Within the enterprise, social media has often been too hastily dismissed as a[nother] fad and buzzword with dubious business value. We feel strongly that companies that fall into this facile categorization miss the whole point about its value. The ubiquity of social media will ensure that it will become the dominant means for information distribution in the future. It offers companies invaluable opportunities to reach stakeholders and their affinity communities in ways that were, until quite recently, simply unimaginable. In this post, we examine how companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange can foster and participate in these trusted reputational distribution networks.
What is social media? Are social media and social networks the same thing? How can companies take advantage of these new channels and platforms? Where to begin? Can social media serve a purpose for companies’ investor outreach programs in non-developed country markets where internet penetration may not be very high? Is social media a tool or a revolutionary new way of interaction? How can the success of adoption be measured? We provide answers and guideposts to these.
In this Part 2 of this post we discuss a number of areas where companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange can use social media. We also discuss cases of companies that are already using or have used social media successfully in these ways. The areas we shall discuss are:
Marketing (Visa)
Executive leadership (Sun)
Customer relations (Salesforce, Comcast)
Business development (Dell, Starbucks)
Strategy and Business Performance communications (Dell, Sun)
Marketing: There are many ways in which companies can use social media to support marketing. Marketing involves all the processes and activities that can improve the value visibility of a company’s products and services with customers and consumers. Here we discuss just two: video and social networking sites.
Video is a very effective means for generating interest in a company’s offerings. The power of video on the web is even more amplified when the video can be embedded across sites. A few Nigerian companies like Globacom, the telecoms company, Zenith Bank and Nigerian Breweries, already advertise using banner ads on popular websites such as Yahoo and YouTube. While banner ads are catchy, they are not viral. They are limited to their location on a specific web page or site. Viewers cannot extend the reach of the ads. But video is different. Videos uploaded on video sharing sites like Viddler, Vimeo, and YouTube can be seeded all over the internet. Banner ads are a lot like TV ads in many ways. Even the most popular TV ads are confined to the TV station showing them at a specific time.
Now compare the limited distribution of TV ads with those below, which were uploaded on YouTube by enthusiasts.
If these companies realized how popular their ads were on YouTube, they would not hesitate to create their own channels. Companies can create their own channels on these sites to upload ads, executive interviews, site and branch office tours, investments in innovation, discussions on evolving end-user needs as well as customer testimonies. The content would be ’spreadable’ across the net by those interested in the company. Instead of spending their entire online ad budgets on ‘non-sociable’ banner ads, Mouka Foam, Skye Bank and other Nigerian companies would create web-targeted videos and place them in the sponsored section of top Nigerian sites like Stockmarketnigeria.com, Naijalowa.com, Nairaland.com , NigeriaVillageSquare.com and NewNigerians.com.
Visa, the retail electronic payments network, seems to have cracked the code on the use of social media for marketing. In June 2008, the company launched the Visa Business Network on Facebook to ‘empower small business owners to expand their customer base, manage their business better and exchange ideas with other businesses and trusted advisers.’ At the launch, the company announced that it would provide $100 ad credits on Facebook to the first 20,000 US-based businesses that joined the network. Very quickly, these companies took up the offer, which provided the company with a captive audience to educate members about how its payment processing platforms could support their business goals.
Visa clearly demonstrates the utility of social media in raising the value visibility of company products.
Executive & Thought Leadership: We’ve often wondered how much more effective and endearing company communications would become if management spoke a bit more about the things that affect the company (the economy, sector dynamics, competition for talent, regulation, innovation, customer issues, employee motivation, etc) in their own words. For instance, what if after the CEO makes a presentation at an industry conference, she writes about the importance of sector rendezvous to best practice sharing or problem solving on her blog or after a speech on vital skills for success in the company’s business at a recruitment seminar, the company posts a video with the Q&A session on a video sharing site?
