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13Mar/110

Case: Dell adapting to the importance of active listening

From socialbrands100.com:

We all remember the ‘Dell Hell’ of 2005, where journalist and blogger Jeff Jarvis vented about his frustrating dealings with Dell on his blog. This sparked a ‘blog storm’ as Dell consumers with similar frustrations linked to Jarvis’ blog, which eventually received widespread press coverage.

In a 2007 BusinessWeek article ‘Dell learns to listen’ Jarvis visits Dell and spends time with CEO Michael Dell to take stock of the company’s efforts in engaging with its consumers and the wider community. He opens the article with the statement that ‘[i]n the age of customers empowered by blogs and social media, Dell has leapt from worst to first’.

The Social Brands 100 was compiled over a period of three months with the contribution of an external panel of social experts drawn from business, academia, media and communications, and Brandwatch, the social media analytics data provider.

Filed under: Case, Conversation, Crisis Communication Procedures, Report, Searching & monitoring No Comments
1Dec/100

How to manage your inevitable social media crisis

I used to work for an airline (Virgin Express, sold to SN Brussels Airlines in 2004) and one of the things we did on a regular basis, was do a dry-run of our crisis procedures. The scenarios themselves always tended to have some really unexpected turns in them, but the basic principles were always the same, like making sure you get the list of victims’ names first to their families, so they don’t have to hear from mainstream media that someone they know was in an airline accident. This is why I think it’s weird that most social media horror stories about companies not being able to respond during crises come from travel companies, like Air Canada, JetBlue, or Eurostar. All these companies probably rehearse their crisis communication procedures like we used to, but I think these horror stories illustrate that they haven’t been adapted yet to the speed of modern-day communication.
This is why you should update your crisis communication procedure if you have one, or create one if you’re without. I know it sounds cliché, but it’s better to decide who does what before a crisis happens.
Edelman Digital's David Armano (@armano) has some interesting thoughts about Social Media Scenario Planning and how to manage your inevitable social media crisis.
Key takeaways:
  1. Plan For Multiple Scenarios: document the plan, then translate it into guidelines and put it in a place where everyone who maintains your social presence can access it. Update it regularly.
  2. Practice "Social Media Fire-drills": replicate a crisis situation that you've seen happen to a competitor and make up ones you have not seen before.
  3. Forget The Silos: at minimum, set up a direct line of communication where stakeholders of each core discipline can be alerted the moment a scenario erupts and ensure that the group has some way to connect with each other. Even an old fashioned e-mail alias can help here.
  4. Create "Dark Pages" that can be launched and customized at the click of a button when an attack or unfavorable scenario arises.
  5. Be Ready For Anything: start planning for multiple scenarios the minute you decide you want to "be social" and expect that anything and everything will happen.

Further reading:

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