Keynote for the 2013 GetSocial Conference in Dublin, Ireland - October 2013.

1. SOCIAL CRISES:
BEST PRACTICES, CAUTIONARY TALES
ERIC WEAVER • SVP STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE • IPG MEDIABRANDS
GETSOCIAL 2013

2. SOCIAL CRISES: THE PROBLEM
Consumers have a powerful voice,
creating 66% of all touchpoints
(McKinsey Consumer Decision Journey, 2009)
Consumers trust each other far
more than marketers
(Edelman Trust Barometer)
Social amplifies information,
whether right or wrong
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Speed of impact is faster than most
companies are ready to deal with
Executives: “we’re safe” or “it’s a
five-alarm fire”
2

3. SOCIAL CRISES
ARE GROWING
YEAR-OVER-YEAR
Most companies are deaf to social, ill-prepared
to respond, and are too slow to prevent
reputational damage
Crises impact organisations across a widerange of industries – food, fashion, autos,
banking, government

4. IT’S NOT A MATTER OF “IF” –
IT’S A MATTER OF WHEN.

5. *+,-../01,./2345678+%
2007:
CONSUMERS
HAVE THE
POWER TO
CHANGE
PUBLIC
PERCEPTION
OF YOUR FIRM

6. AND EMPLOYEES CAN
CREATE REAL
FINANCIAL DAMAGE
Employees share YouTube
video of pizza employee
violating food for delivery
Sales plummet
CEO issues public apology on
YouTube (but fails to go further)
Incident reflected in stock report
– PizzaHut takes $2MM
insurance hit
Crisis Team created
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7. CREATIVE, NEGATIVE
CONTENT CAN RANK
IN SEARCH RESULTS
AND CAN LINGER FOR
YEARS
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8. ABC%D)C'%
HIJACKED HASHTAGS
In 2012, McDonald’s began
posting tweets aimed at soliciting
heartwarming stories from
customers
Paid for promoted tweet
“Bashtag” got pulled within two
hours – 68% of first 1600 tweets
were negative
Negative backlash got covered in
Huffington Post, Los Angeles
Times, Forbes, the Telegraph,
Mashable, and the UK Daily Mail
ABC%$CEF"(ECE%

9. SPOTLIGHT
SEEKER STIRS
UP ANTIPATHY
9

10. SELF-INFLICTED:
POSTING ERRORS
Hundreds of tweets of disapproval
No apology for hours
Write-ups in IrishTimes, Guardian,
US business press

11. SELF-INFLICTED:
POOR TIMING
Carnival Corp says it will “go
dark” out of respect to Costa
Concordia incident
Next day, tweets a happy
“#FF” to loyal brand fans
Shortly after, Costa offers a
30% discount to cruise
survivors for “staying loyal”
Massive backlash in
mainstream media

12. ANGRY CUSTOMER
BUYS PAID MEDIA
Paid USD $1000
Results: 76,000 impressions, 46,000
engagements, media coverage in
BBC News, London Daily Mail, The
Telegraph, Business Insider, AdAge,
CNN, New York Post, NBC News,
Time.com, The Independent, Times
of India, Yahoo! News,
FinancialTimes.com…
…and finally, an apology from BA.
12

13. CGFH"!CC%'IJ("KHC)LCE%C$$"$%
FINALLY – SOMEONE
HANDLES CRISES WELL
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14. THE LIFE
CYCLE OF A
SOCIAL
CRISIS

