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Just social media crises, or crisis for social media as well?
twitter logo map 09 (Photo credit: The Next Web)
If you are a student of social media, its pleasure and pain points – by now you would be well aware of the ‘attacks’ or ‘hacks’ on the twitter accounts of prominent brands like @burgerking and @jeep.
You can read about the @bugerking part of the story here http://mashable.com/2013/02/18/burger-king-twitter-account-hacked at @mashable
Online attacks of such nature are not completely surprising, given that the cyber world is getting to another place for brands to fight and fist it out. This is a world where every countries are resorting to cyber-warefare, so why blame the poor brands and their online army who try out the best to bring down competition. (Fact is, such attacks on brand online properties will only see an upswing now on).
Yet, what came as a huge surprise was 140-character powerhouse twitters statement after these attacks on the likes of @burgerking and @jeep.
In a statement published at twitter’s blog, users of the platform were advised on how to keep their passwords secure, and the kind of computers one should etc. You may see the statement here http://blog.twitter.com/2013/02/a-friendly-reminder-about-password.html
Given the un-swerving loyalty of millions of users and thousands of brands across the globe to its platform, @twitter could have done well in also stating facts about how such attacks happen at the first place, and more than that, what preventive measures it plans to have in place to protect its users.
In addressing any crisis, it’s useful to caution the stakeholders and help such situations/incidents from recurring.
But, another cardinal rule in crisis management/communication is to be forthcoming & clear as to what went wrong in specific cases – a simple statement of facts and events leading to a crisis, and added to that assurance that incidents of similar nature will not recur.
It’s about being loud and clear that everything needed to protect the ‘information integrity’ of users will be done.
As of this moment, @twitter has missed the opportunity to win this battle post the hack of accounts like @burgerking and @jeep
Brands are all geared to watch for and handle social media crisis, and battle them. But the question also is what if social media platforms themselves become crisis-points?
Related articles
- Jeep Twitter Account Hacked, Joins @BurgerKing in Recent Attacks (abcnews.go.com)
- More brands compromised on twitter – now it’s MTV / BET & it’s faked (adland.tv)
- Is Twitter On Its Way To Experiencing Its Own Social Media Crisis? (melissaagnes.com)
- Twitter Hack: What to do if your brand is hacked (and it doesn’t mean following @BurgerKing) (blogs.vancouversun.com)
- Why Your Social Media Crisis Response Plan Should Start Yesterday (radian6.com)
Of papal resignation, PR & Communication!
English: Emblem of Vatican City Italiano: Emblema della Ciattà del Vaticano Македонски: Амблем на Ватикан {| cellspacing=”0″ style=”min-width:40em; color:#000; background:#ddd; border:1px solid #bbb; margin:.1em;” class=”layouttemplate” | style=”width:1.2em;height:1.2em;padding:.2em” | 20px |link=|center | style=”font-size:.85em; padding:.2em; vertical-align:middle” |This vector image was created with Inkscape. |} Emblem of Vatican City.svg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Pope Benedict has expressed his intent to move on, owing to palpable health reasons – and going by the looks of the visuals widely aired by television channels, it appears to be true.
Related articles
- How to Win a Tech Contract With The Vatican (forbes.com)
- Vatican Announces Pope’s Retirement (nbc15.com)
- Vatican says new pope to be elected before Easter (newsinfo.inquirer.net)
- Pope Benedict to resign, Vatican says (thestar.com)
Is your campus hiring, ‘social’ empowered?
We only keep hearing of how campus recruiters – companies chasing talent – have used the power of twitter to build their company brands, and also create loads of visibility for their campus recruitment initiatives.
Now, in 2013, its imminent that colleges use twitter to showcase their talent to the outside world – it’s important not just for the sake of doing it – but to position the campus, college/university and its students as great prospective employees.
Twitter and other social media are one of the ways colleges can make sure that they stand out – with the proliferation of science and professional colleges/universities in a country like India, and the reduced intake expected in the much sought after information technology/IT enabled services businesses, organizations no longer would want to visit campuses all and sundry. HR and hiring managers responsible for campus initiatives will only be choosier, and only be willing to look at institutes where the ‘ employ-ability’ factor is relatively very high.
