What Responsibility Do Social Media Users Have During a Crisis? Peter Shankman is the founder of HARO and is generally regarded as one of the top social media consultants and marketing speakers working today. His clients include Saudi Aramco, NASA, The U.S. Government, Haworth, Disney, Foley-Hoag, American Express, and countless others. He blogs at shankman.com. From the moment the first jolt was felt in Tokyo, there was no doubt — the earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent tragedy was going to play out first on the social web, and second on television.
Within an hour of the 8.9 magnitude earthquake, which occurred on a bright afternoon in Japan, Twitter updates were flying out of Asia at the rate of over 1,200 per minute, while Facebook posts, photos, videos, and blog updates were streaming in just behind. As my CNN News alert hit my iPad, my first inclination wasn’t to turn on the TV, but rather go to the Facebook walls of my many friends in Tokyo to see if they were alright. With that awesome ability, however, comes responsibility. Guy Who Lost Job Over Chrysler Tweet Speaks Up. Posted by Shelly Kramer on March 17, 2011 · 74 Comments Last week, an employee of New Media Strategies, the firm who handled the Chrysler social media account, accidentally tweeted from the Chrysler account during his morning commute and dropped the F-bomb. That tweet ultimately led to him not only being fired, but to the agency handling the account being handed their walking papers as well. Gini Dietrich wrote a terrific blog post about the Chrysler tweet and in it, shared one of her early mistakes – and how much she learned from that incident.
That post made me reflect on my own early agency days and a huge mistake made by a friend. Well, as anyone knows, FedEx records are easily trackable – and in just a short amount of time, it was widely known that he lied. Whether we like to admit it or not, we’re all human and we ALL make mistakes. My original take on the situation was pretty harsh. But after thinking about it for a week or so, I’m not sure I still agree. Social media in a time of need. The Red Cross and the Los Angeles Fire Department have been at the forefront of adopting social media in crisis response. That’s not entirely by choice, given that news of disasters has consistently broken first on Twitter. The challenge is for the men and women entrusted with coordinating response to identify signals in the noise. Public expectations for those staff are high, as research released by the Red Cross on at the Emergency Social Data Summit last year showed. Nearly half of respondents ask for help on social media and 3 in 4 would expect help to arrive within the hour.
At present, those high expectations don’t always match up with the capabilities that first responders possess. Some tools, such as the Red Cross shelter web app and the Shelter View iOS app, allow the public to access information. The Red Cross is working on building better filtering tools and mapping geotagged updates to help improve their situational awareness, said Riggen. Related: Citizen Tech: Social Media in Disaster Response. Today I’m in San Antonio, Texas, for the American College of Preventive Medicine annual conference. I’m joining a panel to talk about the response for support after the Haiti earthquakes last year. My contribution to the panel is to provide context about the use of social media in emergency and disaster response as well as an overview of some of the tools we saw deployed last year and we may see in the future.
Citizen-Powered Response According to the American Red Cross, A recent Red Cross survey asked 1,058 adults about their use of social media sites in emergency situations. Social media, like all technology, is developed by people. Direct Content The first example of direct content is the use of Wikipedia during the 7/7 bombings in London. What’s so important or interesting about this?
Another direct content example is that of the number of websites that emerged post-Hurricane Katrina. Indirect Content Now for indirect content or Mash-ups. Why Social Media? Examples from Haiti What’s Next? Red Cross and Taco Bell - A Social Media Dichotomy. In a span of a few days, two major companies/organizations showed us how and how not to do Social Media... this is the dichotomy between the Red Cross & Taco Bell.
On February 15th the following Tweet appeared on the Red Cross Twitter account: Needless to say this is not exactly the kind of message one would expect to emanate from the Red Cross. Turns out Gloria Huang, a Red Cross social media specialist, inadvertently posted this from the Red Cross Twitter account, instead of from her own personal Twitter account as she had planned all along. Huang blamed the gaffe on her lack of facility with Hootsuite and eventually Tweeted this from her personal account... Now, instead of putting their head in the Social Media sand and trying to run and hide from their mistake, the Red Cross came clean, displaying openness and transparency at its finest...
