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  • Oh no!
  • They didn’t do that!
  • Not us, please not us!
  • It’s on YouTube, oh shit!

These are just a few lines that I’m sure are repeated after a crisis hits a company. I’m sure the Toyota folks are hearing these statements with the recent recall of the gas pedal on its cars. In 2009 – we saw Whole Foods, Tropicana, Dominos Pizza and a slew of other companies run into crisis situations as well. I decided to blog about Social Media and Crisis Management for two reasons. One, because I think it’s important to understand how social media fits into crisis management. Two, because as we travel through 2010 I’m confident that crisis management will become as a social media service offering.

First – let’s distinguish between the crisis Toyota is encountering versus the one Domino’s Pizza met last year. Both problems deal with something that has gone wrong. In Toyota’s case (gas pedals) in Domino’s case (employees doing things they shouldn’t) but beyond that comparison both crisis situations are very different. Toyota’s crisis is what I would term a “brick & motor crisis.” One that originated and is vastly taking place outside the internet. Are there areas that Toyota can use social media channels and tactics to help the public, yes. Two channel suggestions would be Twitter and YouTube. I would suggest using Twitter to spread quick informative information to customers as fast as possible ( how do I stop the car if the pedal is stuck).

Priority number one for Toyota to fix the problem and then begin a slow process: Listening, Helping and Talking to consumers.

The Domino’s crisis situation (where two employees were doing some pretty disgusting things to pizzas and posted it on YouTube) is what I would term a “social ecosystem crisis.” Stick with me on this, I’m not a huge fan of jargon type terms but I have given this one a lot of thought. Was this crisis beyond Domino’s control? Probably yes, but this crisis took place within Domino’s social media ecosystem and spread through it.

Definition of a social media ecosystem: The social media channels internal and external that a company has messages, content and actions in.

Can you blame Domino’s for not having better control over this ecosystem, maybe. I’m not trying to be a salesman here, but this is why understanding, defining and listening to your company’s social media ecosystem is so important. For example: These employees might have posted videos prior to this one. If Domino’s had correctly identified and defined its advocates and detractors within its ecosystem they may have been able to prevent this.

For practical purposes let’s say that Domino’s couldn’t have prevented this – the case remains. If a company understands and has defined its social media ecosystem then the crisis management for something like this is easy to perform. Domino’s could have begun sending messages, content and actions through its ecosystem to nip the problem on day 1. They could have used advocates to spread their response to the issue and solve the problem a lot sooner than they did.

In the future it will be absolutely paramount for companies to understand and define their social media ecosystem. This ecosystem is like a supply chain to a manufacturing company. With the growth of social media channels, mobile devices and the sheer number of people  companies need to adapt.