Sun Microsystems stands out as one company that took the early lead in the use of social media to showcase executive and thought leadership. In his first blog post written in June 2004, Jonathan Schwartz, the CEO, wrote that the blog would allow him to offer ‘perspectives, opinions, and insights’ about the things that matter to Sun, its customers, investors and employees. He also wrote that one of his reasons for blogging was to get ‘unfettered feedback from the community.’
Since then, he has used his blog to champion the use of the internet to meet the requirements of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation Fair Disclosure (RegFD), a campaign that won SEC approval in July 2008. Now let’s put such powerful advocacy in a local context: what if a Nigerian bank CEO wrote a post on his blog explaining that a Central Bank liquidity injection would be necessary to restart lending to bank customers and not, as currently phrased in the media, as a bailout of poorly managed financial institutions. Imagine what kind of constructive feedback that could generate.
Customer relations: Intercontinental Bank is generally acknowledged to have one of the most committed and responsive customer service programs in Nigeria. Unlike other institutions, the bank does not simply pay lip service to customer service. It goes the extra mile to ensure that customer queries receive rapid attention and solutions found quickly.
Clearly, the bank takes very seriously its tagline ‘Happy customer, Happy bank.’ Still, just like email which is characteristically two -way, the bank’s superb efforts are limited to the circle-of-friends of satisfied customers who have gotten redress for their problems. If Intercontinental Bank had used social media to talk of how they are solving customers problems, and even inviting those customers to participate in those posts or vice versa, the payoff could be so huge. For example, the bank could have a site, happycustomer.me, or use a service like Get Satisfaction or User Voice to solicit customer feedback on their services and foster customer-customer support. In addition, the site or service would show cases of actual problems solved, describe the ‘actors’, how quickly it took to find a solution and what the bank learned from the incident while inviting the customer to share the issue from her own point of view and her satisfaction with the solution. At the end, the bank would invite others, customers or not, with similar experiences to make comments.
In this way, social media can serve an invaluable purpose for the bank by underscoring its commitment to its ‘Happy customer, Happy bank’ mantra. One thing though, the goal of such efforts should not be PR. One piece of advice: the correct aim of such efforts should be the customer and helping other customers in similar situations. The site would quickly lose its credibility if only glowing comments of praise were admitted or if it depreciated into a PR gimmick. Only when the community of customers feel that they own the site as much as the admin will they confer the status of authenticity on it. Without this, the idea would be dead in water, and the customers will keep venting their anger on Stockmarketnigeria.com and similar sites, where they would be allowed speak about their experience without a censor.
Comcast and Dell are perhaps the best known companies to have used social media for customer service and feedback. After some major missteps, product failures and the realization that it was rapidly losing its dominant position in the PC market, in what became known as ‘Dell Hell‘, Dell, the computing solutions company, decided to launch Idea Storm, a customer community, that would support the growth of a community of loyal Dell customers and invite their feedback from customers on features they would like to see in future products. In the following videos, Jeff Jarvis, who is widely regarded as the single biggest instigator for Dell’s customer service reform and entry into social media speaks about his experience in Dell Hell and how companies need to listen more to their customers.
At the launch of Idea Storm, Michael Dell, the founder of the company, said that:
We are at our best when we are hearing directly from our customers. We listen, learn and then improve and innovate based on what our customers want. It’s one of the real advantages of being a direct company.
Customers took him at his word. To the greatest surprise of executives at Dell, shortly after the launch IdeaStorm, they started to demand for PCs without the Windows operating system. They asked for the open source Linux instead. This was not the type of feedback they anticipated. On further research, they learned that a lot of their customers would actually prefer Linux and that they wondered why they were paying so much for Microsoft’s software when a free alternative was available. To Dell’s credit, the idea was implemented.
Another company using social media to connect with customers is Comcast, the US cable company. The company has been so successful in its use of social media, especially Twitter, the microblogging service, that Frank Eliason, its head of digital media, has been called the most famous customer care manager in America. Widely known outside the company as the owner of the Twitter account @Comcastcares, Frank has used the service to provide quick solutions to customer problems. But it wasn’t always so.
