Transcript Reputation Crisis Management

Sam Ford
Project Manager
MIT Convergence Culture Consortium
Program in Comparative Media Studies
Advisor of Customer Insights
Peppercom
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: (617) 324-9118
Fax: (617) 258-5133
Blog URL:
http://www.convergenceculture.org/weblog/
Harnessing Influence
According to a February 2008 study from Peppercom client
TNS media intelligence/Cymfony:
-Nearly 50 percent of senior marketing executives believe social media
“is a vital component of corporate communications.”
-Companies leading in using social media primarily see these outlets primarily
as a venue for listening to consumer viewpoints, while companies taking a
more cautious approach to social media see it primarily as a tool for
viral marketing and online video.
The Future of Digital Media Lies In:
1.) Access to Unfiltered Customer Insight
2.) The Ability to Encourage and Facilitate “Word-of-Mouth” Proselytizing
When Asked the Main Goal(s) of Their Companies’ Digital Programs, Respondents
to the Peppercom/PR News Survey Said:
Recruiting/Retaining
Employees
6%
Internal
Communication
12%
Other
3%
Build/Enhance
Reputation
32%
Testing/Experimenting
14%
Keep Up with
Competition
14%
Drive Sales
19%
Survey respondents indicated that the need for improving digital
communications is currently a low priority in the overall marketing budget:
26%-50%
5%
51%+
5%
None
18%
11%-25%
25%
1%-10%
47%
Among the 65 percent of respondents who felt confident in making predictions for
the 2008 marketing strategy, the vast majority felt that digital will play a more strategic
marketing role in 2008.
No
13%
Yes
87%
Among the 83%of respondents who felt they could forecast their company’s
digital marketing budget, only 8% of respondents expected a significant increase
in that budget, despite the overwhelming belief that digital will play a more strategic
role in 2008.
Increase Significantly
8%
Decrease
2%
Stay the Same
13%
Increase Slightly
35%
Don't Know
17%
Increase Somewhat
25%
Harnessing Influence
The Biggest Barriers to Implementing a Social Media Plan:
1.) Lack of Commitment Among Senior Management
2.) A Lack of Best Practices
3.) A Lack of Leadership from Marketing and PR Firms in the
Digital Space
Learning from Others’ Mistakes
Astroturfing: The attempt to make a marketing campaign seem grassroots through a lack of
transparency in admitting corporate ties.
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Wal-Marting
Across
America
Learning from Others’ Mistakes
Gee Whiz Factor: The momentary attraction of participating in a new trend or technology
because it’s currently considered as innovative, without giving thought as to the motivation
behind the offering.
Second Life
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Facebook Widgets
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The Importance of Best Practices
Transparency: Anyone marketing in the digital space must take great care to
be completely open about their marketing initiatives and any other underlying
circumstances which, if discovered by users without being made explicit by
marketers, might appear dishonest.
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For instance, WOMMA members pledge to
be wholly transparent in all attempts to promote
content online.
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As a blogger myself, I always strive to make explicit the connection
with partner companies at any point I write about any of their properties.
Steve Cody
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Managing Partner
and Co-Founder
Peppercom Strategic Communications
470 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10016
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: (212) 931-6114
Fax: (212( 931-6159
Blog: http://www.RepManblog.com
Frustration and Pain in Managing a Digital Presence
The recent survey conducted by Peppercom and PRNews in relation to this
Webinar emphasized:
• Frustration: Bosses, companies, and the C-Suite either aren’t investing in digital
or do not see digital digital as an important enough competitive
advantage, despite growing awareness of the importance of digital
for customer relations.
• Pain: With continued recession discussion alongside proliferation in
competition for the digital space, companies are often forging ahead
with a concern for digital without setting aside the necessary resources.
More than 60% of those surveyed feel they are at best parallel
or even behind their competitors on digital initiatives.
Lacking Confidence in a Digital Strategy
Companies say they’ll continue to expand their Web efforts,
but they are not yet confident in their digital strategy.
• More than 1/3 of companies believe it is “too soon to tell” if their
digital marketing programs are successful.
• More than 1/3 of companies rate their programs as only “somewhat”
or moderately successful.
How Do We Value the Web’s Part in Moving Digital Sales?
• Almost 1/3 of those surveyed see the Web as a vehicle for building/enhancing reputations.
• However, only 19% say the Web can drive sales.
