As we said in our post, Dealing with Disgruntled Ex-employees via Social Media, when you’re dealing with social media, your responses should always be on a case-by-case basis. That said; let’s build a scenario. Let’s assume the negative comments are factual and that no lives are at stake. Let’s also assume that this is not an issue that will require potential legal counsel and that this is not just a rant by some disgruntled ex-employee (which was the case in our last scenario).

Here are three suggestions to handle THIS specific situation.

1) Don’t ignore the situation. Publicly own up to it.

While you may not have all the information yet, if you know at least part of the negative comments are true, publicly own up to it. Apologize and say you are looking into the situation further. When you make it clear that “we’re on it,” this puts you into a position of at least some control. Imagine how this alone would have helped a company like Domino’s last year when that terrible video about a couple of former employee’s “secret” ingredients went viral. It was easy for Domino’s executives to quickly access that video, so they should have released a baseline statement of acknowledgment immediately with further information to follow.

2) Learn all the details and handle the situation internally.

When reports first emerged about brake/accelerator problems with Toyota vehicles the company would have improved their position by releasing a blanket statement of acknowledgment – not admission, but a simple “we hear you, we’re checking.” That would allow them time to look into the situation internally and determine if a voluntary recall was necessary or if the problem was a case-by-case situation. Granted, there were major safety and legal concerns involved, but with the guidance of their general counsel and legal team they should still have been able to draft SOME type of reasonable and timely response. Then they could proceed to learn the details and handle the problems internally – then publicly.

3) Publicly apologize and make amends.

Take notes from many popular retail organizations – if your restaurant order is wrong, most times your waiter will agree, volunteer to make it right, take care of the situation, apologize and then either discount the meal, give it to you on the house or give you some freebie for your hassle. Now when they do that don’t you feel more favorable towards that organization? Maybe not always, but more times than not the answer to that question is yes, you’d go back. So fix the problem and apologize with a public explanation of how you corrected the issue.

All that said, keep in mind that with any crisis management situation you must evaluate your response on a case-by-case basis. So when you are utilizing these points during a crisis remember these are only basic steps. You MUST include your marketing and publicity teams in your resolution meetings as well as any legal counsel if there are potential legal ramifications.

The moral of this situation is that no one’s perfect and we will all make mistakes. But more often than not, if you admit blame, take care of the situation, apologize and do what you can to fairly make amends you will gain a stronger brand loyalty among your customers than you had before. Challenges, correctly addressed, are opporunities.

Your company is forced to terminate someone’s employment, with good reason, and now the ex-employee is blasting your company on Twitter, Facebook and other popular social networks. Everything you’ve read about Social Media says you should be transparent and engage your audience – so how should you respond?

When dealing with social media, your responses should always be on a case-by-case basis. But in this case, let’s assume the rant is simply that – a rant – and it doesn’t raise legitimate, business-damaging issues. In that event, you DON’T respond.

Here are three reasons why, in THIS case, you should ignore disgruntled ex-employees on Social Networks.

1)     People know a rant when they read one

When an upset employee rants on a social media website they are usually just blowing off steam – and their audience sees that. The individual is just trying to generate sympathy or brew anger and, in most cases, readers know better than to take them too seriously.

2)     It’s a Human Resources issue

Companies are often legally restricted regarding what they can say in situations that involve HR issues. For this reason alone it’s usually best just to leave it be. Don’t put your company and yourself at risk of crossing a legal line.

3)     It’s a lose/lose situation

Nothing you say or do will make up for the loss of that person’s job so it’s best just to let it run its course. By engaging in a conversation you are just prolonging that individual’s fury and drawing more attention to that person and your situation.

When dealing with personalized attacks with no merit and no business-damaging substance, please consider that saying nothing is better than saying the wrong something.

Brand: United Airlines

Situation:

Dave Carroll and his folk-rock band, Sons Of Maxwell, were touring and flew United Airlines from Halifax to Nebraska for a concert. During a layover in Chicago, another passenger exclaimed, “My God, they’re throwing guitars out there.” Then Carroll and band members looked out the window and witnessed baggage handlers throwing luggage, including Carroll’s $3,500 Taylor guitar. Once they landed in Omaha later that evening, Carroll discovered his guitar had been broken.

Response:

Carroll was in contact with various representatives from United Airlines for nine months trying to get them to help compensate for the guitar repairs which totaled $1,200. Once United Airlines rejected his final offer to settle the matter, he vowed to write & create music videos for three songs in response. Carroll posted the first of those videos, “United Breaks Guitars,” on YouTube. You can see it here.

Outcome:

- The first video was posted on July 6. To-date it has been viewed more than 4.7 million times on YouTube and has generated more than 20,000 comments and three response videos (none coming from United).
- United became a trending topic on Twitter after the video was released.
- United donated $3,000 to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Carroll’s name, but it was too little, too late.
- More than a month later, a Google search for “United Airlines” still shows two results for “United Breaks Guitars,” including a screenshot of the video.

Brand: Horizon Group Management LLC

Situation:

Amanda Bonnen, an unhappy tenant from a Horizon Group property in Chicago sent out a Tweet to her 20 Followers, “Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon really thinks it’s okay.”

Response:

Horizon went straight to their lawyers and filed a $50,000 lawsuit saying their reputation as a landlord in Chicago was greatly injured. At no point in time did they attempt to contact Bonnen to ask her to remove the Tweet, or attempt to improve the situation. When asked for comment, Horizon owner, Jeffrey Michael said, “We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of organization.”

