The danger of public relations and social media (and by danger I mean opportunity)
No one wants to believe there will come a day when their brand will face a public relations disaster. But the truth is, even though we take all the precautions in the world, we now live in a digital age where the chance of facing a PR nightmare is higher than ever. With the power of new media platforms like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, the smallest of incidents can end up as instant phenomenas of unmitigated brand damage.
The question is, do you have a plan in place to monitor and potentially prevent a PR crisis? What about respond to a public outcry against your image?
Take for instance the recent story in which two former Domino’s employees posted videos of themselves doing disgusting things to food while on the job.
No prevention plan in the world could have protected the 50-year old pizza company from something like this happening. It was an unfortunate storm that involved rogue employees combined with the viral power of today’s social networks. In just a few short hours, a video was posted to YouTube, word quickly spread through Twitter and Facebook, and eventually traditional media outlets picked up on it. Overnight, Domino’s had taken a huge pie in the face.
So what did the company do in response to this calamity? Send out a verbose corporate press release that would only further publicize the humiliation against the brand? No.
Domino’s chose to take its response directly to the very outlets where the story spread in the first place. Representatives contacted bloggers who were spreading the story and gave personal responses decrying the actions of its employees. Company president Patrick Doyle posted a video apology on YouTube, and the company reached out and thanked the customers who alerted it to the incident—finally tracking down those involved through Twitter.
In other words, Domino’s took its message directly to the public with absolutely no veil. By all accounts, an effective response far above and beyond anything a press release could have done.
The circumstances may have been unique, but the lesson here isn’t. Just ask other long-established brands like Tropicana or Motrin about the power of the online crowd in spreading a backlash. It happened to them and it can happen to you.
If you haven’t done so already, the time must be sooner than later to ask yourself how well you’re prepared to monitor, prevent and respond if something similar were done to your brand. Are you doing enough to track conversations going on in social media to see what people are saying about you? Are you engaging with influencers and building relationships to know where to go to get a message spread quickly? What response plans do you have in place to react if a situation came knocking at your doorstep? If you haven’t asked yourself these questions then you need to start now. [insert shameless plug here] Oh yeah, ask us—we’d be happy to help.
