In the wake of the ongoing WikiLeaks saga, numerous household name brands have come under online attack. Companies such as Visa, Amazon and PayPal have experienced cyber attacks in the past couple of weeks as retaliation for attempts to block the WikiLeaks website. While attacks of this proportion are uncommon, it underscores the importance of being prepared and having a strong social media crisis management plan already in place when one, two or 47,000 people attack your brand online. Drawing on my own experiences as well as a few national case studies, here are a few suggestions to adhere to when Web 2.0 attacks:
Don’t freak out. It’s easy to hit the panic button, jump into a space pod and blast off to another planet still lacking modern technology. OK, it’s not that easy, but panicking is a surefire way to act impulsively, which almost always leads to bad decisions. In the social media world, a mountain can be made out of a mole hill very quickly. Don’t underestimate the power of disgruntled consumers, the investment community or the media! Immediately sit down with your colleagues and formulate a proactive plan that addresses the crisis. Set a goal(s) and assess how you’re going to go about attaining it, then execute.
What are you waiting for? Act quickly! It’s true what they say c timing is everything. If it takes you longer than 24 hours to respond, you might as well pack it up and go home. Ask Gary Vaynerchuk, wine aficionado and entrepreneur. A couple of years ago someone hacked into his website, programming the site to show pornographic images when consumers accessed it. Did Vaynerchuk just let the storm blow over? No. He immediately posted a video blog apologizing to offended parties, then tweeted the blog link to his hundreds of thousands of followers.
A Beckerman client company that is publicly traded recently fell victim to a slew of written attacks from the same individual on multiple investment related message boards. With SEO having the importance that it does within the investment community, we wanted to react quickly to “put out” false claims that were sure to be seen when Googling the company name or the CEO. We immediately tripled the blogging efforts on behalf of the client, and posted two press releases highlighting recent technological advances. We also stepped up the outreach for company blog content, making sure that all relevant trade publications and some national media picked it up. The results were immediate. While still online, the potentially damaging comments are more difficult to find -- resulting in a happy client.
Don’t Censor. Seriously. Just ask Cooks Source Magazine. Wait, you can’t -- they’re not around anymore. Want to know why? Read this. Nestle also tried deleting negative posts on their Facebook wall and threatening to take legal action against those using a depiction of their logo as a profile image. Give me a break.
My agency works on a consumer client that recently came under fire from two individuals who were unhappy with political views taken on the product’s Facebook page. Understandably, as October and November yielded some historic political events that in hindsight probably had no place on there. While these two internet crusaders took to Facebook to vent their displeasure at seeing a product take a political stance, our team addressed how to diffuse the situation. While an obvious easy and immediate solution would have been to ban the individuals from the Facebook page and delete their negative (but not profane or scandalous) comments, we elected to give them their voice. We actually reposted their content for all to see, and addressed it head on. One of the two individuals ended up quietly leaving the page, while the other responded positively and remains a frequent. The manner in which we handled the situation actually resulted in a significant increase of fans during the three-day stretch – a success in our book.
Don’t spin/be transparent. This one should be easy but alas, it’s not. You screwed up. Admit it, and go about fixing your mistake. You know who Scott Monty is, right? It’s an old story that I’ll let you Google on your own time, but essentially Monty, the resident social media expert at Ford Motors, quickly and effectively addressed a nasty situation between a few website owners and Ford’s lawyers, who were pursuing legal action to shut them down for misuse of a logo. Without waiting to watch a crisis unfold, Monty fixed the issue by publicly posting about it in a proactive manner. There was no spin, just brutal honesty about what both sides did to correct the situation and how to avoid it from happening again.
An easy way to make a bad situation worse is to get caught twisting the truth to support your viewpoint. Mike Shanahan, head coach of the Washington Redskins, recently endured a hectic two-week period in which he was accused of being a racist following his benching of quarterback Donovan McNabb. When asked why he benched McNabb, Shanahan gave a weak explanation, then backtracked on it. Twenty four hours later, Kyle Shanahan, his son and team offensive coordinator, altered the story one more time. Soon after, Washington Post columnist Josh Weinstein penned an article calling Shanahan racist for his actions. Is Shanahan racist? I don’t think so, but by not handling the situation in a transparent manner, he opened himself up for attack.
It will happen again. These examples of methods to protect/recover from an online attack of your brand have been learned from experience -- either others’ or our own. You can’t predict when it will happen again, but if you choose to stay in business or a marketing profession – it will. Moving quickly, honestly and proactively are tools for success the next time your brand faces a digital crisis.
