How does social media impact a crisis? How do you develop an action plan to respond? Get a practical guide from Heather Read, Program Manager of Social Media @ DuPont.

1. Social Media
Crisis Management –
MIT Short Course
July 26, 2012
Heather Read
Social Media – DuPont Public Affairs
@heatherread
1

2. so·cial me·di·a
• (n) Websites and applications used for social networking.
• Wikipedia: Social media are media for social
interaction, using highly accessible and scalable
communication techniques. Social media is the use of web-
based and mobile technologies to turn communication into
interactive dialogue.
Personal Purposes:
Gaming
Reconnect / Connect with Friends
Photos
Publishing your “lifestream”
E-mail replacement
Business Purposes:
News
Trends
Networking
Conferences
Breaking News
Media/ Influencer engagement

3. The Big Networks
3
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
LinkedIn
founded
FB
founded
Twitter
founded
Arab spring
Google+
founded
YouTube
founded
FB = 500MM
Haiti
earthquake
H1N1
Crisis
Mappers

4. How do Social Media play a role in Crisis?
• Trending topics are driven by
Media/ Bloggers & Key
Influencers
• Positive news, emergencies or
corporate crisis trend the same
• Issues are softer and may be driven
by communities
• Speed matters
• Trending topics appear in minutes
• Corporate crisis can live and die in
hours
• Most significant commentary
happens in first 1-2 hrs; dies by 5
hours unless fueled by continual
media reports
HP Labs Study 2011: Trends in
Social Media : Persistence and
Decay
< 5hrs

5. 5

6. Crowdsourcing Disaster Response
4/25/2013 6

7. University of Iowa Research study shows
Twitter data predicts H1N1
4/25/2013 7
“Our results demonstrate that Twitter
traffic can be used not only
descriptively, i.e., to track users'
interest and concerns related to H1N1
influenza, but also to estimate disease
activity in real time, i.e., 1–2 weeks
faster than current practice allows.”
• Used regression analysis
to plot ~ 1MM tweets vs.
CDC reports

8. How can you use social media to track
Pandemic?
4/25/2013 8
• Follow key hashtags or topics on Twitter
• Watch for trends (e.g.: Twitter trending topics, trendsmap.com)

9. Good sensing helps prevents crisis
Stewardship
Issues Mgt
Crisis
Mgt
Sensing, Tr
iggers &
Alerts
Social
Media
Monitoring
9@heatherread

10. Data can illuminate public needs & concerns
• Use social media
monitoring to
understand drivers
of conversation or
sentiment
@heatherread 10
Data courtesy of:
Hurricane Irene (2011)
Informs WHAT you
should communicate
and to WHOM

11. Map multiple events to put data in
perspective
• Understand the impact of the discussion by tracking volume
over time
• Put each event in perspective with volume and trajectory of
other topics and overall discussion about your company
@heatherread 11
Hurricane Irene vs. Japan Tsunami
Japan
Irene

12. Track changes in sources of discussion
• Compare source
volume to know on
what social networks
you need to
communicate
• Understand whether
the discussion is
happening in niche
communities or the
general masses
– Blogs & Forums
generally indicate
small, focused
community
discussing a topic
important to them
@heatherread 12

13. Establish a Corporate Reputation Baseline
@heatherread 13
Sources: http://www.crimsonhexagon.com/airline_study/
http://socialtimes.com/alterian-social-media-crisis-infographic_b78530
http://www.netbase.com/sentiment/brand-passion-index-hormel-and-oscar-
mayers-sizzling-bacon-buzz/
• Pick your metrics (net sentiment vs. drivers of
passion or sentiment)
• Establish a baseline volume and sentiment
metric or score
• Measure before and after a crisis

14. Use your tools to develop a scorecardSMMS
-Content /
Channel
performance
-Audience reach
-Loyalty
-Influencer
engagement
SMMonitoring
-Volume
-Conversation
analysis
-Trends/ Triggers
-Influencer
identification
SEO
-Traffic sources
from search vs.
social
-Popular content
-Conversion
goals
@heatherread 14
Key Metrics
Scorecard