To further demonstrate how a negative can be turned into a positive when people just come clean, admit their mistakes and yes, make light of them... » Twitter Faux Pas. Posted on February 16th, 2011 by Wendy Harman Last night we accidentally tweeted from our @RedCross account something that was meant to come from a personal account. Here’s what it looked like: We realized our honest mistake (the Tweeter was not drunk) and deleted the above Tweet. We all know that it’s impossible to really delete a tweet like this, so we acknowledged our mistake: In the meantime we found so many of you to be sympathetic and understanding. While we’re a 130 year old humanitarian organization, we’re also made of up human beings.
You immediately embraced this mix-up and many of you have pledged donations to the Red Cross: Huge thanks to Dogfish Head Brewery and the micro brew community for encouraging donations. 2 words of caution: You’ll want to space out giving a pint of blood and drinking a pint of beer for health reasons.Be careful of Hootsuite! Filed under: Uncategorized. Kenneth Cole & Every CEO: This Is Your Social Media Wakeup Call. Your phone rings, and a voice loudly tells you: “Hello, this is your Social Media wakeup call. Get up, and don’t ever sleep through that alarm again. Do you hear me?!” An almost unbelievable situation unfolded on the Social Web today. I began seeing Tweets, Facebook Wall updates, comments, blog posts and private messages alerting the entire world to the fact that Kenneth Cole, a major brand name for many years, had Tweeted the following via their Twitter account: “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo.
What? I was shocked at the insensitivity and clueless nature of a post like this. The next move I saw was another Tweet, allegedly from Kenneth Cole himself: I somehow missed the appropriate major apologetic response, so I Tweeted the following response to KC, or Kenneth Cole: The next we heard from Kenneth Cole was this on the brand’s Facebook Page, tucked back in the Discussions Tab: I offer that advice to all of you, too, along with the following:
Southwest Airlines Social Media Strategy – Lessons for All Organizations. Southwest Airlines Communication Specialist Laurel Moffat spoke on the airline’s successful social media strategy at a January 25 Kansas City American Marketing Association lunch event. While the presentation was overly heavy on how many fans and followers Southwest Airlines has, underneath, there were many beneficial insights and lessons only a brand experienced in social media can provide. The great thing was Laurel’s social media lessons apply to smaller organizations as well: Big or Small, “Listen and Personalize” Is Fundamental Laurel’s recommendation was “listen first,” which is a fundamental lesson for any organization. Listening provides an understanding of content that’s meaningful and appropriate for your audiences. Once you get active, it’s important to personalize audience experiences.
Team members handling Facebook duties sign their names to their responses. Social Media Takes People, but Not as Many as You Think Southwest Airlines is HUGE online: Try 5. Undisputed facts: Taco Bell Uses Social Media To Ward Off PR Crisis. A few consumers' beef with Taco Bell this week offered some red meat to the blogosphere. The conversation about the restaurant's beef, spurred by a class-action lawsuit, seemed ready-made for viral media. The suit claims that Taco Bell misrepresents the contents of its beef; The restaurant calls it "seasoned ground beef" or "seasoned beef," although the product contains 88% beef. A list of the "Top Five Reasons Taco Bell Might Actually Be More Dangerous Than MTV's Skins" got good play on Digg.
A photo of a label from Taco Bell describing "Taco Meat Filling" also lit up the Twittersphere. Faced with a social media crisis, Taco Bell is now fighting back via its Facebook Page, Twitter account and YouTube channel. Creed then tackles the somewhat ominous-sounding statistic that Taco Bell's beef is actually composed of 88% beef. Unfortunately for Taco Bell, only about 1,000 people have seen that video on YouTube. Will Taco Bell fare similarly? Social Media for Crisis Management.