MackCollier.com

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Marketing and Movies: The Dark Knight

The original Batman film from 1989 was a critical and commercial success. In particular, Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of Batman nemesis The Joker, as well as director Tim Burton’s efforts were particularly praised. So when it was announced that the Batman series reboot would again feature The Joker in 2008’s The Dark Knight, many fans were rightly skeptical of actor Heath Ledger’s ability to match the performance that Jack Nicholson had brought to the character two decades before.

Ledger proved up to the task, not only meeting but surpassing the work of the screen legend Nicholson. Ledger’s performance of The Joker was simply a masterwork, his work dominated the film and made you believe you were actually watching an insane serial killer. Ledger was that scary good:

As it turns out, the marketing for The Dark Knight was scary good as well. I wrote about one aspect of the film’s phenomenal marketing campaign in my book Think Like a Rock Star:

Sometimes the best marketing doesn’t ‘look’ like marketing at all. When Warner Bros. was promoting the movie The Dark Knight, it put together all the standard online and offline marketing promotions that you would expect to see for a summer blockbuster. But the marketing campaign for The Dark Knight also had an element of ‘fun’ to it. Warner Bros. created an elaborate online marketing campaign, one element of which required you to ‘decode’ online websites that tied into the movie. If you were the first person from your area to decipher the website, you would be given the address of a local bakery that was holding a cake for you to pick up under the name Robbin Banks (robbin’ banks, get it?). When you received the cake, the icing said ‘Call Me Now’ and included a phone number. If you dialed the number, the cake itself started ringing! Inside the cake there was a packet containing a cell phone and other items from the company Rent A Clown, apparently set up by Batman’s arch-enemy in the movie, The Joker! Campaigns such as this were great fun for fans of The Dark Knight, and helped create a lot of extra buzz around the film.

Here’s the cake that you received for solving the puzzle:

Keep in mind this was done in 2008, just as YouTube was starting to take off, so The Dark Knight was one of the first films to really leverage UGC to help virally promote the film online. Also note that such a campaign isn’t aimed at casual fans of the franchise, but rather at fans that were already invested in the film as soon as it was announced. These fans are more loyal to the film and loved the idea of ‘solving a riddle’ to figure out the online puzzle, then to get the reward of getting the cake AND the phone and materials inside. The marketing is giving an incentive to the winner of the puzzle to promote the film even further. If you won one of these cakes, you wanted to brag about it, you wanted to share with your friends on social media, which simply leads to more promotion of the film, for free!

If you somehow haven’t seen The Dark Knight yet, please watch it ASAP. Heath Ledger died during the filming of The Dark Knight and this film left the world with a complete understanding of what a brilliant talent he truly was.

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Whole Foods Wipes Out Its Instagram Feed to Raise Awareness of Declining Bee Populations

Corporate storytelling can be a tricky thing to master. Brands often interject political and social news into its content, with mixed results. If the views are consistent with the company’s values, they will ultimately benefit the brand and strengthen ties to its core customer base.

Whole Foods gave us a great example last week of letting corporate values drive its storytelling. The brand deleted all its previous posts on Instagram, unfollowed everyone, and then posted this cryptic image:

Which, as you can see, is an image of…nothing. This immediately got people talking; was Whole Foods hacked? Then the brand followed Beyonce…was there a collaboration coming?  Then Sting, Jon Bon Jovi, Jerry Seinfeld.

Eventually, a few smart people noticed a ‘bee’ connection to the few people that Whole Foods had followed.  Then a ‘bee’ emoji was added to Whole Foods’ Instagram profile. Then after 4 more ‘blank’ images were posted on IG, Whole Foods posted this:

Which confirmed that the account hadn’t been hacked, but that there was a ‘bee’ connection here. Then, Whole Foods started posting videos of some of the common (and delicious) foods that we might lose without bees.

The goal of this campaign on Instagram was to raise awareness of the declining bee population around the world, and to support the Whole Kids Foundation in helping bring beekeeping materials and education to 50 schools and nonprofits around the country. Declining bee populations can have a huge impact on agriculture around the world, and Whole Foods is also helping to raise awareness of how “one of every three bites of food eaten worldwide depends on pollinators, especially bees, for a successful harvest.”

