3. Swine Flu (aka H1N1)
In today’s 24/7 media world, any crisis can
become an online crisis……
and many crisis situations start online
4. What should you do?
• The longer you wait to fight back or answer
critics, the more likely it is you will lose
control of the message and situation
• But you need to fight back in a thoughtful,
strategic and planned way
Irreparable harm?
All businesses have crisis situations….
• In most cases those situations won’t spell
the end of a business – but they can cause
serious short term damage
5. Plan BEFORE a crisis occurs
• Are you doing positive things right now –
and sharing that news?
• What are your most likely crisis scenarios?
• Do you have a plan to deal with them?
• Have you trained key people?
This includes:
Dark site
• Already populated with content & info
Established social media accounts
• Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
6. This includes:
Online media monitoring – all the time
• Free and / or paid monitoring
Analyze:
• Trends
• Complaints
• Unusual events
Three basic rules
Tell:
• What happened
• Why it happened
• What you’re going to do about it
7. And then…….
Do it and update people
Getting Rid of Negative Comments
• Don’t overreact
• Can’t entirely eliminate
• But you may want to bump the negative
listings down in the search engine results
8. So…….how do businesses / organizations
use social media to deal with crisis
situations?
Miracle on the Hudson
@jkrums
Janis Krums January 15, 2009
There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry
going to pick up the people. Crazy.
9. This was his picture
Miracle on the Hudson
• First photo posted
• 34 minutes later – being interviewed by
mainstream media
• 40,000 web users saw his photo in the first
four hours
• 100 screens full of replies
10. What did US Airways do?
• Focused on the situation
• Apparently did not use social media at that
time (remember, it was January 2009)
Domino’s Video Scandal
11. What happened?
• Two employee videos went viral
- one million+ views in 2 days!
• Domino’s fired the employees & called in
the health department and hoped that
would do it
What did Domino’s do?
Realized that strategy wouldn’t work – so
developed a new strategy based on
aggressive use of social media
• Acknowledged the situation
• Expressed concern
• Promised to address it
12. What did Domino’s do?
• Created & used a Twitter account
• Posted a YouTube video by CEO
Domino’s video
14. What did JetBlue do?
• Silent for 2 days
• Began losing control of the situation
• THEN…..they jumped in; in a very
strategic way
What did JetBlue do?
Posted 140 words on their blog:
• Acknowledged it was weird
• Response was consistent with its brand
• Didn’t defend itself
• Responding only in their blog guaranteed
distribution across social media channels
15. What did Jet Blue do?
Monitored, monitored, monitored
• 460% spike in social media conversations
• Most neutral trending positive
16. What did the CDC do?
• Realized the situation was global; not just
local
• Responded quickly
• And….as it was doing so, it re-named the
flu H1N1
What did the CDC do?
Embraced social media in order to lead the
conversation
• Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, blogs,
YouTube, mobile, email updates, e-cards,
e-games, podcasts, widget and a
dedicated online channel CDC-TV
17. What did the CDC do?
• Created and distributed content that they
encouraged others to use and pass on
• They ENGAGED others to spread the word
for them; as a result they led the
discussion and information
18. A few other examples…..
• Lance Armstrong
• Kewaunee School District
Lessons learned
• Don’t wait for a crisis to communicate and
engage
• Plan ahead
• Respond quickly, but not instantly
• Tell what happened, why it happened &
what you’re going to do about it
19. Lessons learned
• Engage your audiences; ask for their help
• Provide updates
• Fix what you can
• Move on when you can
Research & Sources:
• Lfpublicrelations.com
• Socialtimes.com
• Imediaconnection.com
• Continuitycentral.com
• Gigaom.com
• Blueglass.com
20. Thank you!
Leonard & Finco Public Relations, Inc.
920-965-7750
LFpublicrelations.com
sfinco@LFpublicrelations.com