It’s ultimately what everyone from the one-man band to the household brand is dreading – a negative review, comment or news story. Careful planning and an honest mind are essentially the basic steps to avoiding this, but not everyone can get it right. We can however learn from their mistakes and follow basic steps to leave your worries behind…
When Habitat UK decided to jump on the Twitter bandwagon in June they spotted what they thought would be a great way of appearing in popular search – by adding #hashtags at the beginning of their Tweets…that had absolutely nothing to do with them! Even inserting keywords linked to the current state of unrest in Iran which, lets be honest, should be against any corporate policy.
What was @HabitatUKs response when they were found out? (Set your face to shock) They deleted the offending Tweets and released a statement blaming an intern a few days later. Ouch.
“The hashtags were uploaded without Habitat’s authorisation by an overenthusiastic intern who did not fully understand the ramifications of his actions,” a spokesman said.
In contrast, Dell has seen nothing but positive coverage about their customer service response team working on Twitter. They employ two people full-time to scan and monitor the social networking scene for any complaints or reported issues and deal with them quickly. Hey presto!
So what could HabitatUK have learnt from Dell and how you should act in a crisis…
- Firstly, immediately apologise by releasing a statement
- Admit to the mistake – don’t pass the blame on an intern
- @replied everyone who made a comment to them about using #hashtags
- Internally build an action plan to ensure this never happens again
- Run a campaign on Twitter to improve communications and build brand within the community
As you can see, it’s not rocket science! Yes social networking is a great, instant promotional tool to integrate but while it’s in the early stages, mistakes are easily made because companies expect instant results. Just like traditional PR, advertising and any other type of marketing…reputation is developed over a long period of time but can be ruined in minutes. Take care, check and double-check please.
Lauren
Unreal Online PR and Marketing 
Hey Lauren,
I have directed in and acted in over 40 movies in the US and Netflix has picked up a couple titles that should also be in stores nationwide and in Canada as well by October.
I need exposure both as a actor and as a filmmaker. I heard about online PR people about 5 months ago but had no idea how to go about finding one. Then I saw you on Twitter, that’s why I wrote – I’m curious and interested. I would like us to work together.
Thanks,Taylor
Hi Lauren,
Useful post and great examples. Of course Dell did learn the hard way when they treated a certain blogger called Jeff Jarvis badly way back when and ended up wiping billions off its stock! Great to see them getting it right now! Hopefully Habitat will learn.
One important consideration, there is a big difference between a bad review or comment – which presumably fairly reflects the personal opinion of the author, and a negative news story.
We published comments that differ from our viewpoint and have dealt generously with quite robust ones at times. Giving them equal billing as positive comments is a great way to promote your integrity.
Similarly on Twitter, we encourage clients not to freak at negativity, but to welcome it as feedback.
A news story can be a different fish. Here is where a crisis management plan (I’m sure everyone has one!) kicks in and your response (not reaction) is measured and tailored to minimise the damage.
Hi Nigel
Thank you for getting in touch and adding some extremely valuable points. I especially agree with the emphasis you placed upon the difference between a bad review and a negative news story.
Integrity is one of the most difficult elements for a company/PR to demonstrate and maintain. Your Twitter suggestion is a method I would suggest also. As long as there is pro-active communication, I would see this is as a positive action.
For a final thought – we would all like to think everyone has a crisis management plan but I believe this is far from the truth. I will be posting some new material in due course on a study I undertook about crisis planning in airports.
Best,
Lauren