Late last week, one of ddm’s clients was confronted with a national media story that threatened the marketability of their entire product line (the client’s identity can’t be shared at this point without possibly compromising some confidential issues). The timing of this story and it’s inaccuracies couldn’t have been worse from the standpoint of the client, which is on the verge of launching some major new products in this category. The media coverage inadequately summarized some recent research findings, and in today’s age of viral communications those inaccuracies quickly spread.
Social media to the rescue
In response to the stories, the ddm team quickly implemented a series of social media activities, including:
- Monitoring blogs for related industry experts and associations and responding to postings that inaccurately described the research findings
- Following the topic on Twitter and responding to tweets from key industry players who were simply forwarding previous media coverage without thorough evaluation
- Posting other, more complete research online to make it accessible to interested audiences
- Uploading videos to designated YouTube channels to provide other perspectives on the products and services called into question
- Tracking RSS feeds from major media outlets to gage the volume and urgency of media coverage on the topic for our client and responding as necessary
- Coordinating with other industry leaders to leverage social media efforts and content to enhance exposure to more accurate representations of the data
After four furious days of activity, the research essentially became a non-story. †The client was delighted with the content that we created, the urgency with which we acted and the sheer volume of information that was communicated within a concentrated timespan. †
In other times, press releases would have been written and faxed, press conferences organized and held, and many organizations concerned about the same issue would have operated independently of one another. Today, social media allows us to act with speed, accuracy and a level of coordination that is not only impactful, but also quantifiable.
Kudos to a job well done.
2 Comments
This raises several questions, Mike, along with a celebratory toast to ddm’s ability to don fire equipment.
At the end of the unexpected project, are you able to total the costs? I’m sure they’re infinitesimal compared with the client’s potential losses. Further, what do you learn from how efficiently your firm’s resources were employed and are there things you’d do differently?
Most important, does this exercise lay the groundwork for a “fire drill” tool that ddm can use to help this client, and others, more readily respond to media assaults?
Good questions, Bob. The total costs were far less than I expected and very small in comparison to other traditional forms of communications. Nothing I’ve seen in the past has generated a similar measurable response for the same investment. In regards to our team and whether or not we’d do things differently, this experience unveiled some hidden talents on our team but also identified some skills that we can enhance. Were we successful? Yes, but if several of our clients needed similar levels of responsiveness we’d have difficulty. After a formal de-brief, we can structure a social media version of a crisis communications plan, which is the logical next step. The bottom line is, our client is thrilled but we can be even better with some adjustments to our processes.