When an organisation finds itself 'on the ropes', deemed culpable of having committed grave oversight and dereliction of duty in its dealings with the public, it is good crisis management practice that its leaders come forward, admit the failing, deliver a personal apology and outline the precise, systematic and often sacrificial steps underway to restore trust.

It's a nerve-wracking strategy and one I've selectively counselled to organisations in crisis situations. If well managed, it is one that can take the real sting out of an issue and put a company's reputation and commercial prosperity back on track.

Within the last month, Domino's Pizza used this recovery strategy to great effect in its very own marketing nightmare. In a scandal dubbed "Boogergate", two uniformed employees at the pizza chain posted a tawdry YouTube video of one of them rolling a cheese slice up his nostril before placing it in a customer sandwich. With other gross acts performed, it spoke to every primordial, gut-churning suspicion one might have about back-room food hygiene and dubious employee practices in low-budget, fast food environments.

Effective crisis management dictates that any company should be aware and on top of an issue, having contained media and public spread and committed to substantive remedial action, within 24 hours. By these standards, Domino's response within 48 hours was sluggish.

Having sparked in the niche GoodAsYou.org and the consumer "watchdog"-style Consumerist outlets, the video made that fateful leap across to the mainstream, appearing in NBC and The New York Times. Over 1 million people, meanwhile, had watched the YouTube posting before it was eventually 'pulled'.

Nonetheless, Domino's decision to launch its own YouTube apology by Patrick Doyle, Domino's US President, will still go down as an example of classic crisis mitigation within a non-traditional environment. Despite a stilted delivery, Doyle announced assertive action that would see the local store closed, the two employees fired and placed under police investigation and top-down reviews of the company's hiring practices. Recognising its international demographic, the company moved swiftly to Australia, where its CEO, Ron Meij, relayed strong and reassuring messages about standards in its regional outpost.

It was an astute recognition of audience demographics and mood that allowed Domino's finally to recover brand image and to achieve the highest form of reputation management: turning a seemingly insurmountable crisis into a valuable learning and social marketing opportunity.

"The Challenge that comes with the freedom of the internet is that any idiot with a camera and an internet link can do stuff like this - and ruin the reputation of a brand that's nearly 50 years old, and the reputations of 125,000 hard-working men and women across the nation and in 60 countries around the world."

- Tim McIntyre, V-P Communications, Domino's Pizza, LLC.

One of the most valuable lessons in online crisis management is crisis preparedness. These are some of my top tips to help you in your online crisis and reputation management strategy:

1. Track Your Mentions

• Company name/URL
• Employees/Key Staff
• Competitors
• Brand/Product
• Impacting Issues/News Themes

2. Take The Audience Temperature

• Who is talking about you online/offline?
• Where are they talking?
• How influential/connected are they?
• IS YOUR BRAND/PRODUCT WORKING?
• Who else is impressing them?
• Which media/communities do they reference?

3. Stay Close to The Ground

• Train the team/assign media responsibilities
• Prioritise outlets
• Develop online company/brand tracking toolkit
• Listen in to online 'buzz'/follow 'hashtags'
• Evaluate what's being said (impact/control)

4. Bring the Outside World In

• Define your dialogue style/persona
• Build unsolicited consumer feedback channels across all "portals"
• Evolve company/executive blogs, corporate Twitter accounts etc
• Use social media evaluation to inform corporate & marketing strategy
• Engage in value dialogue that enhances accessibility, understanding
• Avoid 'hard sell' at all costs!

5. PERFORM! Structure for Agility

• Establish crisis governance team
• Establish satellite crisis management teams
• Embed crisis alert and escalation procedures
• Clarify functional responsibilities
• Train key spokespeople (outlets/messaging)
• Generate communication toolkits/protocols
• Undertake regular scenario planning/alert tests

Labels: crisis management, Domino's Pizza, online PR, online reputation

How Twitter compares to Facebook and Linked In and whether it's a simple, passing fad are questions that persist in the blogosphere. Just last night I found myself issuing a rapid response to that very question posted by an industry peer.

Remarkably, I've already formed a firm perspective on this since former Kodak Digital boss (virtual-world mentor, friend and demonic early-adopter, Pierre Schaeffer) persuaded me to join the site just last week. Initially sceptical, I'm now in danger of becoming hooked - with good professional reason.

In my view, Twitter is more 'spiky' in its opinion base than Facebook (generally a closed social/familial community) or Linked In (a more professional networking outlet). It is also a more virulent and unashamed social recruitment tool, allowing complete strangers to comfortably 'follow' one another around given discussion topics or themes. As such, its potential is huge in allowing individuals or corporate entities (represented in impressive scale) to galvanise and shape public opinion ; and is equally huge in leading them unwittingly to the sharp, pointy end of it - with all its consequential impact to reputation.

You may only have one or two isolated people 'following' your company's Twitter postings ('tweets') but, behind them, pay close attention to how many 'followers' they have tracking their tweets. What may seem like a passing discourse about product/service dissatisfaction between two seemingly innocuous and unrelated individuals could ignite a viral outburst of fevered debate as their disciples chime in with similar experiences, initiating their followers in turn to mobilise against the company concerned. Examples of this are well documented in David Meerman Scott's book 'The New Rules of Marketing & PR'.

This is the beauty of Twitter. Forget the trivial updates about what Maureen's dog ate for dinner. With that pyramid principle and, yes, with the characteristic Twitter profile of cross-demographic, everyday people who consume products, evaluate brands, companies and individuals on rational and often irrational grounds, we ignore Twitter at our peril as the home of potential activism.

With Twitter in particular as a social network, the Trojan horse is not in raw visitor numbers (around 235 million for Facebook (1) versus a reported 7-10 million currently for Twitter), but in the way individuals and groups - often strangers - appear to coalesce so readily around issues and conversations. 140 restricted text characters can generate a lot of vocal - and insightful - thrust!

In my opinion, it is that facility for social mobilisation that sets it miles apart from both Facebook and Linked In and that will constitute, I believe, a key differentiator as it moves into a future world where instant, opinion-based news and grass-roots activism is likely to increase rather than diminish. Here, the genie's already out of the bottle.

Whether Twitter will ultimately escape the clutches of a larger bird of prey - turning collective 'tweets' into resounding 'squawks' - remains to be seen. Site analytics company, Compete, just released 33 percent, past-month growth figures for Twitter in the U.S and revealed 965 percent year-on-year growth. Reports talk of Twitter membership exploding to 50 million visitors by the end of this year in that market alone.

Surely, it was the story of David and Goliath that taught us, never, to write off the little guy.


(1) CNet

Labels: activism, David Meerman Scott, Facebook, Linked In, online PR, online reputation, Pierre Schaeffer, social networking, Twitter