Social Media Crisis Management

What BP has done…During the crisis, BP constantly update their social media tools to provide the latest informationwithout any form of engagement.. Social Media Crisis Management Analysi

Social Media Crisis Management

Presented By Adonai Training LLP

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.

In this ebook, we will explore the dos-and-don’ts of social media crisis management through anin-depth analysis of three case studies, each from a different industry We will look at how BritishPetroleum, Ford Motor Company and Nestle manage their crises and find out what we can learnfrom 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 andspread Then we detail the turning points of the crises and the company’s reactions Here are keylearning points of the ebook:

1 British Petroleum

Build relationships before a crisisAssemble a social media crisis management team

2 Ford Motors

Communicate effectivelyDelegating a ‘face’ as spokesperson

BRITISH PETROLEUM

The Largest Marine Oil Spill in History

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

What BP has done…

During the crisis, BP constantly update their social media tools to provide the latest informationwithout any form of engagement However, BP’s voice in social media is drown in the voices ofdissenters Below are the social media tools BP adopts and their fan-base numbers For Facebookand Twitter, statistics of fan-base belonging to dissenters are also presented

Youtube

Facebook

BP Official Page 41,069 Fans Boycott BP Page

Twitter

BP Official Account 18,596 Followers BPGlobalPR 190,561 Followers

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

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

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

FORD MOTOR COMPANY

The Ranger Station Saga

In December 2008, TheRangerStation.com, a Ford Ranger fan site managed by a Ranger enthusiast, came under legal fire from Ford for violating Ford’s trademark and intellectual property rights Ford ordered, through a cease and desist letter to the site owner, Jim Oaks, to pay $5,000 in fines and to surrender the domain name Oaks has been operating the fan site for a decade and doesn’t have the resources to pay the fines or to counter-sue Ford, hence look to the fan site members for support Over the next twenty-two hours, Jim’s post received 916 heated responses, most unhappy with how a big company like Ford treats its loyal supporters with such contempt, some mocking this attempt as one Ford adopts to recover its shortfall in revenue However, unknown to these fans, Ford

simply wanted the site to stop

selling counterfeit Ford products.

The fine and request for the

domain name was just a scare

tactic employed to stop this sale.

What Ford has done…

This crisis was managed largely by Scott Monty, the Global Digital and Multimedia Communications Manager of Ford Motor, using Twitter as the main social media tool of communication Below, on the left are the selected Tweets from Monty’s account in United States Eastern Daylight Time and on the right are some comments on what his tweet was about

1:30am @ScottMonty This is about as bad as PR gets

for Ford right now! Very bad move that’s going to cause loss of sales.

Scott Monty, the Global Digital and Multimedia Communications Manager, received a heads-up tweet just hours after Oaks story started blazing on the internet.

7: 29am @Jtegner Thanks for letting me know I’m

looking into that this morning

He checked his account, acknowledged the previous tweet, and subsequently started to investigate and rectify the problem

8:32am Ford makes the front page of USA Today:

Ford benefits from CEO's turn to road less travelled

Monty announced that Ford has been featured in the media after its efforts for the “Big Three Bailout Plan”.

11:

23am

@ContractorTalk I’m in discussion with our Chief Trademark Counsel about it right now

I’m none too pleased #ford

Constant replies were also made directed to people who asked them He also made use of hash tag to aid in information search regarding the incident.

What Ford has done…

11:

31am

For anyone asking about the Ford fan site and legal action: I’m in active discussions with our legal dept about resolving it Pls retweet

Monty also provided a call-to-action to his followers to help spread his side of the story A total of 19 of his 5,

600 followers retweeted this message, broadcasting it to

Monty constantly provided updates on the status of his investigation, sometimes direct to the people who asked them.

12:29

pm

@Petertdavis It means we didn't get the full story from the site owners There's a deeper issue in question #ford

1: 07pm Re the Ford fan site: I’m finding that there

was counterfeit material being sold on it.

Trying to get clarity on the URL issue #Ford

What Ford has done…

4:03 p.m @Psadler And the Model T only got 12

horsepower with a maximum speed of

20 mph.

The crisis did not dampen his ability to perform his daily functions of answering queries.

