to provide the latest information without any form of engagement. However, BP’s voice in social media is drown in the voices of dissenters. Below are the social media tools BP adopts and their fan-base numbers. For Facebook and Twitter, statistics of fan-base belonging to dissenters are also presented. Youtube 6,472 Subscribers Facebook BP Official Page 41,069 Fans Boycott BP Page 846,608 Fans Twitter BP Official Account 18,596 Followers BPGlobalPR 190,561 Followers 7 Copyright © 2010 Adonai Training LLP. All rights reserved. Social Media Crisis Management Analysis What BP has done right What BP has not done right • Updating its social media platforms Updates were provided on a regular basis on the status of oil spill and clean up. • Did not build up a strong base BP’s social media fan-base is strong but it’s dwarfed by the size of fan-bases belonging to its dissenters. Hence, even with constant updates, these updates could not create an impact on the sentiments people have on BP. The lack of strong base also means that people are not enticed to back BP up or show BP support. • Failure to engage with fans In their social media platforms, there was no engagement of any kind. Comments are not replies, mentions on Twitter are not done. Such absence makes it hard for BP to build any rapport with fans. • Did nothing to cease or respond to negative comments Instead of replying to negative comments on what BP is doing to rectify the problem, BP tried to get Twitter to shut down dissenter’s accounts. 8 Copyright © 2010 Adonai Training LLP. All rights reserved. Social Media Learning Point: Build relationships before crisis strikes Social media helps build up a relationship between the two companies and customers. As a form of buffering your brand’s reputation before a crisis strikes, start forming relationships using it. After all, it is easier to forgive a friend than a stranger when a mistake is made. Having a relationship also means that the company be transparent and honest to their consumers. However, from insensitive remarks, the lack of engagement on the social media platforms and BP attempt to control information about the oil spill, BP has portrayed itself to be not interested in building relationships. Not surprising, data in sentiments tracking shows an upward spike in negative Sentiments when the crisis happened. 9 Copyright © 2010 Adonai Training LLP. All rights reserved. Social Media Learning Point: Assemble a Social Media Team Social media is also here to provide a two-way communication between a company and customers. In a crisis a scale like this where lives are lost and livelihoods are severely damaged, empathy and accountability is expected but unfortunately not offered by BP. Assembling a team to man your social media platform is a very important factor in crisis management. Having a team can help with the speed of replying to comments and aid the provision of information. Updating your social media platforms can be automated, but engagement with people on these platforms can’t be automated. At a crisis this grave, you ay want to rotating shifts among your staff to ensure availability of information throughout the day. 10 [...]... take for effective social media crisis management • Develop a social media crisis management strategy • Assemble a specialized team for effective social media crisis management • Create a system of governance on using social media and a social media policy • Ensure that your staff are trained in social media How Adonai Training can help you Adonai Training conducts several social media training courses... be allocated to be spend on social media tools Copyright © 2010 Adonai Training LLP All rights reserved 27 Last few learning points… I hope you have a better understanding on social media s impact on crisis management and a few tips of how-to when managing your crisis with social media Here are some tips on what not to do, just to give you more ideas on how to handle your crisis online • Be silent when... total time taken for the crisis to start and end was a mere 22 hours and 26 minutes Copyright © 2010 Adonai Training LLP All rights reserved 15 Social Media Crisis Management Analysis What Ford has done right • Alert was heard early Checking his social media tools early provides crucial time for containment of the crisis • Make use of existing technologies available in social media tools Monty made use... to go to with any questions on the crisis, and hence containing the crisis to a certain extend Monty was also the right person for the job as he was in a position of authority who could make things right When facing crisis of your own, delegate a person of authority to be the face to the crisis management team This advice is also presented by the social media crisis management efforts by Domino’s Pizza... reserved 29 About the Author A psychology enthusiastic and social media practitioner, Elisha Tan devotes her time to study the applications of social media and its impact on the social, economy and business arenas, as well as understanding how people behave online As the Social Media Consultant at Adonai Training, Elisha has been engaging social media as a marketing strategy to clients Her skills are... LLP All rights reserved 17 Social Media Learning Point: Delegate a Face to the Crisis Management Team To be able to be an effective communicator, you need to be a listener, researcher, and most importantly, being human Never lose your human touch, particular in crisis management when empathy is most needed So what can be more ‘human’ than a real person to represent the crisis management team? In Ford’s... creates a backlash on the company • Creating a crisis on top of their current one When a crisis is happening, it is always advisable to tread lightly in order not to aggravate the situation Copyright © 2010 Adonai Training LLP All rights reserved 25 Social Media Learning Point: Train Your Staff on the Proper Use of Social Media Nestle had a good start on crisis management with their Facebook fans expressing... also help boost good publicity in return Copyright © 2010 Adonai Training LLP All rights reserved 26 Social Media Learning Point: Establish a Social Media Policy Having a proper social media policy will provide good guidance to your employees as it provides protocol on responding to comments on your social media platforms This, however, is not in contradictory to the previous learning point Authenticity... ‘sweetie’, or ‘homie’; instead, you address people by their name A social media policy will also help prevent any worsening of your situation by human error like what Nestle has done to itself It also ensures consistency amongst your team of staff manning the social media platforms, therefore portraying a unified brand image Your social media policy should includes protocols on what can be said and what... Adonai Training conducts several social media training courses to equip SME business with the vital skills for effective social media crisis management Please check our website for our range of courses that will be suitable for you and your company As a compliment to our readers from Social Media World Forum, simple quote the promotional code: ATSMWF2010 to enjoy a 20% discount for all courses This discount