Some of the most engaging content that brands can create is content that’s focused on the brand’s core values and those of its customers.  Whole Foods sells healthy food and is concerned about the ingredients in those foods and how they are sourced and grown. This campaign helps educate customers and followers on how the food it sells is created, while also being true to the brand and its values.

If your brand wants to do compelling storytelling like Whole Foods did on Instagram, here’s what to keep in mind:

1 – Have a compelling story to tell that’s focused on ideas/themes/beliefs that are associated with the brand, but not about the brand. There are always exceptions to every rule, but in most cases, the most engaging content is related to the brand but not about the brand. Here, Whole Foods focused on the declining bee population and how that could impact the supply of healthy food. The potential impact on food supplies is the focus that’s related to the brand, but not about the brand. The topic is important to Whole Foods’ customers as well, which is why they paid attention. Patagonia creates content focused on protecting the environment, not its clothing. Red Bull creates content focused on extreme sports and athletes, not its energy drink. Pedigree creates content focused on happy and healthy dogs, not its dog food. All of these examples show the value of creating content that’s focused on the connection between the brand and its customers.

2 – Let the story develop on its own. By deleting its feed and only following a few people and then only posting a few blank images, Whole Foods left people speculating on what was happening with its Instagram account. That speculation led to a lot of extra media coverage and….’buzz’ about its bee-related content. It also led to people on Instagram trying to solve the mystery on its own.  Here’s some of the comments IG users left:

“but who has enough time and patience to hack into a supermarket’s social media and delete every single post one by one and unfollow people one by one ?”

“If you look up Beyoncé Whole Foods, you’ll see there’s a pic of her on their website”

“Bees!! Check out the 5 people WF follows! This is genius!”

“They are following Beyoncé and Sting. Bee emoji. You’re supposed to read between the lines. There are no posts about food anymore because WITHOUT BEES, WE WILL HAVE NOTHING.”

“None of the food they sell would be possible without the bees! The bee emoji, only following queen bee. Did I solve this ?!??‍♂️”

By letting the story play out or ‘breathe’ for a couple of days, followers on IG got more interested and invested in the developing story.  They engaged more, they speculated more, and they created more ‘buzz’ for what Whole Foods was doing.

3 – Let the benefits be obvious to the customer. If we lose the bees, then we lose our food. That was the simple message from this campaign, and everyone can immediately see the significance. This also communicates to Whole Foods’ customers that Whole Foods cares about how its food is grown, even down to protecting the insects that may play a role in the growth of the foods we all love. This helps build loyalty and brand advocacy among Whole Foods’ customers for the brand.

 

All in all, I thought this was a great campaign by Whole Foods and if you pay close attention to how this campaign was structured and executed, you can improve your own corporate storytelling efforts.

BTW, if you want to donate to the Whole Kids Foundation to support the Give Bees a Chance campaign, click here. As of this writing, the current sum donated is just over $64k, with a goal of $100,000.

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How Maker’s Mark Avoided a Social Media Firestorm By Listening to Their Customers

Maker's MarkAlthough I am not a drinker and haven’t consumed a drop of bourbon in my life, I am a big fan of how Maker’s Mark strives to have a close relationship with its customers.  In fact I did an extensive case study on the company’s excellent brand ambassador program for Think Like a Rock Star.

Recently the brand got into some hot water with its customers when it announced that it was diluting its product from 45% alcohol by volume, to 42%.  Obviously, this is not a decision that customers of a brand that makes whisky would be excited about, and Maker’s Mark’s customers quickly took to social media and email to voice their displeasure over the move.

And not surprisingly, Maker’s Mark quickly reversed course, and announced on its Facebook page that their customers were right:

While we thought we were doing what’s right, this is your brand – and you told us in large numbers to change our decision.

You spoke. We listened. And we’re sincerely sorry we let you down.

Notice how Maker’s Mark not only apologized to their customers, but acknowledged that ‘this is your brand’.  If you were a customer that was upset about Maker’s Mark’s decision, how can you stay mad at the brand after reading this?