4: 34pm @BrettTrout Please correct that We’ve

since remedied it.

Monty is also on the constant lookout for people who are unaware of his progress to tell them about it.

4:55 p.m @KrisColvin We're not shutting the site

down; we're asking that they stop selling counterfeit material #ford

He also answers to questions clarifying Ford’s actions for people who have missed his constant updated on the investigations.

4: 56pm Here is Ford’s official response to the fan

site cease & desist debacle #Ford Please retweet

His final tweet on the debacle while asking followers to retweet the message 25 of his followers responded to this call, retweeting his

message to 21,000 more Twitter members The total time taken for the crisis to start and end was a mere 22 hours and

26 minutes

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 of Twitter’s hash tags to help organize information.

• Constant updates

It prevents any speculations that may worsen the crisis.

• Replies to questions using mentions

This ensures that people gets the answers they wanted.

• Going to Ford’s detractors

Clarifications on their wrong information prevents them from joining the witch hunt, which can grow in large numbers quickly.

• Make use of existing networks

Using Retweets, Ford’s messages were able to reach a wider scope of people.

• Able to perform daily functions

The company did not come to a standstill while handling the crisis Hence preventing more complains about efficiency pouring in.

Social Media Learning Point:

Listen and tell your side of the story

After the heads-up, Monty began actively sourcing for the root of the problem, twitting hisprogress and replying to his followers Not only that, he was able to tweet about Ford’s side ofthe story, that Ford simply wanted to stop the site from selling counterfeit Ford products Hislistening skills and prompt response certainly saved Ford from further damage and ended thecrisis in a mere 23 hours

Always listen to what sentiments are going on with your brand online and engage them to pass

on your side of the story Do make use of free listening tools available online like SocialMention,

SiteMention or employ a paid service likeRadian6 for a comprehensive review Remember, neverkeep quiet In any crisis, people want answers and accountability Keeping

quiet leaves a gap of unknown for any stories to be filled in This certainly

does not do good to help your situation Do not disappear off the radar

suddenly as well Such half-hearted engagements will only worsen the

situation

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 case, Scoot Monty served that purpose effectively He became the person

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

and British Petroleum, who both appointed their CEO as the face of the crisis

management team.

Facebook Debacle

The crisis was sparked off by Greenpeace’s report on how Nestle’s source of palm oil is damagingrainforests in Indonesia To show their displeasure, outraged advocates decided to adopt alteredNestle’s logos as their profile pictures in Facebook The crisis was, however, made worst andpopular by Nestle’s management of the latter issue about the logos It posted a status on its fanpage telling people not to use such logos as their profile picture when commenting or else theircomments will be deleted Fans retaliated citing that freedom of speech should be respectedwhich has been met with several rude and sarcastic comments from Nestle

This action of theirs brought the attention of social media enthusiasts to pick up the story, trying

to figure out the situation, the lessons to be learned, and what should have been donedifferently The crisis turned viral Fortunately, the crisis went viral because of the rude replies,and not so much on the main root of the problem, which meant that the crisis would die downshortly after, which it did Nestle responded to the palm oil issue by constantly updating itsstatement, while maintaining minimal engagement with comments on Facebook page It thenended with an official letter to Greenpeace for future collaboration

What Nestle has done…

In reaction to Greenpeace’s report, Nestle posted a series of status updates on its Facebook page

On the left below shows their daily updates on the crisis while on the right details the number ofreactions, in terms of ‘likes’ and comments The content of these comments include Nestle’ssupporters stating their support to the company and reprimanding detractors for their comments

on the issue One will realize that this crisis is still of a manageable size during this period of time

What Nestle has done…

However, in this post on 19 th March where Nestle started to be rude in replying comments, the number of comments jumped to a total of 243 comments The content of the comments were also different Supporters stop stating their support while many people were slamming Nestle’s public

What Nestle has done…

While managing the crisis Nestle created for itself on their Facebook page, daily updates werestill sent with regards to the status of their palm oil efforts They have also set up an Q&A site forpeople to search for answers These updates were likely to be efforts to manage the crisis thatthey have created on their Facebook page as the frequency of their updates on this debacle wasincreased for that day