In 2007, Comcast enjoyed the notoriety of ranking lowest in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI), even as the cable sector had the lowest ranking for all seventeen industries tracked. A year later, the company was receiving accolades for the success of its customer service with social media. It also took steps to inform customers of concrete steps it had taken to improve the quality of its service.
These two companies, Comcast and Dell serve as adequate proof that social media can serve real business and customer needs.
Business development: Companies devote significant time and resources to the development of new products and services. But too often, the spark for updates in company offerings has been lit by competitors’ actions, rather than a response to customer and consumer needs. The result is that too often, the market is flooded by competitor-focused me-too offerings creating a red ocean, while the customers’ real needs are overlooked. Inviting customers to participate in the upstream offering development process through contributing and discussing these ideas can provide valuable insights on where the focus needs to be.
Sometimes, these insights may lead to undeniable breakthroughs for companies. But often, they will produce those small but critical quantum leaps that make the difference between concrete value differentiation and value identity crisis that make it difficult for even the company’s staff to articulate why the offering is unique from the competition. For instance, soliciting the wisdom of crowds may reveal cultural and social considerations in product development or user interface design that may be overlooked by companies. In other cases, especially for products with deep consumer epistemologies, where end-users have significantly higher knowledge of the offering than non-users, they can play important roles in gamma- and beta-testing before the final rollout. The two presentations below show the differences between closed and open innovation, and how companies can benefit from the participatory innovation model. Social media is tailor made for this type of innovation process.
What makes this open innovation model different from simple marketing studies or focus groups? The key difference is that contributors are not presented with a controlled response structure questionnaire. They can respond in different ways and throw up new issues in the process. The main job for business development would be evaluating this dynamic customer-centric ideation process rather than understudying competitors and offering only marginally differentiated products.
What are the practical applications of open innovation and social media for Nigerian companies? There are quite a few. UAC, the United African Company, owner of the Gala trademark, controls a significant market share for fast food in Nigeria. Gala’s sausage-roll is quite popular as a quick snack. Many buyers of the Gala brand, which has been around for decades, have wondered why the company does not leverage on its relationship with the Mr. Bigg’s eatery brand, another popular UAC company, to offer more packaged on-the-go snacks. If it decides to do so, the company could use social media to solicit ideas on which of its the Mr. Bigg’s fast foods should be first-line candidates for Gala snack offering extension. Such public ’solutioneering’ may also throw up invaluable suggestions on other popular local snacks like plantain chips, potato chips, which while eaten by a lot of people, have no nationally recognized brand that ensures product quality.
One company that is already using social media for business development is Starbucks, the coffee retail chain. When the chain launched MyStarBucksIdea in March 2008, its aim was to create a community site that would enable customers to share ideas, vote on submitted ideas, discuss ideas, and see how the company is processing those ideas internally for adaptation and adoption. Since then, Starbucks has received thousands of ideas, from opening a Starbucks in Ikoyi, Lagos, to putting a sticker under Starbucks cups so that coffee does not spill in cars.
However, it would be erroneous to judge the success of the site solely on the actual number of ideas that Starbucks actually implements and how much those generate in revenues for the company. While those metrics are certainly important, the primary goal of an initiative like this is for Starbucks to create a cyber-locale where people can talk about the company and its products, as well as listen to the views of others. By making MyStarbucksIdea.com the most visible site for customer discussions, Starbucks can then use it as the primary channel for engaging with them at different levels, instead of having to deal with a vast confederation of different small communities across the web.
Strategy and Business Performance communications: Investor relations is a prime candidate for social media. According to a report by Halvarsson and Hallvarsson, more and more investors, analysts and shareholders are looking for information on companies beyond their investor relations sections and traditional media stories. They are increasingly turning to user-generated content for news and opinions about companies.
What this means is that it may no longer be sufficient for companies to announce an X% drop in revenues, a Y% rise in pre-tax profits or the signing of a strategic technology ransfer agreement with multinational Z. Companies will need to go further by:
Providing those accessing the information on their sites the tools to share the information.