15. General types of social media crisis
Social network campaign organized by local
communities, NGO or PAC; online influencers spread
the news; sparks media coverage.
Community
Campaign
One or more social media users or a specialized
blogger breaks a story, spread by their followers via
social media; sparks mainstream media interest.
Viral/
Blogger-led
Major print, broadcast or online media break a story;
sparks a wave of media interest; news is shared
across social networks with individual commentary.
Major
Media
Internal staff error leads to embarrassing action via
social media (e.g.: Chrysler, Kenneth Cole)
Self
inflicted

16. Use common metrics to determine response process
LOW INFL/
HIGH BIZ IMPACT
HIGH INFL/
HIGH BIZ IMPACT
LOW INFL/
LOW BIZ IMPACT
HIGH INFL/
LOW BIZ IMPACT
Business Impact
Influenceofuser
low high
low
high
METRICS:
Audience Reach:
• Klout score
• Followers/friends #
• Alexa rank
• Inbound links/ UMV
Business Impact:
• Reputation damage
• Customer reaction
• Govt/Reg action
• Investor behavior
**CRISIS CASE**

17. Simple Criteria for Response
Is the post negative
or incorrect?
OR
Is it being shared
by a number of
people?
OR
Is it being shared
by an influencer?
(Klout score +
Audience reach)
PRIORITIZE
•Will the content of the
post damage our
brand?
•Will it leave significant,
incorrect information
about the company
online if not corrected?
•If the conversation
persists, could it impact
business?
•Will it affect stock
price?
•Will not responding
damage the company’s
image?
RESPOND
If yes, then
you are
likely to
17@heatherread

18. Simple Criteria for Response
Is the post negative
or incorrect?
OR
Is it being shared
by an influencer?
(Klout score +
Audience reach)
OR
Is it being shared
by a known critic or
competitor? PRIORITIZE
•Does this person have
a negative opinion of
the company for
emotional or ideological
reasons?
•Is this person a part of
a known group of
critics?
•Will responding
inflame the situation?
•Will responding fuel
more media interest?
•Will responding raise
other sensitive issues?
NOT
RESPOND
If
yes, then
you are
likely to
18@heatherread

19. If you elect to engage, your social media action
plan should have a PURPOSE and the MESSAGE
should MATCH the MEDIUM
Change
perceptions
Demonstrate
transparency or
company/ brand
responsiveness
Understand the
public discussion
Monitor Engage
SM monitoring
inputs
Company action
& Business
commitment
Define the purpose of social media in your Action Plan
19

20. Develop an action plan, identifying specific
actions you expect your audience to take and
metrics of success.
Here’s a tool to help you…
20@heatherread

21. Scenario Planning
LOW MEDIUM HIGH
MEDIA (which social
networks do you expect
to discuss this):
#/ % :
TONALITY:
TRIGGER TO MOVE
SCENARIOS:
Action Plan:
Identify how your social media situation may shift, how your action plan will change and
what the triggers are to move between scenarios. Some examples are provided:
e.g.: Blogs e.g.: Blogs,
Twitter
e.g.:
Blogs, Twitter, Fac
ebook, YouTube, F
lickr
e.g.: < 500 posts/day e.g.: 500-1000
posts/day
e.g.: > 1000 posts/day
e.g.: Neutral - Balanced e.g.: Negative e.g.: Inflammatory
e.g.:
Up: incr. neg % of
conversation
Down: decrease in # of
comments/ day
e.g.: Monitor
only, Blogger
outreach
e.g.: Twitter account
provides updates/
corrections; Blogger
briefings
e.g.: dedicated Twitter,
FB, YouTube accounts;
Content plan to inform the
conversation
21@heatherread

