As Nepal earthquake leaves aftershock of insensitive social media communication by the likes of Lenskart and American Swan, Aliefya Vahanvaty analyses what brands must do in the face of a crisis in the social media battlefield
(With inputs from Saloni Dutta)
In life, as in business, reputation is everything. Look at what Lenskart, American Swan or ScoopWhoop did, insensitively leveraging the Nepal earthquake on the very day it happened, in their social media communication. It has left the brands shame-faced, to say nothing of the actual loss to reputation and business.
Social media is a brilliant tool for brands to engage with their customers, and it generally makes the world more transparent. Sometimes, however, brands can get caught out badly, or make massive mistakes which get amplified in real time. Perhaps the most terrifying thing for brands and businesses is that it can begin in a matter of minutes and all it takes is one tiny message from a single disgruntled employee or an unhappy customer to trigger a wave. Brands have to learn not only to communicate effectively in the social media age, but also to truly listen to the social chatter and respond in the way that aligns with both brand and customer expectations.
The case for a plan
From a consumer standpoint, social media is great news because brands are far more accountable than they've ever been before and the standard of service and general honesty around products is improving as a result.
But for brands, it is imperative to have a crisis management plan in place. By being prepared before a mishap even occurs, brands can be ready to face potential problems without wasting time figuring out who is responsible for what, how to address concerns and rectify the issue.
Having a solid plan in place to address the negative whiplash or complaints in a timely and transparent manner will not only help preserve a brand’s reputation, but confirm yet again that it is a business that cares about its customers and is willing to go the extra mile to make them happy and live up to its reputation.
Experts say many brands take social media too casually. “For most large organizations operating in the digital world today, it’s a scenario of anything can happen at anytime. What companies and brand managers can do is make the best effort to use technology to prevent a situation from arising in the first place and secondly, to have a plan in place to deal with situations as they happen,” says Mahesh Murthy, founder, Pinstorm, a digital advertising firm which has clients such as ICICI Bank and Cadbury’s Dairy Milk on its roster.
“There are two issues that exist in the digital world unlike in the paper world. If a reporter made a mistake in a magazine article or if a brand was talked about in a negative light, it would all blow over in a couple of weeks or months. In the online world, a mere mention lives on forever,” Murthy adds.
Social media is about opinions and everyone is entitled to an opinion. And for brands, in this scenario, it’s always far more effective to have a strategy in place beforehand rather than clean up the mess later. According to industry experts, having a team in place, having a response protocol in place, looking at business reputation management as an investment rather than a cost are all the little things which will go a long way in making the brand’s online presence safer and stronger.
The four-fold way ahead
Social media disasters occur for a number of reasons, the first being that your company probably messed up. It may not have been intentional, but something, somewhere down the line, went wrong enough for someone to complain and it was enough for others to vocalize that complaint en masse. One mistake is all it takes for social media to turn against a brand.
No one is perfect and you can’t expect to please everyone all the time, so the best trick is to be prepared to handle things if your company finds itself under attack in the social realm.
Listening is imperative
Social media listening is no longer just an experiment by a few innovative brands. It’s now imperative for all. “If brands don’t invest in listening, then there’s no point investing in marketing. They are two sides of the same coin and need equal attention from brands. A few brands such as ITC Hotels have excellent tracking and reply mechanisms in place. They have a 24x7 monitoring system and quickly respond and take action on any situation. On the other hand, several brands have not felt it necessary to invest in this kind of system; it’s only a matter of time before they realize that it is essential rather than just an ‘extra’ in their social media plan,” says Shah.
Sometimes social listening tools will pick up the chatter about a topic that you may not expect and will give you time to address it before it blows up within the social stratosphere. Most brand disasters could have been prevented just by picking up the early chatter and being prepared to address it before it escalated. “Real-time listening and quick response are key to any crisis on social media. If brands are constantly cued in and understand the conversations taking place, it is easier to deal with any issue before it snowballs into a major situation,” agrees Karthi Marshan, Sr. EVP & Head – Group Marketing, Kotak Mahindra Bank.
Hire the right team
Brands need to ensure that they have the right team for handling their social media. Brands increasingly are getting these 20-somethings to manage their online accounts. They have a great grasp of social and can come up with fantastic quirky content, but they have no clue about what the brand image is or what communication means in the corporate space. According to industry experts, brands today don’t have people who understand both marketing and communications, and can handle digital media equally well, and that’s where the problem arises. “’Shake it like the earthquake’ may be a cool statement from a 20-year-old’s perspective but that can never be a brand message, given the context,” says Gupta.
“The downside of social media is that because it’s open to all, and because millennials are social media savvy, they head digital companies or social media teams of large companies. These young employees are very good at what they do, but they do not necessarily have the sensibility, leave alone, experience or capability, to handle a situation when things go wrong. There should be a constant process of checks and balances by companies. Unfortunately, today we have a situation where most of the digital companies are as young as their owners. It’s a disaster waiting to happen,” says Murthy.
But not everyone thinks it is a problem of age. “The industry itself is less than a decade old. The calmness and thinking required in a crisis situation might be better in an older, experienced team member but that doesn’t make them equipped to handle social media. They are used to dealing with crisis situations in more traditional forms of media and so their experience might not necessarily be suited to an online crisis management scenario. So it’s best if brands invest in training and putting systems in place. There are challenges on both sides, and eventually it is a learning curve for the industry as a whole,” says Rajiv Dingra, CEO of WatConsult.
The ideal response time is now
When responding to social media mistakes or controversies, always respond as soon as possible. If you were in a verbal argument with someone, you wouldn’t wait several days later to respond, would you? By responding in a timely fashion, customers realize that you care about the error or the particular issue at hand. The longer you let your mistake sit and simmer, the more damage you cause.