Using the facilities of video and audio on publicly accessible social sites, with clear disclaimers of course, to push out the company’s own narrative on the event
Seeking out those cyber-locales where conversations are going on about the announced event, participating in these fora, presenting facts to counter guerrilla narratives which can thrive in such locales and inviting those interested to contact the representative for more information.
The following presentations show some of the potential benefits of social media use in investor relations.
In the first presentation, Peter Einarsson, the Sweden-based online visibility strategist, discusses different uses of social media for investor relations.
There are so many ways that Nigerian companies can use social media for strategy and business performance reporting. We consider a few below:
Video: Companies can create their own branded channels or vlogs on video sharing sites. Here they can upload videos of the CEO and head of finance discussing the most recent financial figures and putting them in a sectoral and wider macroeconomic context.
Audio: Companies undergoing a strategy review or restructuring, can create their own MP3 channel on Zoopy.com where they can upload audio interviews with management and consultants on how the company is implementing on its plans.
Blogs: Even though blogging requires significant attention and involves a number of disclosure caveats, it is an excellent way to put a company’s story across to the investment community. The comments on each post provide an incomparable channel for getting feedback from readers on the company’s strategy and performance. Blogging platforms like Wordpress also allow bloggers to enhance visitors’ total experience with widgets and plug-ins.
Microblogging: The trend of sending brief updates to interested ‘followers’ is here to stay. Companies can use sites like SocialCast, Twitter and Yammer to keep followers up-to-date on events within the company. In this case, companies need to balance the frequent updates with caution so that no securities laws are breached. The advantage of microblogging is that it is the most likely to be picked up on the radar of listeners who are not already followers. While not yet very popular in Nigeria, we expect microblogging to pick up by 2010.
Social bookmarking: By providing links to relevant research, reports and news on the company and its sector on social bookmarking sites like Delicious, the company can give shareholders and analysts objective information to support its own narrative.
Social networks: Companies can create their own analyst or shareholder groups on social networking sites like Facebook and Ning, where its strategy and business performance can be discussed. This gives the company the chance to participate in these conversations, as well as providing informed responses to questions in a transparent, participatory environment.
Dell, the computing solutions company, is at the forefront of the use of social media in its investor relations program. In November 2007, the company launched Dell Shares, the first ever investor relations blog.
In the first post on the blog, ‘Welcome to the 21st Century’, Lynn Turner, vice president of investor relations writes that
[The blog] is an opportunity for us to go beyond posting information on the investor relations section at dell.com and to be accessible and available, share perspectives and build and maintain relationships with our investors, potential investors and anyone and everyone who is interested in joining the conversations here…Ideally, this blog will serve as an additional source of information to your own informed and sound financial decisions. We look forward to making Dell Shares an example of an unfiltered view of company strategy, performance, and results and place where direct shareholder relations are strengthened. We also hope Dell shares offers you a great place to become more informed as an investor.
In the following interview, she explains why the company went ahead to launch Dell Shares.
Dell also has a YouTube vlog (video blog) which is a rich source of interviews with executives and partners as well as company presentations. For example, in the video below, Robert Williams, director of investor relations at Dell, interviews Brian Gladden, Dell’s chief financial officer, on the company’s Q4 fiscal year 2009 performance. These are all examples valid uses of social media for business performance reporting.
Transaction communications: First, let us say that transaction communications is, by definition, a sensitive area. Companies need to be careful what they say, how and when. Usually, such communications needs to be vetted by lawyers and advisors to ensure that it does not run foul of any securities or disclosure laws. Naturally, any communications can only begin after the deal has been signed by all the parties involved. However, that is not what we are referring to here. Rather, our focus here is on how companies can use social media to update stakeholders on how the transaction will affect them.
