1.
Protecting Your Brand Message in
Media Controlled by the Audience
Leslie Poston
Senior Brand Journalist, salesforce radian6
@leslie
In/leslieposton

2.
Introduction
It’s often said that what’s said online stays online – forever.
Social media gives the power of global publishing to all, but
with that also comes the power to disrupt and hijack a
brand’s message. This session will look at proactive ways
you can develop and execute your message strategy so
that it is less likely to be taken over by the audience in a
negative way. Additionally we will look at the best ways to
respond to a hostile message takeover without
exacerbating the situation.

3.
Clear Social Guidelines Help A Regulated
Brand Avoid Pitfalls
• Involve Legal
• Involve Human Resources
• Pay attention to regulatory laws outside of marketing
• Operate with full disclosure
• Train all staff appropriately
• Have regular fire drills for crisis management plans
• Have refresher training for day to day engagement
• Focus on content and community to prevent crisis

4.
Use Your Metrics to Catch The Crisis Early

5.
Use Your Metrics to Catch The Crisis Early

6.
Most crises are external in origin
Are you prepared for an internal crisis also?

7.
Did you know… things you can’t put in
your social media policy
• Restrictions on employee personal social sites or profiles
• Restrictions on employee use of social media during
company time
• Employees “friending” each other
• Employees speaking negatively about the company
• Fair use of trademarks
• Employees speaking to the press, especially about labor
disputes
• More from the NLRB on pitfalls to avoid in social media
policy to avoid a crisis

8.
Radian6 Offers a Social Media Crisis
Management Blueprint

9.
Use Your Crisis Response Team to Triage a
Crisis from the Moment it Begins

10.
Tools For Crisis Management
• All-Star Crisis Management Ebook with Downloadable
Flow Chart and Crisis Team Template
• Surprise Fire Drills
• Regular Engagement
• Social Media Guidelines for Employee Conduct for the
Brand
• Social Media Policy
• Social Media Strategy (cross departmental)
• Intra-company Social Enterprise Practices (no silos)
• Top-down Buy-in

11.
Let’s walk through a sample crisis
• First response sets the tone
• Deploy team org chart procedure to respond from the right
person on the right platform quickly and in the right tone
• Triage crisis level (dark website/CEO response or guided
level engagement approach)
• Measure metrics of crisis as it unfolds, track sentiment
around responses and brand
• Deploy triage tactics, new engagement and relevant
content at regular intervals to begin to corral, calm and
control the situation quickly
• Begin to guide the crisis offline
• Follow up!

12.
What kind of audience is on social media?
• 40% of Americans go online to forums and discussion
groups for health advice from their peers
• 60% of those who research new doctors online are women
• Customers like this cancer patient from Nebraska Medical
Center go online to tell their health care stories on the
hospital’s YouTube site
• UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital used social media to
amplify fundraising for Challenge for Children to reach $1
million (original goal $100K)
• 71% of applicants to new medical positions discover and
respond to jobs online
• Doctors do 40% of their research for patient care online

13.
Healthcare Crisis Management Examples
Scott and White Health Care Motrin Moms
Responded to shooting at nearby Fort Hood Motrin Moms was one of the early
via social media citizen outreach. examples of a health product crisis that
bloomed on social media, and still used as
By keeping citizens informed and directing an example because of the lack of
them to the right resources, they grew their engagement from Motrin.
online audience with a 78% Twitter follower
increase and a jump in rank to the 79th most While taking the ad down was a good
viewed non-profit channel for the week – response, targeted engagement may have
without marketing. diffused the problem before it spread.

14.
Protecting Your Brand Message in
Media Controlled by the Audience
Leslie Poston
Senior Brand Journalist, salesforce radian6
@leslie
In/leslieposton