22. Building your social media crisis plan …
22@heatherread

23. Step 1: State your purpose & objective
•Based on your communication plan, determine how social media can play a role.
• How can you influence the audience’s behavior, attitude or awareness using social
media?
• Why will your audience want to interact with your content?
• How will you be improved by your interaction with your audience?
•Examples:
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Objective Social Fit
Raise awareness of health services
local community
Share educational info and available
services with residents and community
influencers regarding
Change perception of a community Create a dialogue with local residents
and community members

24. Step 2: Understand your audience
Who are you
trying to
reach?
Geography
Age
Gender
Education
Income
Technology/
Social
Networks
4/25/2013 24

25. Step 3: Build a content strategy that can
align with measuring your objectives
Dedicated
blog
SEO
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
4/25/2013 25
In this example, the blog is the
“hub” of the social strategy.
It’s optimized for search (SEO)
The strategy is to drive traffic to
the blog from search and social
networks
Good Analytics:
• Click through rate (CTR)
• Top Messages
• Traffic share from each
social network + bounce
rate
• Conversion goal

26. Step 4: Determine your tactics
Content topics:
• Daily scheduled posts: (e.g.: daily safety tip, trivia)
• Weekly posts: (e.g.: #FF)
• Events (e.g.: live tweets from events, webinars, twitter chats)
• Questions/polls: (e.g.: expert Q&A)
• Heavy content: (e.g.: best practices , presentations, articles)
Multimedia Photos or InfoGraphics:
• Photos
• Infographics & memes
• Video footage from events, custom produced on a topic, etc
Other:
• Contests/Promotions/Giveaways
• Check-ins
• RSS feeds, News releases
4/25/2013 26
Where will you source ongoing,
interesting content from?

27. Step 5: Managing Process
1. Review and finalize escalation plan to route problematic
comments
2. Develop FAQs with template responses
3. Create new triage queues in SMMS
4. Establish a daily core team
5. Appoint Strategy, Monitoring, Responder and Approval roles
6. Determine a path for sourcing ongoing content, updating
FAQs and template responses
7. Set expectations for measuring results
4/25/2013 27

28. ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES
ROLE RESPONSIBILITY OWNER(s) MAX TIME TO
RESPOND
Strategy Designs social media
strategy and content plan;
activates search campaigns;
measures results
Monitoring Builds, reviews and updates
daily monitors of social
conversations; reports on
changes
Response Responds to incoming posts
and drafts new responses
Approver Business and/or Legal staff
members that approves
messages

29. Step 6: Establish Success Metrics
MEASURE
Specific action requested
(Offline actions e.g. 800# calls, emails; Online actions e.g.: CTR, conversion goals;
Channel specific e.g.: @replies, comments)
Impact on volume of mentions/day
Ideal conversation theme(s)
% change in conversation theme(s)
(specify time period)
Audience reach
% Neutral or Positive acceptance of message
(conversation analysis, likes, RT, related mentions)
# of people assisted
Positive view of organization responsiveness
(ad hoc verbatim, # of posts)
Success metrics to measure the impact of your campaign.
Some examples are provided:

30. Example measures
Engagement metrics:
• Overall fans/friends/followers (weekly change rate, monthly change rate)
• Average or raw # likes
• Average or raw # of RT / shares
• Average or raw # of comments
• Average or raw # of clicks
• Specific Click-through-rate (CTR) to business page
• Impressions
• Virality score
Business Metrics:
• Brand impact
• Intent-to-purchase change
• Loyalty
• Sales figures
• Lead conversions
• Customer satisfaction
4/25/2013 30

31. Social Media Crisis Checklist:
 Use the organization’s core values as your guidepost
 State the purpose of social media response in your crisis
plan
 Do scenario planning
 Understand your audience
 Define your voice & engagement model
 Define a content strategy with SEO in mind
 Map your SM plan to media relations or other stakeholder
outreach activity
 Specify roles & responsibilities in a daily managing process
 Define metrics of success
31@heatherread

32. Thank you!
Heather D. Read
Program Manager, Social Media
DuPont
heather.d.read@dupont.com
@HeatherRead
@heatherread 32
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