“The first thing that needs to be done is acknowledge the issue – whether online or offline is secondary. Publicly acknowledge the problem, and then take it offline and resolve it. Prove that you are open to listening and engaging. Secondly, investigate. If you are wrong, apologize publicly. If the other party is wrong, then put that up as well in the public sphere. Don’t be afraid to stand up if you have done nothing wrong. Sometimes, brands also get arm-twisted. So respect the customer, respect public intelligence and importantly, respect your brand as well,” says Shah.
Dingra agrees and says, “Don’t run away. Put things in context. People, in the first instance, want to know what happened. They don’t want to know what you did or didn’t do to put things right. That comes later. If you are investigating, set a deadline and respect it. If there was a mistake on your part, respond fast and apologize. Don’t avoid the situation.”
“Let me share a recent example, where a customer visiting our branch tweeted about waiting for 10 minutes to get her work done. The tweet was immediately picked up, and the branch manager was informed about it. Within minutes, the branch manager reached out to the customer and her issue was resolved,” explains Marshan of Kotak Mahindra Bank.
“We’re living in a world where fewer secrets can be kept and when you goof up, its crucial that you respond immediately,” concludes Mishra.
Have a plan in place
Crisis planning is essential. Every business should have a minute-by-minute strategy for how it will deal with a service shutdown or public relations disaster. The plan should confidently address the following questions: Who will handle your social media accounts in case of a crisis? What will that person be authorized to write on social media? Will they need approval for every post? What will the messaging be across platforms? Will you have more than one person responding to posts? What posts will you proactively put out there?
“There is no perfect plan. It has to be an action-oriented plan suited to each brand/situation. It should be an ‘If this then that’ plan. Brand teams have to come up with scenarios of all the possible crisis situations that you can imagine for your business from an internal ‘situation’ standpoint and also from an unhappy consumer view. The ‘if this then that’ plan should have elements such as what is the stand we should take, what should the reaction time be, things like that. Brands often avoid saying sorry because of legal repercussions they may face. Brand language in these situations is very important,” says Dingra.
“One person needs to be in-charge of service quality levels and response management for social media. Someone who can be accountable for everything that goes out on social media. Secondly, a regular review of social media – how many mentions, how many issues came up, how many were resolved, how were they resolved – this will ensure that the whole organization is up to speed on what’s happening and active steps will be taken to address each issue as soon as it comes up. Top management involvement in this aspect is crucial,” advises Shah.
“Yes, social media has to be topical and instantaneous but that doesn’t mean that it has to be offensive. For example, of the five tweets a day that a brand puts up, maybe one or maximum two need to be topical. The rest could have been prepared well in advance. And, in case you are putting up something topical on social media, it’s just good business practice that someone senior in communication and marketing approve that message before it goes out there on a public platform,” says Gupta of OMLogic.
In a world that claims to be social but can actually be quite anti-social, every mistake is an opportunity to learn.
How some brands got it wrong on May 25
When a massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal and some parts of India a few days ago, there were few brands who cashed in on this opportunity to promote themselves heavily on social media. Within minutes, they were slammed and eventually had to issue a public apology.
Immediately after the earthquake, brands like Lenskart, American Swan, Troika Consulting and news website ScoopWhoop came out with insensitive posts at a time when death and devastation plagued Nepal. Riding on the earthquake news, they came out with posts like ‘Shake it off like this Earthquake: Get any Vincent Chase sunglasses upto Rs 3,000 for FLAT Rs 500, by sending invites to 50 Friends’ (by Lenskart) or ‘Earthquake Shakes India 7.5 on Richter Scale. If you were busy updating your status as you evacuated the building, we might have a job for you in our social media team’ (by Troika Consulting). American Swan’s ad read, “Whooaaa! This is an Earth Shattering offer!” ScoopWhoop published an article titled, ‘16 thoughts that went through everyone’s mind when the earthquake happened’, trivializing the tragedy.
“I would attribute the Nepal earthquake social media disasters to lack of experience and over excitement on social media. Across the industry, most of the social media teams are pretty young people. In such a case, firstly, it is imperative to have systems and a code of ethics in place. While social media can be used to advantage by brands, it is also something the entire world notices very quickly. So you have to be very careful as well,” says Abhishek Razdan, EVP & National Business Head, Jack in the Box Worldwide, 120MediaCollective.
“A lot of brands believe that by doing social media marketing, they are indulging in sales. Where they are lacking is that they don’t invest in their teams where communication protocols are concerned and they don’t invest in listening to their customers. That kind of negligence results in social media marketing of the kind we saw during the recent Nepal earthquake,” says Nimesh Shah, Head Maven, Entrepreneur - Co-Founder of Windchimes Communications Pvt Ltd, a digital experiential agency.
“They got a lot of backlash. Social media has become a good forum for disapproval and the brands found out first hand that there are certain things you don’t leverage – and disasters whether natural like the earthquake or man-made like war, are not something brands need to use as marketing tools,” states Pranesh Mishra, Chairman & Managing Director, Brandscapes Worldwide, a global brand & insight consulting company.
“There is really no excuse for the kind of brand communication done by Lenskart and American Swan and ScoopWhoop. They could have used their brand to help those affected at a time like this which would have got them the right kind of brand loyalty and instead, they chose to do the exact opposite. This just goes to prove that hiring the right people and putting systems and processes in place for social media is even more important in the digital world than in traditional marketing,” says Kapil Gupta, CEO, OMLogic Consulting Pvt. Ltd., an online and social media agency.
Feedback: aliefya@exchange4media.com