There’s two very important business lessons here:

1 – Remember that Maker’s Mark has a robust brand ambassador program in place.  It’s one of the largest in the world, and numbers over a hundred thousand.  This gives Maker’s Mark a direct feedback channel to its most passionate customers.  Sure, it’s one thing when ‘drive-by’ customers are slamming you on Facebook, but it’s quite another when people that have been members of your ambassador program for a decade or more, suddenly tell you that your latest move will cause them to stop giving you their business.  THAT’S when you know it’s serious.  Maker’s Mark got feedback on this move almost immediately from its most passionate supporters, and that helped the brand make an informed decision.

2 – Whether or not a social media firestorm happens is always dictated by how the brand responds to its customers.  It’s never the company’s initial action that creates the firestorm, that’s just the spark, then you have upset customers voicing their concern to the brand.  THEN it depends on how the brand responds.  If Maker’s Mark had ignored their customers, or worse yet, told them they were wrong, then the flames would have been fanned, and the anger would have gotten worse.  But Maker’s Mark didn’t do that, they listened to their customers and admitted that their customers were right.  The potential firestorm was diffused because the brand listened to its customers.

Remember, it’s never the company’s initial action that determines if there will be a social media firestorm, it’s how the brand responds to its customers.  Maker’s Mark just gave us a textbook example of how to properly respond to angry customers.  HT to Jackie for this story.

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Subscribe to My Social Media Marketing Newsletter!

Social Media Marketing Newsletter

Starting next Wednesday, I’ll be running a weekly newsletter in addition to (almost) daily posts here.  The content focus will be slightly different, however.

Here, I cover Social Media primarily, but a blend of content that can benefit the individual, as well as those that are using Social Media for their company.  But this newsletter will be aimed solely at marketers and anyone using Social Media within their company or organization.  Each week the newsletter will feature original content that’s designed to do 3 things:

1 – Help you solve an existing Social Media Marketing issue you are having.  One week we might talk about building a better blogger outreach program, the next look at getting a better handle on our blog’s analytics to increase leads.  A case study here and there will be examined.

2 – Give you tips and advice for improving your day-to-day tasks and routines as well as managing your workflow.

3 – Keep you up-to-date on where I will be speaking/appearing, and giving you information on how we can work together.

I cannot stress this enough, the content in this newsletter will be original content.  Some of it may eventually make its way here to the blog, but it won’t be that often.

So if you’re working for a company or organization that wants to learn more about how to better use Social Media to connect with your customers and/or activate your brand advocates, please do subscribe to my newletter by filling out the quick form below.  You’ll input your email address then be sent an email to confirm your subscription.

Thank you so much, see you next Wednesday!


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Case Study: How Fed-Ex Responded to a Customer’s Viral Video…With Its Own Video

It really is the doomsday scenario for a big brand, in this case, Fed-Ex.  One customer has a horrible experience with a delivery.  A computer monitor is ‘delivered’ when the Fed-Ex driver casually tosses the monitor over the customer’s gate.

Even though the customer was at home.

And the front door was wide open.

And the customer filmed the delivery.

And yes, he posted it on YouTube.

The video has been viewed over 8 million times by now, and was seen on numerous TV stations and shows.  Now if this was your company, how would you respond?  Would you respond?

To its credit, Fed-Ex responded 2 days later with its own video.

Here’s what I love about the video and the post on Fed-Ex’s blog:

1 – Fed-Ex admitted the problem and apologized for it immediately in the video.

2 – Fed-Ex detailed what was done to correct this problem.

3 – Fed-Ex detailed what will happen moving forward.

4 – Fed-Ex responded to the customer video with its own video.  Using the same tool as its customer.

 

Now, the original customer video and Fed-Ex’s response has been dissected on many other blogs in the last 3 months.  But I wanted to focus on the comments this post has generated.  A big reason why many companies do NOT want to use social media to make a response such as what Fed-Ex did here is because they are scared to death that it will simply draw attention to the company and make them a lightning-rod for detractors.

So far, Fed-Ex’s apology post has 181 comments, almost 120 comments more than the 2nd most commented-on post.

Here’s what I thought was interesting about the comments (and I read every freaking one to get these stats):

57% of the comments were positive.

25% of the comments were neutral.

But only 18% of the comments on this post were negative.

