Tomorrow (Thursday, October 25), I will be joining the Social Media Strategies Summit hosted by the good folks at GSMI, in Boston, MA (go Bo-Sox!).
Here’s the overview:
Social media – When to Respond to a Negative Post and How to Triage/ Escalate in your OrgANIZATION
You’ve got tools to monitor social media, a 20-something spiked-hair communities manager, and even a CEO who knows how to use Twitter. But then it happens: someone, somewhere says something negative about your company online and suddenly the world around you comes to a screeching halt. I will walk the session attendees through real case studies of how to monitor for, triage, and address negative buzz.
But you no longer own your brand. Ownership is split between what your customers say and how accessible that content is on Google. So your processes and how you interact with customers will affect future business opportunities more than marketing collateral or paid search ads.
You’ll come away with:
How to monitor
Tools (free and paid) for monitoring
Processes for monitoring, triage and escalation
Review of a case study
If you cannot make it; or if you are attending; and you would like a copy of the presentation materials, including a sample case study and a great flow chart for triage and escalation of social media issues, please send me a Tweet!
As more companies create official social media policies, draft up strategies, and even hire dedicated staff to manage social media, at some point, people stop along the way and ask, “who should own this?”
I strongly believe social media is simply an extension of everything we do nowadays. What I mean is that social media is simply another channel for doing what we already do.
If we are marketers, now we can use social media to market.
If we are PR professions, now we use social media to communicate.
If we are customer service reps, now we use social media to provide support.
and so on…
So, there are three important things to remember here:
There should be a clearly defined group that provides leadership in social media. For most companies, this can be marketing. Marketing tends to be an early adopter of technology and services and may have the bandwidth and skill set to be thought leaders in the are.
Social media is collaborative. It should involve all departments. So, if marketing is taking the lead, marketing must make an effort to collaborate.
Training. Everyone in the company must be trained on how to use social media effectively for their role in the organization and must be aware of the policies.
I just returned from the Social Media Strategies Summit in Las Vegas, NV hosted by GSMI where I presented on measuring social media for the SMB. One of my leave behind handouts was this flow chart I adapted from the US Air Force.
You can use this flow chart to evaluate whether or not should respond to a post you find on the web, be it positive, negative or neutral. It will help you understand what you should consider when responding, escalating, and addressing negative posts, in particular.
Social Media Assessment Flow Chart
If you’d like to understand how to respond to a negative post, please read my related posts:
Most users of social media post things without thinking about the ramifications.
Think about it… look at what your friends are posting:
Political comments
Opinions on hot-button issues such as religion, abortion, gay rights, gun control
Derogatory comments about a product, person or service
Photos (drinking, being ‘stupid’, partying, skimpy-clad)
Now, if you boss showed up and said show me your Facebook page, would you be okay with that? Would it hurt their opinion of you? What if you are a liberal and pro-choice and the hiring manager of a company you are interviewing with is a die-hard GOP faithful. Gonna land the job?
Employers should check in on candidates and employees – what they do in the public space can be a potential liability. If an employee is doing something inappropriate, it can cause real damage to your company – and I’m not just talking about sharing company secrets or dishing on a co-worker. If they are berating customers or being irresponsible, is that how you want your business portrayed in the public space?
The real challenge is coaching your staff to be responsible. I preach, “don’t ever say or do anything on social media that you wouldn’t want your boss or mother to see.”
With that strategy, it’s hard to do wrong in the social space. Don’t give someone a reason to fire (or not hire) you…
Falsified image of the US President created by Benetton
A new ad campaign by Benetton features the unauthorized use of images of political figures. Additionally, the images have been doctored to make it appear is if the figures are kissing.
This ad campaign really tests basic marketing 101 principles regarding moral and ethical obligation and demonstrates a basic lack of understanding with regards to truth in advertising.
First, it is well established that one must have permission to use an image for a commercial campaign and the White House has a very explicit policy forbidding the use of the President’s image for commercial purposes.
Second, the images are not real, they are edited/altered/doctored. This might be acceptable if this was stated in the image, but it is not. Because the images are doctored in a material way (versus simply airbrushing a skin blemish), I believe these ads violate the principle of “truth in advertising”. I understand they may not violate this legally, as the ads are not making a promise.
All in all, it is clear that Benetton is simply making a gamble that the debate over these ads and the press resulting from such a debate is worth violating common decency and ethics. This is not the first time the company has been controversial for the sake of attention, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.
I suppose being stupid is their substitution for being creative.
Ever wonder how your team will handle a negative issue that hits the media? Maybe you feel you have your bases covered because you are monitoring social media and believe you”know what you are doing”. But what happens when the pooh hits the fan while you are flying from Washington, DC to Sydney, Australia and you are (a) unaware of the issue; (b) unable to respond; and (c) by the time you land if you haven’t acted, it’s too late?
Well, maybe that specific scenario won’t happen to you, but being naive enough to think you’ll be able to fully control a negative media issue alone, or by someone else in your absence is not all too common in businesses today. One of the primary reasons most businesses are unprepared is because their social communities manager or team is typically comprised of younger employees who lack the mature, experienced business know-how needed to respond swiftly, consistently and accurately in a crisis.
So what to do?
Don’t fret… there are many resources on the net for devising a great crisis management plan. The basic steps include:
Monitoring
Triage
Escalation
Notification
Coordination
Responding
Heidi Cohen writes a great article referencing Rick Perry’s recent debate gaffe and his team’s slow response. Her article is a great place to get started.
Additionally, once you have all these great plans in place, you should practice. On the surface, this may sound silly. But here’s what you should do:
Gather up your social media team in a conference room
Inform executives of the drill
Surprise your social media team with an issue that could actually happen. They should not know about it before hand. Try to make it as realistic as possible.
