Social media & crisis management

SOCIAL MEDIA CRISIS MANAGEMENT

ali bullock, ex-Cathay Pacific Global Digital Marketing Manager, founder and CEO animals in photos / Asia’s foremost charity wildlife photographer

alibullock.com / animalsinphotos.com

QUICK INTROWorked for some of the biggest brands in the world including, KPMG Consulting, Kelloggs, Samsung & Motorola

In 2008 I created the first Cathay Pacific fan page and in 2012 brought the brand to a fan of fan reach of over 36 million people, spanning 15 countries, with 8 twitter channels, and a presence on other social media channels including, youtube, LinkedIn and Sina-Weibo

Fair to say I have created one of the biggest social media and digital presences in Asia for Cathay Pacific

Created the first airline Ipad app blending mobile, social and our “legacy services”

Worked with our environmental team and saw CX ban shark fin on all planes in September 2012. Resigned to join WWF Hong Kong as head of communicationS


917 vs 660

SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERT?

* MY DOG HAS MORE FRIENDS ON FACEBOOK THAN I DO


YES, YES I CAN.

“YOU CAN FIX MY SOCIAL MEDIA CRISIS?”


WITH 4 KEY TAKE-WAYS FROM TODAY...


“DIG A WELL BEFORE YOU BECOME THIRSTY”


CHINESE PROVERB.

1

FIRE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA CONSULTANT, AGENCY OR GURU*

(* Actually, fire anyone who ever claims to be a “guru” of anything.)


2

HIRE GOOD PEOPLE INSTEAD

(* “Sick” means cool in youth person speak.)

HINT: THEY DON’T HAVE TO BE UNDER 30, WEAR A T-SHIRT AND USE WORDS LIKE “RAD” or “SICK”* AND WHO DON’T REMEMBER A ROTARY PHONE.


3

FORGET THE WORDS SOCIAL MEDIA


... AT LEAST WHEN IT COMES TO A CRISIS. FOCUS ON THE ROOT OF THE ISSUE AND COMMUNICATE QUICKLY AND CLEARLY.

4

AND AS FOR THE NOTION THAT THE CHINESE SYMBOL FOR CRISIS IS CLOSE TO THE SYMBOL FOR OPPORTUNITY...


NOT TRUE.


SOLVING A SOCIAL MEDIA CRISIS IS ABOUT INFLUENCE, ENGAGEMENT AND TRUST. ITS NOT ABOUT “OH LOOK, WE HAVE A FACEBOOK PAGE!”



WHAT IS A SOCIAL MEDIA CRISIS?


8 million + views 500,000 + views6 million + views

CENSORED

Average views for a CX ad on the official Youtube channel - 40,000

views


SOCIAL MEDIA CRISIS .Vs CRISIS


8 million + views 500,000 + views6 million + views

CENSORED

WE FORGET THAT SOCIAL MEDIA IS A PLATFORM, NOT AN END GAME. IT’S HOW YOU DEAL WITH THE CRISIS THAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE


WHAT DID CATHAY PACIFIC LEARN FROM THESE INCIDENTS:(* NEXT 2 SLIDES BLATANTLY STOLEN FROM ANDRES / EDELMAN PR)


GOVERNANCE

Guidelines – Outlining acceptable uses of social media, how it fits into the organization’s communication mix and how it benefits

the organization serves to educate employees about the conduct parameters and purpose of the social web.

Education – Training is a great way to introduce employees and strategic partners such as agencies to social media best practices

while simultaneously reinforcing guidelines.

Support – It’s important to implement a support infrastructure to help embed and reinforce initial training. Identify a support

person on the social media team that can act as a resource when it comes to employee questions/concerns to help cut potential

issues off at the pass.


EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESSAssume you will have social media missteps and be prepared (ahead of time) to deal with them.It’s not the mistakes made using social media that cause brands the biggest problems, it’s how poorly or slowly they deal with them. How your organization addresses criticism or mistakes speaks volumes about your brand and can impact the level of audience vitriol and the time it takes for an issue to subside.