Does that surprise you?  It shouldn’t.  As often happens when a company responds appropriately in a crisis situation, Fed-Ex galvanized its employees and brand advocates with this post.  Remember that The Red Cross had a similar episode this time last year with its ‘rogue tweet’ about #gettingslizzard, and the organization’s timely and appropriate response rallied its brand advocates and actually sparked a rise in blood donations.

There is a very salient lesson here for companies about using social media: Participating in a conversation changes that conversation.  By creating a video response to the customer video, apologizing, and detailing exactly how the problem would be fixed, Fed-Ex changed the conversation that was currently happening around its brand.  Prior to this video, the conversation around the brand was decidedly negative and dominated by the customer’s video, because Fed-Ex hadn’t responded.

When they did, the conversation changed.  The company’s response was fast and appropriate, and that not only changed the opinion of the company from some observers, but it also served as motivation for customers and employees to come to defense of the brand.

Always remember this:  Social Media backlashes aren’t created by the initial trigger event (such as the customer’s video above), they are created by HOW the company responds.

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X-Box Support’s Twitter Account Hits One Million Tweets

microsoft, xbox, x-box, twitter

They’ve already been named Most Responsive Brand on Twitter by Guiness World Records, now it looks like X-Box has become the first major brand to crack the 1,000,000 tweets milestone.

The 18-person team churns out an average of just over 1,000 tweets per day.  And I thought my hitting 60,000 tweets after 5 years on Twitter was a big deal!

How X-Box is using Twitter is a wonderful example of the potential of the tool as a channel to deliver near real-time customer service.  Customers having an issue with their X-Box know that all it takes is a tweet to @XBoxSupport, and an answer is coming.  Usually within seconds.

There is a serious limitation to this approach though, and it’s a limitation of Twitter really.  But I’d be curious to know if Microsoft has given any thought to a way to possibly catalog the questions and answers exchanged via the X-Box account?  No doubt the team is constantly answering certain questions repeatedly, but I’m not sure how you could get around that issue.  This issue is easily solved by another tool like a user forum, but that requires customers to come to your site, whereas X-Box is using the same tool its customers are already on: Twitter.  Not sure there’s an answer to this problem, but would save both the company and its customers a lot of time if there was one.

BTW even with sending out hundreds of tweets a day, the team still has time for a sense of humor, it seems…

xbox, twitter, microsoft, support

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#DellCap 2011 Review: The Future is Now

Michael Dell speaks with #DellCAP attendees as Michelle Brigman and Sarah Kimmel look on

This week I got to spend some time in Round Rock, Texas, working with Dell on its #DellCAP reunion project.  This is an extension of the first #DellCAP that was held last June, that I was also lucky enough to help Dell with.  As with last year’s event, Dell brought in 15 customers (including 13 from last year’s #DellCAP event) to spend the day getting feedback from them, and letting them know how the company had acted on the feedback it received from them last June.

The event itself, especially the people involved (customers as well as Dell employees), was amazing.  And I knew I wanted to do a recap post on my experience as soon as I got home and got my bearings.  But I’m torn on how to do this, because I want all of you to appreciate just how inspired I have been not only by Dell, but by their customers as well.

So I wanted to start by telling you two stories.  The first happened during last year’s #DellCAP event, which was structured a bit differently than this one.  Last June, Dell invited a total of 30 customers to #DellCAP, and split them into 2 groups of 15 customers each.  But the catch was that the 1st group of 15 customers were all selected because they had issues and complaints about Dell’s products and services.  The 2nd group was selected because they were considered to be fans and advocates of Dell.  So Dell wanted to hear from both its fans and ‘detractors’.

Which I thought was incredibly brave, but one instance drove that point home for me.  Last year, I was hired by Dell to moderate both days of the #DellCAP event.  On the 1st day we were going to spend the day with Dell’s ‘detractors’.  As you might imagine, the idea of inviting a group of ‘upset’ customers to your world headquarters can be a bit un-nerving.  Right before the 1st day’s events were to start, I was going over my notes and the agenda for the day when one of the Dell employees that was facilitating the event hurriedly ran up to me with a last-minute clarification to the agenda.  As they quickly explained the changes to me, I caught something in their eyes that I wasn’t expecting.

I saw fear.