In the aftermath of the 2005 banking sector N25 billion minimum capital base requirement, a number of Nigerian banks have announced consolidation transactions. For example, UBA has acquired the defunct African Express Bank, City Express Bank, Gulf Bank, Liberty Bank, Metropolitan Bank and Trade Bank in purchase and assumption schemes with the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Company (NDIC). However, since these acquisitions, depositors, customers and creditors of the acquired banks have not had access to authoritative information on the liabilities UBA assumed and how the P&A agreement would affect them. Such communications and the questions they would generate would be ideal for a blog format.
Some generic questions that companies can address via social media include:
Why the transaction makes compelling sense at this point.
Why the transaction is vital for the long-term sustenance and growth of the business.
How the transaction is part of a larger trend in the wider system within which the firms operate.
What changes can customers expect as a result of the transaction?
How will it lower costs and increase choice for customers?
How does it improve the career opportunities and prospects for staff?
What is the integration timeline?
How would the transaction affect overlapping products and services offered by the legacy institutions?
One company that has used social media for transaction communications is Wells Fargo. In October 2008, the bank announced a merger agreement in which it would acquire all outstanding shares of common stock of Wachovia in a stock-for-stock transaction. As part of its communications effort, the merging institutions created the Well Fargo-Wachovia blog, which is the first blog dedicated to providing information about a merger.In the first post, John Stumpf, Well Fargo’s CEO wrote that:
In my 26 years with the company, I’ve been involved in more than 100 mergers. With each one, it’s natural for our customers to feel both excitement and some uncertainty at the same time. But you can be certain that as we combine our two companies we’ll start every decision with what’s best for you, our customers. Blending cultures, combining businesses, products and systems, and changing names will take time — two to three years — because we want to do it right for you. One way we’ll keep you updated on what’s happening with the integration of Wachovia and Wells Fargo is through this blog. Here we’ll share news and information, and you can ‘join the conversation’ and let us know along the way how we’re doing and what we can do better to make the transition as smooth as possible.
The blog, which has posts from different members across various management levels in the banking group, also contains videos and prominently displayed comment forms to encourage feedback.
These are the types of valid use cases where social media can be used in transaction communications.
Issues and Reputation management: The amplifier capacity of social media makes it the perfect technology for information dissemination. However, like a two edged sword, social media can be used to build and destroy reputations. The viral nature of social media affords users the ability to conjure a tempest within a small space of time. all it takes is one dissatisfied customer, activist shareholder or bitter employee with a phone camera, blog or even Twitter account to generate the kind of costly distraction that companies should dread. Gone are the days when the gall of these poorly served individuals was limited to a few lines in the complaints page of a newspaper when the editor deigned to publish same. Now, not only is it cheap to publish, it is also cheap to spread information in ways previously impossible.
The unfortunate case of brutality against Ms. Uzoma Okere by security aides attached to a rear admiral in the Nigerian Navy show just how powerful such citizen journalism can be in publicizing events that would simply have gone un-noted, and if noted, quickly forgotten, in the pre-social media world. In this case, the video was captured on a video phone and uploaded to iReport.com, the CNN-owned citizen journalism site. The incongruity of military men who are supposed to be the guardians of public order, lives and property unleashing such mayhem on defenseless civilians called to question the central values of the institution. There is even a Facebook group called Uzoma Okere Foundation Against Armed Forces Brutality. One example of the reputational damage done to the career of the naval officer can be seen in a Google search for his name: the top 100 results returned by Google are about the incident. Ostensibly, one would expect that in his long career in the navy, the officer would have earned due recognition for gallantry and leadership. He may even have served with honour in a foreign peacekeeping mission. Sadly, that is not what one finds in an internet search of his name.
While the PR department of most companies are unlikely to ever deal with such extreme cases, there are situations that can be just as reputation damaging. Let’s consider a few:
Pictures of a brewery, with a strong record of corporate social responsibly, dumping dangerous chemicals into a river, where the local community earns its livelihood from fishing. Distribution channel: Facebook.
Video of a customer showing records of overcharged banking transactions at a local bank and audio recordings of impolite phone conversations with the staff. The bank recently won the Bank of the Year award and has spent hundreds of millions of naira on its campaign to become the number one bank on the continent. Distribution channel: YouTube.
