April 2009 Archive

Swine flu has taken a stranglehold on the news this week with Google News producing almost 42,000 news stories Wednesday compared to about 800 on the American economy taking a Q1 nosedive:

Google News: Swine Flu vs The Recession

This juxtaposition of swine flu news and recession news highlights three digital trends that are affecting how businesses communicate. The three biggest similarities between them from a digital communications perspective are:

1. Speed
2. Credibility
3. Language

Speed

Both swine flu and the recession have been reported on instantly and broadly, and businesses and governments have been expected to respond quickly in both cases. This has put pressure on spokespeople and executives to deliver extremely sensitive messages quickly and accurately. For both swine flu and the recession, mistakes and conflicts due to poor timing could lead to the cause of financial ruin or even literally death.

Credibility

The explosion of social media outlets has empowered anyone (or thing) with a connection to the Internet to spread news. Motives are often questionable and uncontrolled. But when controlling a pandemic or a stock market, it is imperative for health and financial experts to rise above the fray. The cacophony of voices in social media makes this difficult to do, but perhaps the advent of “semi-social media” (think Mahalo, Alltop) will give experts the visibility the public at large deserves.

Language

Another similarity between the two crises is that both have suffered from unfortunate nomenclature. Terms like “swine flu,” “toxic assets,” and “crisis” can lead to misinterpretation. For example several tweets on #swineflu caution against eating pork products, however, that is not how the flu is spread.

What lessons has your business learned from these events?

[also posted on SocialMediaToday.com]

There are too many “life” recording devices, information sharing platforms, and people to control for an organization or corporation. What happened to Domino’s with “rogue” personnel posting content of inappropriate and damaging activity is not too different from what lead to the exposure of Abu Ghraib abuse in 2004. The point is that these incidents are likely to happen as they reflect not only deeper underlying issues such as mismanagement and organizational practices, but now more than ever actions of individuals can have a huge impact. These incidents also tend to skew in a negative direction as it is much more likely that something shocking and inappropriate will get more attention than potential positive stories.

It is necessary for any organization to accept that a similar incident may happen to them at any time. It is impossible to have 100% satisfaction from all company stakeholder groups and focusing on draconian prevention practices will not likely work. These incidents again show that it is necessary to cultivate a positive social media presence not just to drive revenue and other goals but as a risk management tactic in case of crisis. Preparing a tiered social media crisis plan should be on the agenda of most companies and only serve as another reason to develop a social strategy.