I looked around the room and saw looks of nervousness and anxiety on the faces of the other Dell employees.  One of them was literally wringing their hands.  That’s when it hit me that Dell really did NOT know what to expect from this event.  But that made me truly respect them for having it.  Let’s be honest, the idea of flying 15 customers that have had negative experiences with your company to your headquarters to spend the day with them would scare the hell out of most companies.  And looking around that room, it seemed that some of that fear and anxiety was on display, but the company was willing to do it anyway, because Dell knew how important it was to connect with its customers.

The second story I wanted to share with you happened at this year’s event.  Near the end of the day, Michelle Brigman asked the attendees what their advice would be for the next steps of this program.  Each person shared their ideas, but Connie Bensen told Michelle that Dell literally needed to find a way to ‘help us to help you’.  As the microphone passed around the room, several of the attendees echoed Connie’s point, that they wanted Dell to give them the tools to help them tell others about the company.  Here were Dell advocates begging Dell to empower them to speak on their behalf to other customers.

And while I wouldn’t call myself a Dell advocate strictly on the basis of loving their products, I am definitely an advocate of the people working at Dell.  I think most people know who Lionel and Richard are, and for good reason.  Both are truly corporate social media pioneers.  But Dell’s team of social media wizards is so much deeper, Michelle, Carly, Sarah, Chris B, Bill, Jason, Cory, Laura and Susan are just a few of the gems we met and have come to know.

I believe in these people, and over the past year, I have come to care for them as well.  And as a result, I believe in and care for Dell.  I want to see the company succeed just as badly as anyone else, because I want to see the people behind the company succeed.  Because I believe when a company makes a real effort to listen to, and empower its customers, that that #smartitude deserves to be rewarded.  I left #DellCAP knowing that every Dell employee that participated in #DellCAP truly listened to and truly cared for the people they connected with.

Which leaves Dell in an interesting position.  I think this year’s #DellCAP reunion showed the company that it has a very loyal group of advocates that want to see it succeed.  That, as Connie said, want Dell to ‘help us help you’.  The challenge now for Dell is to find a way to not only unite, empower and embrace their external advocates, but to also share internally what they have learned from the DellCAP program.  We discussed the issue of scaling the interactions we experienced between company and customer during DellCAP.  I mentioned that I think one way to address this is to scale the interest in expanding the program from the company side.  I’ve got a lot more thoughts on how Dell and companies in general can embrace and mobilize its evangelists, and I’ll write more about that next week.

BTW I can’t close without acknowledging the #DellCAP participants from this year.  Y’all are so amazing to take 3 days out of your lives to come to Round Rock and share your wisdom and experiences with Dell.  I was truly blown away at the sheer intelligence of the ideas and suggestions that the group proposed, and its value to Dell is huge.  Here are the #DellCAP attendees from this year: Sarah, Haley, Allen, Robyn, Connie, Claire, Dave, Ed, Erika, Paul, Shane, Shawn, Susan, Brandon and last but not least, Mr. Travis Bailey.  It was a joy to spend time with each of you, and I consider you all to be good friends.  I hope we don’t have to go another year before we see each other again!

UPDATE: Chris Yates and his team from Huddle Productions were kind enough to record the LIVE #Blogchat that Dell sponsored as part of #DellCAP earlier this week.  While there, he shot this short video where Lionel explains a little about what the #DellCAP program is.

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How the CDC is Using its Blog to Prepare Us For the Zombie Apocalypse

One of the complaints you often hear from businesses and organizations about blogging is that they aren’t sure what type of content to create to reach their audience.  That they don’t know how a blog can help them build awareness for their particular product.  That it’s ‘too boring’ and that no one wants to read a blog post about….

A recent blog post by the CDC (Center for Disease Control) disproves the notion that there’s just some products and services you can’t blog about.  Let’s say you work for the CDC and your boss tells you to write a blog post that will explain how to build an emergency kit, and that will also raise awareness for the need to do so.  Oh, and you also need to get Twitter buzzing about the post.

Even with the recent horrible tornadoes and storms that have ripped through the South and Missouri, building an emergency kit is not something that is top of mind for most people.  And yet, the CDC has created a blog post that explains how to create an emergency kit that has Twitter buzzing and that currently has over 100 comments.