So, it’s time that campuses, placement, coordinators and students took a plunge into how they can effectively use twitter to position their ‘brand’ as a place with students with diverse employ-ability skills, and hold great promise to organizations of the future, and the HR/hiring managers.
Campus hiring managers can look at even rolling out highlights of the student profile in various lines of study, tweet their placement brochure to all the targeted and top organizations, and exchange information on specifics of the skills looked for, the number of students with the targeted ‘employable skills’ and so on. The extent to which information can be showcased is only limited by the bouquet of skills sought for.
English: Infographic on how Social Media are being used, and how everything is changed by them. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Individual student accomplishments which are unique and note-worthy, case studies and research papers by the students, pod-casts where students showcase their unique skills and abilities… there are a host of variations that can go out through the twitter handle,
And with the power of student social networks, this kind of talent broadcast will give a great branding opportunity for the campus, its programs, and the talent they churn out.
With a little thought, mixed with the power of student innovation, this is one of the ways that campus branding initiatives will fetch long term positioning and talent visibility – drawing organizations like butterfly takes to flowers with honey.
So, is your campus brand (campus hiring program) on twitter and social media?
Does your campus program have the power of social?
Related articles
- Find Colleges – When to Plan a Campus Visit (bigfuture.collegeboard.org)
Online activism, India et al
Online activist… can you ignore me??
My country, India, has seen a spur of online activism in the recent few years, thanks to the growing disillusionment of the much touted urban middle class, and a perceived failure of the present country administration on a whole range of issues – from corruption, which has swept the carpet under the polity to law and order – where my sisters do not feel safe to step out late evenings, right at the heart of my national capital.
Some notable examples of recent online activism
- The movement, India against corruption which sprung into existence thanks to the moral leadership of Anna Hazare, has used online tools in a big way, to spread the message across, gather people, and consolidate views and crowd source protest ideas. On twitter, they have mad e of numerous handles, the primary one being @janlokpal, and successfully built opinions.
- In the protests against the recent moral assault and subsequent death of Delhi girl Nirbaya, by a gang of rogues on a moving bus, many groups and individuals used the social media to spread their angst against the establishment and the police, protesting consistent inaction. Some notable handles in this episode were activist @tajinderbagga who was the target of police action, and a girl activist who was arrested for joining the protests.
- Online activists crowd sourced strong protest against a Gurgaon hotel hosting a singing even of notable Punjabi singer Honey Singh, whose lyrics provoked anger for their lewd views on women, in the light of events after the death of brave girl Nirbhaya.
(just to illustrate a few; twitter handles selective and not exhaustive)
The increasing spread of information through social media, and a large number of concerted online and offline activists spreading information to garner support for any cause that affects the common man is a new trend that is catching up swiftly in India and neighboring countries as well.
The establishment and the stakeholders who are the target of such activism, either out of compliance and deference to the views of people, or out of the fear that a cascading effect of the information on them from online to offline to the houses to the streets, will impact the credibility – are partly giving in to some demands as a result of online activism.
While the measurement of the effects of online activism will be a bit farfetched as of now, the day is not far when social media mavens will also find out means by which the on the ground impact of such efforts can be quantified and the impact measured.
While in India, online activism has only sprung into action only in more recent times, globally, the trend is in place at least for the past decade, and is only increasing/bound to increase by the day as the social media has proven to be a platform for swift dissemination of real time breaking news and events, and in many countries where democracy is nonexistent or in peril, where mobile devices in the hands of the affected, disgruntled and victimized, are the only means by which they make messages go viral – and for the global media to take note.
There’s also a raging debate that’s been going on since a while on whether online activism is really a cause for worry across the globe – questioning the likely effect isolated groups can have on ground realities. Malcolm Gladwell’s article in The Newyorker of Oct 4, 2010 http://nyr.kr/ap4hO1 stirred a social hornets’ nest, inviting a flurry of responses to the statement “ Social media can’t provide what social change has always required”.