15. FIRST, DETERMINE CASES THAT FIT INTO
FIVE LEVELS OF SEVERITY
Based on reputational impact and public
visibility:
LEVEL 1: limited reputation impact, limited
audience.
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LEVEL 2: moderate reputation impact, limited
audience.
LEVEL 4: severe reputation impact, regional
media exposure.
LEVEL 5: extreme impact reputation with
extensive media exposure.
What actions should be taken at each level?
Who should speak on our behalf?
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LEVEL 3: moderate reputation impact, local
media exposure.
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16. PREPLAN COMMON SCENARIOS
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17. LISTENING TEAM
MONITORS
SOCIAL
CHANNELS
SET UP A
CRISIS
WORKFLOW
CRISIS TEAM ASSESS IMPACT
POTENTIAL CRISIS
IDENTIFIED
LEVEL 5:
EXTREME IMPACT / WIDE AUDIENCE
LEVEL 4:
SEVERE IMPACT / REGIONAL MEDIA
LEVEL 3:
MODERATE IMPACT / LOCAL MEDIA
CRISIS TEAM
REVIEWS INCIDENT
LEVEL 2:
MODERATE IMPACT / LIMITED AUDIENCE
LEVEL 1:
LIMITED IMPACT / LIMITED AUDIENCE
CONTINUE TO
MONITOR (24
HRS)
NO
POTENTIAL
REPUTATIONAL
IMPACT?
RESPOND & MONITOR PER RACI
YES
ISSUE
RESOLVED
?
NO
POTENTIAL
HIGH
VISIBILITY?
YES
YES
RETURN TO NORMAL
BUSINESS
OPERATIONS
CRISIS TEAM
CONDUCTS CRISIS
PREVENTION POSTMORTEM
NO

18. CREATE A SOCIAL PLAYBOOK AND TRAIN YOUR TEAM
SOCIAL TEAM RESPONSE:
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“Reilly, that sounds awful. Did you let the store manager know? Either
way, please call us at 00353 14967162, Mon-Fri, 0700-1600. Our policy
is to always have a spotless restaurant where customers feel welcome
and comfortable. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
“You can also click the Message button above and I can discuss the
incident with you via Facebook messaging.”
"MMC$%'EEDEA'(IC%

19. CREATE A CRISIS “RACI”
Crisis Team should include Corporate
Communications, Marcomms, Legal, Operations,
Customer Service, Investor Relations, Human
Resources and members of the executive team.
Crisis Team determine the crisis level, alert
appropriate internal contacts and escalate critical
issues as they occur.
Media and bloggers are routed to Corp Comms as
most employees might not be aware of the
potential repercussions in their discussions.
Listening Team also responsible for making sure
that the Crisis Team is aware of the latest crisis
information and online commentary.
LEVEL 5
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LEVEL 4
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•! `N+A$%&(H->*+
•! `N+X(&?%H><+@-''#>;)(H->*+
•! "(9%/2+W%$(&/'%>/+
LEVEL 3
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•! `N+A$%&(H->*+
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LEVEL 1
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20. ALL CUSTOMER-FACING DEPARTMENTS
(Marketing, PR, Customer Care, IR, HR, etc.)
know how to triage, process and effectively
handle social crises – mitigating them before
they explode
WHEN WE DO IT
RIGHT…
FEWER MISSTEPS from lack of internal realtime knowledge sharing
UNIFIED MESSAGE and presentation to the
press and the public
Loud, unruly or ILL-INFORMED VOICES ARE
DISEMPOWERED because the brand is
speaking within the same channels
Trained employees REDUCE FINANCIAL RISK,
because unnecessary costs in reputation, brand
value, personnel time are reduced
20

21. *+,-../01,.8@416?6[<>[:363<,[6,%

22. HAVE SOCIAL MEDIA WATER FOR SOCIAL MEDIA FIRES*
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23. FINAL THOUGHT:
POSITIVE CONTENT WILL REMAIN IN
GOOGLE FOR YEARS AS WELL, BECAUSE
GOOGLE <3’S ENGAGEMENT

24. 24

25. *+,-../01,.*=+63?76^6[73?=[_%
25

26. *+,-../01,.`<8?*6[%
DON’T WAIT.
HAVE A PLAN
BEFORE THIS
HAPPENS TO
YOUR BRAND

27. THANK YOU.
@WEAVE
MEDIABRANDS.COM