Blog and forum posts by disgruntled or disengaged staff about liquidity condition of a company. Distribution channel: Stockmarketnigeria.com.
Anonymous text messages and emails about distress in a popular bank from its exposure to margin loans and its impending seizure by the Central Bank and Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation. While email and SMS are, properly speaking, not social media, the ability to forward them to all contacts on the recipient’s address book on short notice, makes them viral distribution platform and worthy of mention.
In December 2008, many people were surprised to receive text messages about the impending doom in the banking sector. The sender(s) claimed that some of the country’s leading banks were on Central Bank life support. Their demise was near and imminent, the text declared. One sample text message read:
Please be careful. Some of the banks are stuck in the capital market. They have bought the shares of so many companies and even their own shares when the market was good. That is why they are all pretending to be working with SEC and NSE. They are having liquidity problems Please take your deposit from them.
Rather than develop a coherent response, the banks’ knee-jerk reaction was to shoot off their own text messages to customers. Unfortunately, these only served to heighten fears among many recipients since the texts neither addressed the issues nor did they provide objective, verifiable evidence to refute the claims. Here is a sample SMS (exact words) sent by the banks:
Beware: As revenge, disgruntled and ex-staff of Oceanic, Skye, ACCESS, BankPHB, FIB, Afribnk, IBPlc, Union, Zenith, FCMB are spreading rumors dat d banks have problems.
Putting aside the hideous language, the fact that the sender, responding on behalf of the institutions, failed to identify himself and thus provided no way to send feedback or ask questions, the SMS had simply asked recipients to discard the supposedly dubious claims in the initial messages for its own equally unverifiable claims. This demonstrated two things:
The absence of a coherent communications strategy at these banks for issues like these.
A complete lack of knowledge of the tools available to put across their own version in an effective and engaging way.
Since then, the rumours about banks have continued to swirl. Only this time, they have moved from the shadows of anonymous text messages to the mainstream media, online forums and social networks. Still, the banks have failed to come forward to defend their balance sheets, credit exposure or risk management. Customers and investors are now obliged to turn to hearsay. Visits to the websites of all the above listed banks make no mention of either the initial text messages or their reaction to it. In fact, the bank websites do not contain a single shred of information on how they are responding the the wider economic crisis, not to talk of internal liquidity matters. It would seem that they have all elected to bury their heads in sand.
As our focus here is on social media, we shall focus on the online angle of countering these guerrilla narratives. Jeff Quipp has written an excellent article on online reputation management. He has also developed a very helpful flowchart on how companies should tackle these situations. Essentially, he advises the following steps:
Companies should set up an online alert system like Google Alerts, FiltrBox, AlertRank, Swamii or BuzzDing, so that they receive notice of mentions of the company or related issues once these are crawled.
Review all alerts to determine those mentions that deserve a response based on the merits of the claims or opinions in them. Here, we would add that positive mentions need to be recognized too, and their contributors thanked on the particular cyberlocale.
Respond to as many mentions as possible, clearly identifying that this is a company response.
In cases where there is an avalanche of mentions, companies need to prioritize. Site rankings can help to determine a site’s popularity.
Determine the type of action that would constitute success: a formal recant, apology, admission of the other point of view, etc.
Be polite and considerate. The target is the claim not the individual. No ad hominem attacks allowed.
Let us see an example of how one company is using social media in innovative ways to defend its reputation and correct misconceptions. GM, the auto company, has successfully used its Fastlane blog to communicate its success at building cars that excel against foreign brands, the progress it is making in returning to profitability, and its views on the challenges facing the US auto industry. For example, in this old post from 2005, Bob Lutz, the company’s vice chairman, defends the quality of GM’s Chevrolet Cobalt against a less than glowing article by in the Wall Street Journal. The post has got over 140 comments since it was written. A regular company web page could never have attracted this type of participation, simply because the tools for feedback are simply not there.