Amongst the many interesting debates as a reply to Gladwells story, Erum Haider from neighboring Pakistan made very relevant and sort of ‘local’ responses to why social activism will make an impact and will stay on, and gain more power if used appropriately, for the right causes too. http://bit.ly/arngfb
With a fair amount of confidence, and the emerging nature of polity and demography in this part of the globe, one can say, with a fair amount of confidence that ‘social activism’ is indeed here to stay, and gain more strength as the clock ticks.
If you are a social media maven, ‘social media activism’ making J must be in your armor as well.
By the way, is it in the things to watch for in 2013 in your trend-watching list?
You can also see a brief history of online activism here http://on.mash.to/qYMYUU
Related articles
- Mere Slacktivism (jilliancyork.com)
- Indian Rape Victim Inspires New Wave of Public Activism (theepochtimes.com)
- Is online activism an alternative to street action? (electionswatch.org)
- Take back the night – the anatomy of a protest (ndtv.com)
Wow.. this blog is now on Alltop..!
alltop-sticker (Photo credit: teamstickergiant)
Fantastic news! Public Relations Equity is now is now listed on Alltop, categorized under the Public relations topic. It’s quite an honor, actually. Why, you may wonder?
If you weren’t aware, Alltop is one of the most popular and respected content aggregators co-founded by the one and only Guy Kawasaki(the former chief evangelist of Apple).
All blog submissions are reviewed manually by intelligent humans, so as to filter out the fluff and maintain high quality content. Listed there, you’ll find all the top bloggers, thought leaders, and geeks from numerous different industries.
It’s a proud moment for Public Relations Equity to be out there… and that makes us think harder to churn out only the best in PR..!
Do you use Alltop? What do you think?
Related articles
- 14 Sources for Content Curation Inspiration (contentmarketinginstitute.com)
- Self-publishing and Guy Kawasaki (selfpubadvocate.wordpress.com)
- #MyStartupStory: Guy Kawasaki, Former Apple Chief Evangelist and Alltop Founder (hiscoxusa.com)
- In(tegrate) the Cloud 2012 Highlights (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)
@twitter handle – are you in the 30 minute response league?
English: jacket cover of Dominate your market with Twitter – UK edition (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Does you company have a dedicated and real time twitter handle for service to your customers? Be it for your product or service or promotion?
Well, if your answer is yes, then you are in a special 23% league! Yes. As per a survey by simplymeasuredthat’s the percentage of companies which have a service-handle on twitter!
But whats the point if you have a handle, and take eons to respond to your customers? Today, with social media at the touch of a mobile screen 24/7, every minute of delay in your response is adding up to the dissonance in the customer’s mind.
In the same survey, not many of those 23% companies responded to the tweets coming in, within 30 minutes!
And that is a big big fail!
So, have a service twitter handle only if you man it real-time and 24/7/365.
Else, don’t have one. Period.
Does your organisation have the soc-med ecosystem to pass the 30 minute response test?
If you say YES, you are in the 30-minute response league.
Related articles
- Top Brands Using Twitter for Customer Support (marketingprofs.com)
- Report: 23% Of Top Brands Have A Separate Twitter Account For Customer Service (marketingland.com)
- How to Handle a “Wine-er” on Social Media (wineglassmarketing.com)
- Social Customer Service Lessons from 280 Tweets Over 26 Days (radian6.com)
In public relations measurement, keep ‘context’, as a mantra!
Veracity with Tenacity: VVV Public Relations Firm Offers Guerrilla Marketing Revelations & White Hat Black PR To Take Down Corrupt Corporations With Truth (Photo credit: watchingfrogsboil)
How many times has someone walked up to your organization with this as a pitch – hey, look, you are working with xyzee agency, and I see that you are not getting optimal coverage across platforms : and to seemingly substantiate the claim presents the easy tool in the PR weaponry – the competitive news track?
The tendency of any management or internal communications team is to jump at the prospect of having more column cms’ and more clipping and mentions in prime time television media! At the quest of measurement of PR, the crucial parameter – context – is given a miss.