Have a plan in place that outlines:

•the communication process•social media team roles & responsibilities•deliverables•the issue resolution schedule


IDEALLY AVOID THIS



AND BE ABLE TO REACT TO THIS

THE SEA SHEPARD STORY WASN’T TRUE


SOLUTION:STORY PICKED UP THROUGH MONITORING

GOT THE FACTS FROM THE CARGO TEAM

BROUGHT A GROUP OF CX STAKEHOLDERS TOGETHER

WORKED ON A PRESS RELEASE AND A PUBLIC RESPONSE ON FACEBOOK TO SEA SHEPARD

WROTE DIRECTLY TO SEA SHEPARD

REACHED OUT TO MEDIA SUCH AS CNN AND RIK O’BARRY TO INFORM THEM ABOUT THE STORY AND THE TRUE FACTS


LESSONS LEARNT:

FROM PICKING UP THE STORY TO POSTING ON FACEBOOK 24 HOURS PASSED - THIS WAS TO LONG

WE DIDN’T INFORM STAFF AROUND THE NETWORK, SEVERAL WHO WERE VERBALLY ASSAULTED AT OUR AIRPORTS BY PEOPLE ANGRY OVER THE STORY

OUR OWN STAFF SHOULD HAVE KNOWN ABOUT THE ISSUE AND THE FACTS FAR SOONER THAN THEY DID

MORE POSTS WERE NEEDED ON OUR OWN FACEBOOK PROPERTIES

WE SHOULD HAVE POSTED ON THE SEA SHEPARD PAGE


SEA SHEPARD NEVER APOLOGISED, NOR UPDATED THEIR BLOG BASED ON THE FACTS. BUT THEY ALSO DIDN’T GET THE PRESS THEY WANTED TO.


(SOMETIMES YOU JUST CAN’T DO ANYTHING)


THE SHELL CAMPAIGN: “LET’S GO ”


SHELL RELEASED A SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN TO ENCOURAGE ENGAGEMENT.


BUT IT DIDN’T QUITE GO AS PLANNED


... IN FACT THIS IS A CAMPAIGN BY GREENPEACE

SHELL HAVE NOT SUED GREENPEACE NOR SENT ANY LEGAL TAKE DOWN NOTICES.

THEY HAVE PUT OUT A PRESS RELEASE. AND THAT WAS THE SMARTEST THING THEY COULD HAVE DONE.


ADIDAS:SOCIAL MEDIA IS INSTANT, GLOBAL AND IT CAN HURT.





Greenpeace released a video highlighting the plight of Orangutans in Borneo who are loosing their homeland to Nestlé and loggers for Palm Oil.

Nestlé's lawyers removed the video form Youtube on brand reputation grounds and Greenpeace simply re-posted.

They asked their supporters to re-upload and post - the decision for Nestle was whether to sure 100,000 people or not.

The argument moved onto their facebook and other social media platforms where nestles’ community managers denied the claims (falsely) and deleted the comments

end result:

customers and fans forced a corporate change in direction.


THESE MAGNIFICENT CREATURES ARE BUT .2% DIFFERENT TO US IN DNA

NESTLE FINALLY RESCINDED AND COMMITTED TO STOP BUYING PALM OIL FROM UN-STAINABLE RAIN FORESTS.


TAKE A BREAK, HAVE A KIT-KAT

SO IF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A PLATFORM HAS CHANGED THE WAY BRANDS INTERACT WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS, NGOs AND STAKEHOLDERS.

WHAT CAN I DO?


MONITOR THE SOCIAL SPACE


1THE BEST WAY TO TACKLE A CRISIS IS EARLY AND HEAD ON

THE WORST WAY IS TO BURRY YOUR HEAD IN CORPORATE SPEAK AND HOPE IT “BLOWS OVER.”

GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT. QUICKLY.