Outcome:

- To-date the story has had coverage from more than 150 media outlets, including: USA Today, Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press and BBC News.
- In a Google search for “Horizon Realty,” four of the 11 results on the first page refer to the lawsuit.
- Three days after the story broke, Twitter was still seeing an average of six Tweets per hour expressing outrage about Horizon’s response.

How would you have handled this situation if either of these happened to your brand?

As discussed previously on this blog, Domino’s recently had to combat a viral YouTube video showing two employees using disgusting “secret” ingredients to make a sandwich that they implied was later served to a customer. Domino’s responded via YouTube with a video featuring the president of Domino’s USA, Patrick Doyle, apologizing.

While it was a positive move for Domino’s to post an apology in the channel where the debacle initially began, it could have been better. The video was cold and corporate-feeling and lacked personality. Mr. Doyle was clearly reading from a script and hardly acknowledged the camera.

On the other hand, a Chicago-area Domino’s hit the nail on the head with an original and genuine video apology given by the owner of the franchise, Ramon De Leon, and the store manager, Ernesto “Junior” Royal. The franchise owner @dpzramon saw a Tweet from @interactiveAmy on Twitter complaining about her pizza order being messed up and then delivered late. Within hours @dpzramon contacted Amy via social media and then followed up with this video apology.

No script was utilized for as both men showed personality and spoke from the heart about the situation. They admitted error on their part, vowed to make it right and discussed how they were going to prevent a similar occurrence in the future. They apologized again, said there was no excuse and asked for the opportunity to make it up to her by remaking the order. Clearly, they saw an opportunity to turn a problem into an opportunity to market their commitment to “wowing” their customers.

Which video apology resonated most with you? Which would make you want to try eating Domino’s pizza again?

Information is a prescription that when properly administered can ease fears. With the possible pandemic of Swine Flu (H1N1) you may find a few employees nervous. And considering the media debate about avoiding public transportation, confined spaces and staying home with even the slightest symptom, who wouldn’t be? This is unknown territory for most of us, and with that comes new fears. So here are a few ways you can help remedy the tension at your company.

1. Send company-wide email alerts to communicate new updates made by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
As the cliché goes – information is power. Take the lead to provide information to your employees and you will help bring comfort to your organization. You’ll find current and reliable information on the CDC website at http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/index.htm.

2. Set up an RSS feed for CDC updates.
As the communicator you should be aware of updates shortly after they are released to the public. You can ensure this by setting up an RSS feed. RSS means Really Simple Syndication. The CDC website has a “subscribe” button – this is your RSS feed – click it. By clicking that button you’ve helped the CDC syndicate new information. Follow the instructions to set up a news feed so these updates will automatically be routed to you as soon as they become available.

3. Post an FAQ section on your intranet.
Let your employees know what you expect during this potential pandemic. Is it okay to come to work if they just have a headache? At what point should they go home or stay home? What do you expect in terms of communicating with customers and clients during this time? Is it okay to NOT shake others’ hands? Ease co-worker’s nerves by letting them know how your company expects them to act during this time.

You’ll certainly think of other smart things to do, and they’ll likely be based on one key commitment – communicating information. Keep communication in the forefront, and you’ll be much more likely to maintain a relaxing environment.

Last week was horrifically challenging for public relations executives at Amazon.com, Dominos and PepsiCo. Each company failed to respond in a timely manner to social media outcry to crises regarding company conduct or employee relations.

The week started with authors blaming Amazon.com for dropping their sales ratings from their popular website. Strangely, all sales rankings that disappeared were for books that discussed gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or erotic works. Accusations soared on the popular social networking website, Twitter, using the hashtag #AmazonFail so followers could track other comments on the situation. Amazon.com failed to respond until several days after the uproar began when they stated that this occurred due to a “computer glitch.” Offended parties were unimpressed with the excuse.

Following suit, Dominos takes the award for hardest fix when two employees released a YouTube video of themselves making a sandwich featuring crude, “secret” ingredients. The video later implies that the sandwich was served to a customer. Had Dominos been monitoring their brand more closely they could have had the video down in hours as opposed to a day. The two individuals who created the video have since been fired and are looking at a potentially hefty lawsuit. Below is an NBC Today Show segment featuring parts of the video. The original video is unavailable due to a copyright claim by Kristy Hammond, the woman featured in the video.

The week ended with another public relations crisis, this time at PepsiCo. As part of unveiling the new Yankee Stadium, PepsiCo, a stadium sponsor, held a promotional event that gave away free tickets to a Yankees game. Yankees fans joined in large numbers for a chance at the tickets and when fewer tickets were given out than promised, fans were mad! They demonstrated their anger by chanting “Pepsi Sucks!” while pouring cans of Pepsi into the gutter. In an attempt to redeem themselves, PepsiCo has set up another ticket giveaway with a local radio station – but not before the negativism had spread across social media networks.

With the rise in popularity of social media communities, the public can now comment instantly on brands, services and products. The lesson arising from these situations is that consumers demand immediate responses to their concerns. This makes it essential for companies to be familiar with various social media networks. If companies aren’t comfortable being involved in these communities yet, they should at least monitor their brands in these communities. By staying aware of what’s being said, companies can be positioned to prevent similar situations and – when they arise – to confront them directly, immediately and effectively.