Stories about your organization or about your product, services or people, are not the media’s making… they are always your making – what PR does is to amplify the talking points, at the appropriate time, in the right context. And when the mention or coverage is apt enough, that is a winning communication that some pointless ‘friendly journo’ spiel on your product, which most in your target audience will attach little value to.
Both in the practice of PR (which now effectively is trans-media story telling), and in PR outcome measurement, CONTEXT is the thing to look for. Keep asking, if the media or social-mention of your brand or people, is in the right context in the right form/media.
Good to remember this – one column inch in the right place may be more relevant for your communications program, which a ten plus column inches in a media that does not anyway matter.
So, when someone comes in with a pitch which only speaks the language of quantity (measurement), ask you, whether it will impact to the power of context.
Remember, context is the most relevant and powerful PR measure mantra!
Related articles
- PR can’t be measured? You need a new agency (smokinggunpr.co.uk)
- How Come PR Gets No Respect? (mediabistro.com)
- PR garners better results (micahdorfner.wordpress.com)
- 7 Silly Mistakes to Stop Making in Your PR Pitches (hubspot.com)
- How the Evolution of PR Mingles With Content Marketing (hubspot.com)
Social media – Is there a crisis brewing somewhere out there?
#bdi Social Reputation Management Conference NYC March 2010 (Photo credit: ShashiBellamkonda)
Its become sort of fanciful or on the other extreme paranoia to keep chanting about an impending social media crisis, for the organization. To be ready to handle any social media crisis that will dent the reputation is now widely discussed and advised all over.
Yet, sometimes, it is not being prepared to handle of face such an event or online burst that is wanting – rather, it’s the vision or wherewithal to see a cropping up social media crisis for the organization and the ability to act post that, which is an impediment to effective crisis management.
So, what are some of the signs of a social media reputation hit, brewing in out there?!
- Is there any unusual buzz around your brand (product, service, or people within your team) in the online space? Do you see some strange mentions about any of these, which has not been noticed earlier? This is something which is a pointer that you must take cognizance of the social media buzz, and probe to what may have triggered this. Yes, there is a possibility that this could be positive buzz. But, the cardinal rule in social media reputation management is this – unusual buzz tends to be more inclined on the negative side. A service issue, or a misdemeanor by someone in your global team is more likely to generate a discussion or post, that something good.
- Has there been an event that has occurred somewhere, where you foresee a lot of buzz? Could be a part failure or lack of retail-end availability of your offering. Or just anything like that. Its imperative that you watch out the social media buzz in that region with alacrity. When you know that there could a negative buzz coming in, its easy to deploy the necessary people and tools, and take up and address queries, and have a social-response hierarchy in place – effectively dousing the negative buzz, before it flames your reputation.
- Has someone in your senior team, be it even your CEO or someone in the top echelons of the organization erred in the manner in which some issue has been communicated to the media, or even in an one of one interview, which has been quoted out of context, and is beginning to set a negative reputation spiral? Good reputation managers, backed by their real-time experience can see the coming in such situations. In such cases, it’s easy to be prepared with an effective response, and even post it to all media, and in all social destinations, and then also handle individual queries on a case by case basis, as the situation or kind of media demands.
Here are just three illustrations that give the reputation manager or social media commander a feel of what could be coming in, and how it must be handled effectively to ward off an evil strike at the reputation base of the organization.
Logically, these can be extended to more permutations and combinations across geographies and various social destinations to serve as reputation hit forecasts.
Related articles
- Designing a Social Media Policy That Actually Works in a Crisis (cksyme.org)
- A List of Do NOTs to Include Within Your Social Media Crisis Plan (melissaagnes.com)
- Putting Social Media to Work: An HBR.org Insight Center (blogs.hbr.org)
- CKSyme.org – 5 Elements To Have In Place Before A Crisis Hits (cksyme.org)
- A #CustomerExperience Everyone Will “Like”! (avaya.com)
Wild ‘out-sourcing’ of “reputation”, or ‘owned’ engagement?
English: Reputation management graphic that breaks down the elements of reputation management and how they fit together. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This might sound banal, but this is a harsh reality that can be re-stated a hundred times – the advent of social media, and its proliferation in our lives, has completely morphed the face of contemporary public relations!