The company has also been aggressive in its use of social media to put across its side of the story in the Detroit bailout initiated at the end of George W. Bush’s presidency. The company created a special website, GM Facts and Fiction, to correct misperceptions on the use of the bailout funds. It has also created a number of videos with embed features that have appeared on many sites from YouTube to auto-enthusiast sites. For instance, in the following video, the company shows how a collapse of the US auto-industry would have severe repercussions on the US economy, far beyond those on the payrolls of the Big Three of Detroit.
While the debate on the future of the US auto-industry and the nature of an effective bailout rages on, there is no doubt that the company is getting its message across and getting unfettered feedback, which is always a good thing.
Crisis communications: What happens when a company lands itself in really deep trouble? The kind that threatens the very essence of its brand and in some cases, its future as a going concern? At such sensitive moments, companies are wont to shut down communications in order to focus on ‘fixing the problem,’ like there is a direct inverse relationship between addressing the issue to ensure it does not re-occur and describing steps being taken to do so. Rather than view these as complimentary, companies have chosen to treat each as separate.
Such crisis situations may arise from any of the following:
Workplace and service delivery accidents
Product recalls and product failures
Litigation
Blackmail
Top level investigation by government agencies or regulators
Labor actions
Natural disasters
Bankruptcies and restructurings
Environmental crises and issues
Challenges presented by activist groups and non-governmental organizations
Sexual harassment and discrimination allegations
Company or product boycotts
Trademark disputes and patent infringement.
How companies respond to these, at the communications level, are just as important as how they deal with them at the strategic and operational level. In the internet age, where Google is the ‘key to the kingdom’, companies need to ensure that they are prolific in getting their version of events out across through channels to ensure search engine discovery when related terms are queried. These channels are the social media pipes: videos on video sharing sites, fora, blogs, social networks. But it is not enough to simply upload a video or post a story. Companies need to ‘watch this space’, as it were, to track feedback and follow-on comments as the situation evolves. This also means responding in the Comments section of news sites to coverage of the crisis.
The August 2007 recall by Mattel, the US maker of Barbie dolls and owner of the popular Fisher-Price brand, due to unacceptable levels of lead paint discovered in its toys provides a classic case of how a company did its best to reassure affected victims, but stopped short of inviting participation and transparent feedback. The risk here for companies is that when they fail to provide the platforms for exchange, the conversation will go where it finds. This is why it makes sense to use social media to invite those conversations to the company’s cyberlocale of choice, where it can listen in, contribute and create visibility for its efforts in addressing the matter. During the crisis, a Facebook discussion on the subject attracted a lot of comments. Micheal E. Rubin, one of the commentators, while commending the company noted that:
From a purely tactical perspective, the Mattel site doesn’t make it easy to share the CEO’s apology video or forward any sort of key messaging to friends. Instead of an easy-to-share and forwardable PDF with a simple list of recalled toys, they have a slew of confusing links that make it difficult to understand exactly which products are being recalled and why. Other tactics glaringly missing in action:
Where is the forum allowing consumers to talk with one another?
Where is the message board fully staffed with customer service personnel ready to answer questions?
Where is the daily blog with updates on the corrective actions they are taking?
Where are the Mattel representatives or PR folks in commenting on Consumerist, Babycenter.com, Facebook forums, etc. (i.e. ‘participating’ in the conversation?)
From a higher-level and more strategic perspective, though, my biggest problem is that this is NOT a conversation. As noble as this straightforward apology is, it’s still a one-sided ‘we tell you the message’ monologue, not a conversation or dialogue with customers. If they were truly interested in conversation, Mr. Eckert, the Mattel CEO, would have announced the formation of a special panel of parents and other consumers to monitor and watchdog the situation. They would have thrown open the doors of the executive suite and asked, ‘We’re taking action, but we need your help and want your input.’ None of that has happened, to the best of my knowledge. At the very least, you’d have a panel of advocates and evangelists ready to champion the company’s cause. At the very most, you’d have a more open, two-way conversation built on dialogue and trust. Lastly, if this was a true conversation, Mr. Eckert, the CEO, would have started and ended his video by saying, ‘And if you have any further questions, please call my office at 1-800-XXX-XXXX, where we have specialists ready to answer your questions and concerns about the recalls. I’ll even pick up the phone and help out once in a while. I can’t answer every question, but I’ll do my best.’