BRING RELEVANT GROUPS TOGETHER AND GET ACTIONS / DECISIONS MADE QUICKLY AND ACCURATELY

ASSIGN ROLES TO PEOPLE

IF THE CRISIS IS BIG ENOUGH AND YOU NED TO POST / MONITOR 24 / 7 THEN ENSURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH PEOPLE OR AGENCY SUPPORT

ENSURE ONE PERSON TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR ALL POSTS

GATHER LINES TO TAKE OR BROAD AREAS THAT YOUR COMMUNITY MANAGERS CAN TACKLE

TRY AND TAKE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN “OFFLINE”

2

RESPOND IN-KIND


IF PEOPLE COMPLAIN THROUGH A NEWSPAPER YOU RESPOND TO THE NEWSPAPER

LIKEWISE IF PEOPLE ARE BREWING UP A STORM ON SOCIAL MEDIA, DON’T WRITE A PRESS RELEASE AND POST THAT ON SOCIAL MEDIA

A PRESS RELEASE GOES TO THE PRESS - A SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASE GOES TO THE PUBIC (YOU WOULD BE AMAZED AT HOW MANY ORGANISATIONS STILL DON’T UNDERSTAND THIS.)

ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE PEOPLE AVAILABLE TO TAK / COMMUNICATE WITH STAKEHOLDERS AND ENSURE THEY ARE ACTUALLY EMPOWERED TO DO SO

3

IF NEEDED, APOLOGISE


NOKIA RELEASED A VIDEO (NOW DELETED) OF THIE RNEW LUMA PHONE AND ITS CAMERA PHONE ABILITIES

THE VIDEO IS VERY CLEAR. ITS VERY GOOD. AS IT SHOULD BE AFTER A VIEWER SPOTTED THE REAL CAMERA IN A REFLECTION (HINT: IT WASN’T A CAMERA PHONE.)

4

APOLOGISE, IF NEEDED QUICKLY


WITHIN A MATTER OF HOURS NOKIA HAD RELEASED A NEW VIDEO AND A FULL APOLOGY ON ITS BLOG.

THEY USED A HUMAN TOME AND CAME STRAIGHT OUT WITH AN APOLOGY: “"WAS NOT SHOT WITH A LUMIA 920," CONFIRMING OUR ORIGINAL SUSPICIONS. "WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE CONFUSION WE CREATED."

THEY THEN RELEASED A CORRECTED VIDEO

4

NO-ONE WINS IN A CRISIS


“KFC THAILAND APOLOGISED ON THURSDAY FOR A POST ON ITS FACEBOOK PAGE URGING THAIS TO HURRY HOME AND MONITOR EARTHQUAKE NEWS WITH A PROMOTIONAL BUCKET OF CHICKEN AS TSUNAMI FEARS GRIPPED THE NATION.”

5

FINALLY, PLAN, TEST, PLAN AGAIN


YOU WILL GET HIT. WHETHER BY AN NGO, AN EX-EMPLOYEE OR HACKER, MAYBE EVEN SOME GOOD OL’ JOURNALISM FROM A MEDIA OUTLET.

THE RISK IS YOURS TO TAKE.

6

WE LIVE & WORK IN A WORLD OF TRANSPARENCY.


ONE OF HUGE POTENTIAL AS WELL AS RISK.


“THINK, RESPOND AND BE SMARTER THAN THE COMPETITION.”


ULTIMATELY....



NOT EVERY BRAND CAN GET AWAY WITH WHAT TACO BELL DO ON SOCIAL MEDIA


“THIS SEAT’S TAKEN.” BO

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.


ALIBULLOCK ON [email protected]

(EVEN BETTER, IN PERSON)

mailto:[email protected]

... AS FOR PADSTOW. FIND HIM ON FACEBOOK, “PADSTOW PUG.”


THANK YOU AGAIN FOR YOUR TIME.


ALIBULLOCK ON [email protected]

(EVEN BETTER, IN PERSON)

mailto:[email protected]

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Social media & crisis management