Earlier on, even a couple of years back, we communication professionals worked in our own silos, even cutting off from the ground realities of the organization and the media landscape out there! It was a closed world, and the PR folk determined what can be and must be communicated to the rest of the world – and the tools like media briefings and press conferences came in handy in this one sided communication! Even better, PR enjoyed the luxury of entertaining and enjoying the luxury of selective coverage with ‘cultivated’ media (in my opinion, that’s a huge fail – there is nothing like cultivated media – you only get as much mention as your content-worthiness!)
With the arrival of the social world, those small joys are dead and gone! It’s a democracy of communication both within and outside the organization – the people in your company, and those in the outside world are more informed, and in no time, by the power of social.
You may shy away from conversation; and you may think you do so for the right reasons! Even as you do that, the tools of the social world are making sure that somewhere out there, there are a hundred other voices cooking up a storm in your reputation tea-cup! If you are not pro-active in informing first, and creating engagement islets with all your stakeholders, then your reputation management is being unwittingly outsourced by you to the entire world!
If you are in today’s public relations business and doing something akin to the above, you must be crazy. And not that, at stake is your own reputation?! Saner communication professionals will never do that!
Step forward, communicate first and right, and willingly engage… when you do that, you own the engagement, or if not own, you are well in control of your reputation!
Own the engagement, and never ever outsource reputation management – willingly or unwillingly!
Related articles
- Virtual Image: A Closer Look (naseemspeaks.wordpress.com)
- Social Media Crisis Management For the Skeptical Corporates: 4 Essential Steps (melissaagnes.com)
- How The Best Brands Create The Best Reputation Online (veribo.com)
- ONLINE REPUTATION UPDATE: Reputation Management Companies Offer Essential Services to Global Community (prweb.com)
Agility ‘myopia’ – will your social media plan ever help?
Social Media Cafe (Photo credit: Cristiano Betta)
Organizations’ round the world are slowly adopting to the brutal embrace of the social media. The word brutal might sound crude, yet, that is only to signify the powerful impact the medium has on how contemporary business is done, and how customers across every business are gathering real-time information of your products, services and people!
As a matter of fact, it will not be an exaggeration to say that your customer knows better than you, or your product/service or people, more that you; not just that, the customer gets to know it faster that you.
Once the customer gets to know – by virtue of your brick and mortar touch points – they could be your product performance, your people response, or your service credential, he gets online and shares this knowledge to the world – by a blog, a podcast, a tweet or a face-book post… any tool that comes in handy to him at the click of a mouse.
Speed or call it ‘agility’, is the mantra. And your organization being ready to embrace the power of social also means that you are willing to engage in conversations real-time, round the clock, and round the year!
Most organizations miss this point – they have a social media plan, yet, the system is steeped in old world bureaucracy – the social team, or the team that is meant to respond real-time is a victim to the rigor of seeking approvals from the higher ups – who are completely myopic to the power of agility in social media. When the need is to swiftly respond, they engage in internal debates on the how and when, and sometimes the tangible benefits/losses and the ‘budgetary’ impact of the actions to be taken.
Little do these agility-myopic people realize that there is a negative spiral out there swallowing the reputation of the organization, one bite a second (or is it faster?!). In this age and world of 24/7 social, your hard-built reputation is at stake, every minute you are embroiled in useless bureaucracy!
Social media is not for the agility myopic – if your organization has a well made social play-book, yet does not have the culture of agility or is not willing to swiftly embrace the ‘agility culture’, then there is one way out – throw the social play book in the dustbin, and get back to business as usual.
May sound rude, yet, that’s the harsh reality – the social space is NOT for those with agility myopia!
Related articles
- 7 Reasons Agile Marketers Are Better at Their Jobs Than You (hubspot.com)
- The Power of Agile Thinking (greatfinds.icrossing.com)
- 7 Reasons Agile Marketers Are Better at Their Jobs Than You (rpmgr.com)
- Customer Experience Update: 11/3/2012 (businesstechnologypartner.wordpress.com)