However, these pro-active measures in social media usage are not meant to replace the traditional press release, TV appearance or one-on-one meetings with affected persons. It is not an either-or choice between the use of traditional and new media. The single goal should be to douse the fire as quickly as possible. All hands on deck, or perhaps, all media on deck, should be the rally call.
In a crisis, the devil is in the speed of response. Companies should think in hours, not days. They need to check the validity of all information and as soon as it is confirmed, push it out.
How can companies use social media to communicate the crisis handling?
At the strategic level, there needs to be a plan in place. Naturally, this would include recognition that the crisis will be a management priority until it is ’settled’, define what ’settle’ will be, templates of crisis scenario rapid responses: FAQS, press materials, factsheets on the company, role & responsibility assignments, internal communications during the crisis, available track records, preferably supported by independent sources, to counter perceptions that the crisis has generated, contact information of key media contacts and analysts.
At the tactical level, the company needs to set up triggers on sites like Google Alerts, FiltrBox, Swamii and BuzzDing even before a crisis, have dark sites, also known as placeholder sites, on standby, register adwords for likely search terms as soon as the crisis breaks and before search engines crawl the dark site, create groups with identifiable titles on as many forums and social networks where active conversations regularly take place and drive discussions there, respond in the Comments section of every online News article on the story. Ed Lee has written a must-read article on the creation and content of dark sites.
Throughout the message should be: we accept responsibility for what has happened, we are deeply sorry, what happened is regrettable and inexcusable, we share in the pain we caused those affected, this is how we are remedying the matter, we assure all that this was an aberration and does not reflect our standards and culture, it will not happen again, please contact us directly on the following numbers and email addresses if you would like to ask further questions, once again, we are apologize for this situation.
The example of JetBlue’s response to the cancellation of over 250 flights around Valentines Day in 2007 due to snow storms and the consequent unbearable delays on the tarmac for boarded passengers, shows how a company can successfully use social media for crisis communications.
JetBlue used social media, in this case, a video of the CEO, David Neeleman, apologizing for the snafu to reach upset passengers and their loved ones after the incident. There is even a blog called JetBlueHostage.com that focuses solely on the shortcomings of the airline. The blog owner, Genevieve McCaw, who was a passenger on one of the canceled flights, also has a MySpace page on the same subject. This is just the type of crusader customer that companies do not want to cross. Prior to social media, her influence would have been limited to a small circle, and maybe a ‘nuisance’ in front of the office building. With social media, she can push her own story out on the same, and even better terms than the company if she understands how to use social media and search engine optimization (SEO) and has a network that can amplify her opinions or experiences.
Admittedly, there are a number of things JetBlue could have done better, notably opening the CEO’s blog, FlightLog, for comments the use of a video sharing site to spread its apology shows the company’s understanding of the power of social media in crisis communications. Interestingly, many JetBlue passengers also used the same channels to broadcast their own frustrations. The juxtaposition gives viewers the opportunity to compare both narratives side-by-side so that they can make informed decisions with a better understanding of the context of the crisis.
We have shown these videos to demonstrate the need for companies to go where those conversations are taking place. Here, the passenger video was uploaded on February 16, 2007. Three days later, on February 19, JetBlue uploaded their own video.
All the above demonstrate that Nigerian companies can simply not afford to ignore the pressing need to listen in and participate in the conversations going on about them. The costs of non-participation are too high.
In conclusion, we hope that our treatment of the subject in Part 1 and Part 2 of this post has covered all the important bases. If you would like to add your own ideas or recommend other sites with useful content, you are welcome to do so in the comments area. It is about time that Nigerian companies took part in the discussion.
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