@SarahActiance contemplates social crisis, the presidential debate, political unrest and of course bacon.
Remember way back when we saw a social media crisis where someone inadvertently (we hope) posted from the wrong profile. (and we all thought, phew, glad it wasn’t me!) Remember the Habitat UK Twitter Intern issue? Where an alleged intern tweeted using the #mousavi hashtag to promote offers?
Inadvertent or not we’re seeing a trend in recent times, the most memorable of which are:
- @RedCross did wonders for Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch beer when someone accidentally tweeted from the organization’s official ID about “when we do beer, we do it right”
- @celeboutique believed that the trending of #aurora as a hashtag was related to their @kimkardashian inspired dress, not (apparently) understanding the true reason for the trending. Apparently the author “wasn’t based in the USA”. Not it appears based on the internet either..
- And of course this week’s somewhat politically incorrect statement from @KitchenAidUSA on @barackobama and his g’ma that came during the presidential candidacy debate.
What I see here isn’t malicious intent. It’s simple human error. And I’ve done it myself. And, on more than one occasion. Luckily, I wasn’t tweeting about anything more than worldwide bacon shortages or #aporkalypsenow as we’re calling it here at @Actiance. But it’s easy to see how its done. I use a mobile device to socialize and like the vast majority of folks I’m much more social when I’m mobile. I’m also human, and in my rush to communicate, I might not always check which profile I’m tweeting from. Hence #aporkalypse.
That’s never going to change. The fallibility of human beings I mean. And that’s why we need technology to protect us from ourselves. Whether that protection requirement is for regulatory purposes, or the protection of our corporate or organization brands, I advocate that we need that control in place.
And while I’m on the topic, vaguely, why not take this moment to reflect on what your social media crisis plan is. Because when YOUR crisis hit, you won’t have time to think, you’ll just have to do – so take this breathing space right now and scope out your plan, while you still have time and thank your lucky stars that your brand isn’t trending for all the wrong reasons.
What would be on YOUR list for your social media crisis plan?