So how did the CDC take the topic of creating an emergency kit, and make it so interesting to so many people?  They explained that you need to create an emergency kit in order to prepare for the zombie apocalypse.

Genius!  What the CDC did is take a topic that’s not that interesting to a lot of people (building an emergency kit) and wrapped it in an analogy that is (the coming zombie apocalypse).  Check out some of the tips from the post:

  1. Identify the types of emergencies that are possible in your area. Besides a zombie apocalypse, this may include floods, tornadoes, or earthquakes. If you are unsure contact your local Red Cross chapter for more information.
  2. Pick a meeting place for your family to regroup in case zombies invade your home…or your town evacuates because of a hurricane. Pick one place right outside your home for sudden emergencies and one place outside of your neighborhood in case you are unable to return home right away.
  3. Identify your emergency contacts. Make a list of local contacts like the police, fire department, and your local zombie response team. Also identify an out-of-state contact that you can call during an emergency to let the rest of your family know you are ok.
  4. Plan your evacuation route. When zombies are hungry they won’t stop until they get food (i.e., brains), which means you need to get out of town fast! Plan where you would go and multiple routes you would take ahead of time so that the flesh eaters don’t have a chance! This is also helpful when natural disasters strike and you have to take shelter fast.

There’s several things I love about the approach of this post:

1 – It makes the CDC seem ‘more human’. They are showing they have a sense of humor, not to mention a knowledge of pop culture.  This post instantly makes the organization more accessible to more people.  That’s a good thing.

2 – They are spreading the message on terms that appeal to their target audience.  The CDC could have written this exact same post without the zombie references and verbiage, and it would have been far less interesting.  Which means it wouldn’t have been shared by nearly as many people.  But because the post was written focusing on a topic that’s more interesting to others, it will get shared by others.

3 – Even though the zombie analogy is added, the CDC’s core message still spreads.  This post still raises awareness of the need to create an emergency kit, and now the topic is more front-of-mind for a lot more people.  So the end goal of the CDC in creating this post, is achieved.

And the CDC was even smart enough to create badges you can add to your site/blog.

I love this approach, and I hope it will challenge you to think about how you can make your blog content more interesting to your readers.  BTW thanks to Geno for bringing this post to my attention via his excellent post on what Zombieland taught him about community-building.

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Social Media Crisis Management: A No-Nonsense Guide

Past Social Media dramas involving The Red Cross, Groupon and Kenneth Cole are good reminders of the importance of having a solid social media crisis management plan in place.  At its very basic level, the proper handling of a social media crisis should consist of two thing:

1 – A quick response

2 – A proper response

Let’s look at both areas:

Responding quickly to a social media crisis

If you look back at many of the social media dramas that have played out for companies over the past couple of years, many of them were exacerbated by a slow response from the company or organization.  The delay in responding meant the people that were upset had more time to voice their displeasure with the company, to other people.  Which raised awareness of the problem, and made it far worse.  The Motrin Moms episode could have likely been defused very quickly, if Motrin and its agency had been proactive in responding to complaints on Twitter about one of its commercials.  But since the crisis occurred on the weekend, when the brand and agency weren’t monitoring Twitter, it was allowed to grow and fester.  By Sunday, most people were complaining more about Motrin’s lack of a response, than they were the commercial itself.

So you can’t respond quickly, unless you know what you are responding to.  That means you need to aggressively monitor your brand’s online mentions.  There’s no excuse for any company that conducts business online, to not monitor online mentions.  Even if you are a small company with a limited budget, there are still free tools you can use to monitor social media.  If you are a mid-sized to larger company, you should seriously consider investing in a premium monitoring suite that will track not only mentions, but trends and sentiment as well.  But the point is to know what is being said online about your company or organization.  Remember, when did Noah build the Ark?  Before the rains came, not after.

So now that you are monitoring online mentions, then you can see what is being said about your brand in (more or less) real-time.  This also means that when a situation arises that needs to be addressed, that you can quickly mobilize and formulate a response.  We’ll talk more about the tone of your response in a second, but another key benefit of monitoring is that it tells you WHERE you need to respond.  If there is a potential crisis developing on Twitter, then that’s where you need to respond.  If it’s on a single message board or forum, then you need to find a way to respond there.  The point is, you need to go to the source of the complaints, and interact with people there.