• Further, survey results found a lack of confidence industrywide in the C-Suite’s
knowledge and strategy in the digital space.
Responses to our question regarding the C-Suite’s view of digital tools demonstrated a lack
of industry consensus about the state of digital. Of the 59% who answered the question,
only approximately 17% indicated that the C-Suite was guiding with a proactive vision for
their company’s digital presence, while 25% of those responding saw their chief officers
as very skeptical, unknowledgeable, or uninterested in digital.
How can we move forward in envisioning and valuing the ways a company’s digital presence
Impacts the bottom line?
Reactionary Approach Vs. Strategic Approach
• The survey results, taken as a whole, indicate that respondents feel prepared
for a digital crisis but less confident in their overall digital approach.
• This means that the majority of those surveyed are reacting to digital tactically
but lack the necessary planning that is essential in creating a strong digital
presence.
• Essential to this is learning from established best practices and the pitfalls
of prior mistakes.
Reputation Crisis Management:
Kentucky Fried Chicken
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Reputation Crisis Management:
Astroturfing
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Reputation Crisis Management:
Astroturfing
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“All I want for xmas is a PSP” was a Sony campaign meant to look like a
fan site, which was quickly picked apart the site’s lack of transparency.
Maintaining a Corporate Blog
Online Video and “Viral”
• Viral spread is not something you can
engineer for success. Users decide
what to pass around.
• The spread of online video cannot be
tightly controlled by the company if you
want it to be successful.
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• Pay close attention to how your product
is being used by others, but don’t let a
prohibitionist stance kill a good branding
opportunity that is user-generated.
Online Community/Blogger Relations
Blogger Relations
101
• Read Blogger’s Material
Before Contacting Them
• Make Sure What You
Send Is Relevant
• Understand the
Differences in Conversing
with a Blogger and a Big
Media Pitch
• Don’t Send a Thinly Veiled
Press Release in the Form
of Personal Communication
Sentiment Monitoring
ValSpar Pick up on what consumers were doing on their own,
Creating blogs, highlighting own home innovations, rather than
Saying they can’t put picture of can on site embraced it and
Viral program to leverage that.
Five Guiding Principles Businesses
Need to Live By In a Digital World
1.) Local Is Now Global.
2.) Understand the Population.
3.) Adjust for Users.
4.) Create an Open Forum for Conversation.
5.) If You Put Yourself Out There, You Have to Live with the Good and the Bad.
Local Is Now Global
Understand the Population
Moron Publicist of the Month: KFC’s Flack
READ MORE: Publicists, food, press releases, public
relations
This is why people hate publicists.
Now, as people who have at least a glancing familiarity with
this website, you probably realize that giveaway offers by
national fast-food chains do not, typically, fall within our
coverage area. One would expect even the soulless flacks
responsible for publicizing giveaway offers by national fastfood chains to be aware of this. (True, we once wrote about an
earlier stupid KFC gimmick, but that was only to lambaste the
chain for appropriating Office Space for its nefarious
purposes.)
But they’re not. While we understand that junior-level PR
people have to send out releases to whole big lists of media,
and so we try to simply ignore them — rather than get mad at
them, or taunt them — when they send us silly, irrelevant
things like news about giveaway offers by national fast-food
chains, sometimes that becomes impossible. Especially with
the imbeciles who do press for our old pals KFC. Who have
recently taken to hounding us. Like with this email, which
arrived yesterday:
From: Smulyan, Brandon
To: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2005 2:54 PM
Subject: Tis the KFC-eason for giving
Gawker, I realize the Ultimate KFC Fan Contest
ended yesterday. However, I just wanted to drop a
friendly reminder to let you know the other item,
the On Top of the World of KFC eBayｨ Auction,
ends on December 15. Have you had a chance to
look over the details yet? Again, please feel free to
contact me with any questions.
Best, Brandon Smulyan for KFC 972.830.XXXX
[email protected]
Brandon Smulyan for KFC then pastes below his
previous emails to us about KFCﾕs marketing
effort, as though he will somehow guilt us into
writing about his campaign, which we thought we
were being generous to not write about.
Well, congratulations, Brandon Smulyan for KFC.
We’re writing about you now.Because you’re our
Moron Publicist of the Month.
Adjust for Users
Create an Open Forum for Conversation
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Wal-Mart’s Check Out Blog provides buyers the chance
to critically review content sold by the retail chain with
a significant degree of candor.
Live with the Good and the Bad
Live with the Good and the Bad