Social media strategies in the age of knee-jerk

Welcome the age of crisis management crisis management.

The social media blowback phenomenon becoming a regular part of corporate communications news, most recently Labatt’s decision to crack a nut a legal sledgehammer. Social media needs risk management, it also needs a healthy dose of common sense.

To some it's about having more integrated response teams that include legal, social media, public relations, public affairs and marketing pros the table. That’s just obvious. But more than , it’s about sure someone at that table has some perspective.

Managing the risk doesn’t need mean kowtowing to an onslaught of crowd-sourced criticism. Not all blowback is created equal and companies need to able to properly gauge the meaning of it before responding it— of course you’re going for that whole knee-jerk panic thing.

There’s no doubt in some cases an about-shift is warranted. Labatt’s decision to back from a legal fight after the Internet laughed at the brewer and Pop Chips brown-face debacle are clear cases of legitimate damage control.

But what happens situations where an exaggerated social media response leads to unnecessary about-face? Consider the decision by retailer Gap to jettison its new logo. Sometimes a reverse decision is wise and sometimes it’s simply a flip-flop driven the loudest members of a mob.

The reality is social media combined with mobile technology for easy “slacktivism.” A series of re-tweets or “likes” not an uprising make. There’s a significant danger when using social media to replace market research because there’s a response bias. Social media and mobile expression skew to individuals wield a higher income, are younger and have more free time their hands. They can just plain skew toward complainers. Social media Benthamites would say this is the natural of events, because they care the most should win the day, a.k.a. the squeaky wheel argument. But other schools of thought will—and —called it the tyranny of the minority.

Social media blowback is not amorphous. Looking online sentiment requires a lot more measuring volume. Yes, volume of response matters, but does influence. So does thoughtfulness. So does broad demographic representation. And finally, it matters if of these people are your darn buyers or brand affiliates.

It’s easy to caught in a lather-rinse-repeat response cycle. Especially if everything is taken seriously and nothing has given any context. Social media measurement is only growing of its infancy stage and holds a lot of potential helping to provide the context needed. Some blowback is serious, but some is just people and companies themselves too seriously.

We’re slipping a point-and-laugh culture of social media criticism that it exceptionally easy for company responses or management of online crisis situations become the story. A real narrative of failure emerges out these types of gaffes or inappropriate responses. We all need to be understanding of missteps in this field or risk having the mirror turned us. Social media commentators quick to play into this game as well, piling a sense of “gotcha” criticism. Our parents taught us to laugh the misfortunes of others, but we’re often quick to do it the digital playground.


Adapted from: canadianbusiness.com, June 14, 2012.