Have to team run through the crisis management plan, including each step…
Draft up responses, notify the proper channels and get all the approvals for your documents and responses as needed.
Assess how well your team performed, how quickly executives replied and identify any issues.
Once you’ve done a couple drills, I suggest doing one off-hours and seeing how the response time changes. This may help you identify further weaknesses in your plans. Can you handle a disgruntled employee spilling a secret on Twitter for Christmas? Well, it could happen, right?
I almost don’t know where to begin with this one… so first, I’ll show Chapstick’s most recent ad:
Did Chapstick make an ass out of itself in its recent campaign, or did the social media team fall on its butt?
Okay, now that you’ve seen the advertisement, AdWeek writes a great article summing up all the shenanigans that ensued upon the advertisement’s release. Mainly, the ad encourages people to go to Facebook, and they do. They speak their mind (some politely and constructively, and most likely some not so friendly). Chapstick proceeds to delete many comments and flounders a bit as it tries to issue explanations for the deletions as well as the advertisement itself.
Whew.
So what’s my take?
First, I’m a male in my 30’s and probably one of the targets of this ad which most likely appeals to women just as much as men. And creating brand awareness is what advertising is all about – and now we (people who write long winded blog posts on the internet who have a combine readership of about 5 people), are talking about it – generating a MASSIVE amount of earned media for Chapstick. Is it all good? They say any press is good press… and in this case, I would agree. The negative press is more related to Chapstick’s handling of the feedback versus the ad itself. Sure, some people are going to be offended by sexually-suggestive advertising, especially in the US which tends to be more conservative in this area. But we’re not seeing even a boob in this ad… just a clothed derriere. So I think people need to be a little less sensitive.
In my opinion the ad is creative and fun… and those of us who use Chapstick (myself included, though I tend to be brand agnostic when it comes to my lip protectors), I don’t think I have ever used up a whole tube of Chapstick before either throwing it out because it has a date from the prior decade, or losing it. And, based upon the number of tubes I purchase annually for my beautiful and intelligent wife, she either uses it once a minute, or suffers from the same problem the woman in this ad does; frequent-loss-of-chapstick-syndrome. I tend to find tubes in the bottom of backpacks, purses, suitcases; in glove boxes, junk drawers; in couch cushions and medicine cabinets, and of course winter jacket pockets.
But let’s get to the heart of the matter, what Chapstick really screwed up – its social media team/response. As the team started observing a larger number of comments coming in to its Facebook page, they should have had a better triage and response procedure. Criticism is a part of any business, and you should be willing to accept it. And via social media, your policy should be to acknowledge, empathize and if necessary, address. In this case, Chapstick should have delete any posts that were clear violations – over posting/spam, foul language or harassing in nature. If it saw a large number of these, it should have posted a notice on its page very quickly explaining its policy. “Please understand that do want to hear from customers about this advertisement and anything else related to their use of Chapstick, but please be respectful of others and the community. If your comments are deemed disrespectful or foul, we will remove them.”
And you usually do not want to be defensive in social media, as the community and really tear you apart… so on that issue, be particularly careful. Let the community have its debate. Your supports will defend you if you have a solid customer base and product.
If you really did screw up in your advertisement, or in a related area, it is extremely important that you have a rock-solid escalation policy so that issues can bubble up the chain of command efficiently and consistently. The last thing you want to happen is to issue a statement that isn’t convincing or credible – the community will see right through it. (Take the New England Patriots for instance, in response to QB Tom Brady’s “drinking comments“). Don’t think your customers, especially the ones on Facebook are dumb. That strategy will not be successful.
So, if you need to issue a clarify statement, or even the dreaded “mea culpa” then you only want to do this once. And, be prepared for comments about your admission. You will receive feedback.
Chapstick has a legacy of quirky, cutesy, and slightly-suggestive advertising. It works. And this latest ad worked too, but the social media team got in the way.
On Wednesday, August 24th, I will be co-presenting live on a panel to discuss, “Doing to Delivering – 5 Considerations for Making Social Media Strategic”.
From 1:00 – 2:00 pm ET, you’re invited to participate in an interactive panel discussion with Web, marketing and social media experts from Virginia Tech, University of Alabama and American Public University exploring ways you can make social media an effective component of your school’s integrated, strategic communications program.
Panelists:
Chase Bowers – Internet Communications Specialist, University of Alabama
Melissa Richards – Director of Marketing and Publications, Virginia Tech
Dan Soschin – Director, Interactive Marketing, American Public University System
Symantec last week released the findings of its latest survey regarding social media entitled, “2011 Social Media Protection Flash Poll“. It sought to identify the most common social media mishaps among large corporations and to assign them a monetary value.
Of course the report focuses on ‘big enterprise’ more so than small business, because the values are quite large. However, it underscores how social media is still a wild west and that those companies pioneering these waters should tread carefully.
Another good point is that Symantec is pushing its archiving and e-discovery software, which should be a good reminder to document social media issues well for legal purposes and have a well-defined triage, escalation and crises plan for handling issues in real-time.
I believe that these lawsuits will be dropped, as it will be difficult for plaintiffs to demonstrate damages. Even on the most outrageous texting plans, an extra test wouldn’t cost more than about 25 cents or so.
While the case might drive legislation to prohibit sending a confirmation email or text after someone unsubscribes, I ask the question, “why bother?”
Do you really think people are maliciously unsubscribing other users or unsubscribing themselves accidentally?
Don’t waste your time programming these types of confirmations into your text, email or other campaigns. Instead, focus on retention and nurturing.
When you unsubscribed last from a service, did you really want another email or text? NO! So why would you build these services into your companies campaigns?
Dan Soschin 