Responding properly to a social media crisis

So if you have identified a potential issue that you need to address, how should you respond?  Here are 4 common sense tips for handling complaints or negative online feedback:

1 – If someone is leaving negative comments about your company, respond. Even if they are intentionally attacking your company (or ‘trolling’), then invite them to please contact you directly so you can help them with their issues.  And remember, if someone is leaving comments that personally attack your employees or customers, or that contain profanity or inflammatory language, you should delete them.  Now if they are simply saying that they think your company sucks, deleting these type of comments will tend to draw more of the same.  People can see when someone has crossed the line with the tone of their comments, and they won’t fault a blogging company for deleting comments in this case.

2 – Be thankful and polite. Nothing escalates a negative comment into a full-bore flamewar faster than an ‘Oh yeah?!?’ reply from the company.  You have to always remember that the person commenting thinks their complaint is warranted.  And many times, they are right.

3 – If you are in the wrong, then apologize.  And mean it.  The two most magical words in putting out a social media crisis are ‘We’re sorry’.

4 – If commenters are jumping to the wrong conclusion about your company, kindly correct them with the proper information.  Just as you don’t have to accept profanity or attacking comments on your blog, you shouldn’t feel that you have to accept if a blogger or commenter is posting inaccurate information on another site.  But again, remember to correct the misinformation with a respectful tone.

5 – Thank them for their feedback, and encourage them to provide more. Leave your email address so they can contact you off the blog, if they choose.  This communicates to everyone that you WANT engagement and want to communicate with them.

Now for the elephant in the room

Even if you respond quickly and appropriately, you still have to fix the problem.  People are upset for a reason, and you still need to address that reason, and correct the problem.  It might not be a quick fix, but you need to let people know how you are handling the issue, and what steps will be taken to correct the problem.  This is where you can use your social media presences such a blog or Facebook page to communicate to customers and supporters what your plan is for handling the crisis.  But you need to have a plan, you need to communicate that plan (not every detail, obviously), then you need to execute it.

Does this help?  Also, to get another real-world example of social media crisis management, check out this video from @GaryVee on how he handled a social media crisis he found himself in.

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How The Red Cross defused a potential Social Media crisis situation

Coming off the heels of Kenneth Cole’s recent PR blunder on Twitter, the Red Cross found itself in a potential crisis situation on Twitter a couple of days ago.  Apparently, one of its employees that tweets from the @RedCross twitter account, inadvertently sent a tweet that was meant for her personal account in which she tweeted: “Ryan found two more 4 bottle packs of Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch beer… when we drink we do it right #gettngslizzerd”

To its credit, the Red Cross quickly acted on the ‘rogue tweet’, deleted it, and posted this response:


Now anyone that’s attempted to use multiple Twitter accounts, especially one for your employee or a client, knows how easily this can happen.  And then the employee that sent the ‘rogue tweet’ also acknowledged her mistake on her own Twitter account:

Now all week here we have been discussing the value that evangelists have for companies and organizations.  What happened next in this story perfectly illustrates today’s lesson: Your evangelists will come to your aid in a crisis situation.

The Red Cross’ evangelists on Twitter quickly latched onto the #gettngslizzerd hashtag, and used it to drive blood donations!  Many committed to donating blood and some even took pictures as they were:

And to their credit, @dogsfishbeer, which was mentioned in the ‘rogue’ tweet, also encouraged its followers to get involved in the donation drive:

One of the ways we talked about in the post on creating brand evangelists was speaking in a human voice.  The Red Cross did this, they quickly admitted their error, and apologized.  And did so with humility and a splash of humor.  Then Gloria tweeted out an explanation as well.  How the Red Cross handled this potential crisis situation went a long way in rallying its evangelists to come to its aid.  They quickly forgave Gloria for the tweet, then took the hashtag and used it to drive donations.

This is the power of connecting with your evangelists.  As we talked about earlier this week, they WANT to see you succeed.

What did you think of how the Red Cross handled this situation?  What did they get right? Is there any advice you could give them for avoiding a similar situation in the future?