Crisis Management in the Age of Social Media

CAPOZZI • RUCCI CAPOZZI THE BUSINESS Crisis Management P R C EXPERT PRESS Don W. Stacks and Donald K. Wright, Editors DIGITAL LIBRARIES in the Age of Social Media Louis Capozzi • Susan R. Rucci EBOOKS FOR Social media has fundamentally changed the contract BUSINESS STUDENTS between institutions and the public. Today, people Curriculum-oriented, born- expect a conversation, not a one-way diatribe. That, digital books for advanced combined with the speed of the Internet, changes the business students, written by academic thought game for many companies in anticipating, managing, Crisis leaders who translate real- and ultimately avoiding an “instant crisis”—an instant world business experience crisis example is when Verizon added a $2 charge for into course readings and all their customers; one hour later 100,000 signatures appeared on a Twitter petition, and soon Verizon was in Management reference materials for students expecting to tackle the middle of a huge public relations crisis. OF SOCIAL MEDIA AGE THE IN CRISIS MANAGEMENT management and leadership Inside this book, you’ll learn just how to manage this challenges during their type of situation and meet the challenges of social media. in the Age of professional careers. Each chapter includes a description of a crisis, the timeli- POLICIES BUILT ness of a good response, the effectiveness of this response, BY LIBRARIANS and an assessment of what works and what doesn’t. Social Media Some examples of social media crises include Apple • Unlimited simultaneous usage Computer, Net ix, JetBlue, Bank of America, Fed Ex, and • Unrestricted downloading public gures such as Anthony Weiner, Ashton Kutcher, and printing and Jon Bon Jovi. • Perpetual access for a Louis Capozzi teaches courses in business, consulting, one-time fee and crisis management as an adjunct professor in the • No platform or maintenance fees Master’s Degree program in public relations and cor- • Free MARC records porate communication at New York University. Before • No license to execute this position, he served as CEO of MS&L, chief communications of cer at Aetna Life & Casualty, and Ketchum The Digital Libraries are a Louis Capozzi Public Relations, heading the rm’s New York of ce. comprehensive, cost-eff ective way to deliver practical Susan R. Rucci is an Emmy award-winning producer Susan R. Rucci treatments of important who has worked for CBS News, Retirement Living TV, business issues to every Good Morning America, and CNBC. She has covered some student and faculty member. of the most groundbreaking news events of recent history including the O.J. Simpson trials (criminal and civil), Columbine School shootings, and D.C. Beltway Sniper attacks. She’s now studying for a master’s degree in Public For further information, a free Relations and Corporate Communication at New York trial, or to order, contact: University with an emphasis on crisis communication [email protected] in social media. www.businessexpertpress.com/librarians P R C Don W. Stacks and Donald K. Wright, Editors ISBN: 978-1-60649-580-3 www.businessexpertpress.com www.businessexpertpress.com Capzzoci Rucci.indd 1 6/27/2013 6:06:51 PM Crisis Management in the Age of Social Media Crisis Management in the Age of Social Media Louis Capozzi and Susan R. Rucci Crisis Management in the Age of Social Media Copyright Ó Business Expert Press, LLC, 2013. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations, not to exceed 400 words, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published in 2013 by Business Expert Press, LLC 222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017 www.businessexpertpress.com ISBN-13: 978-1-60649-580-3 (paperback) ISBN-13: 978-1-60649-581-0 (e-book) Business Expert Press Public Relations collection Collection ISSN: 2157-345X (print) Collection ISSN: 2157-3476 (electronic) Cover and interior design by Exeter Premedia Services Private Ltd., Chennai, India First edition: 2013 10987654321 Printed in the United States of America. Abstract Social media has fundamentally changed the contract between institutions and their publics. Today, people expect a conversation, not a one- way diatribe. That, combined with the speed of the Internet, changes the game for anticipating, managing and ultimately avoiding a crisis. This book explores the challenges of managing crises in the age of social media. Keywords crisis management, crisis communication, crisis response, crisis preven- tion, social media crisis, social media, social media strategy, stakeholders Facebook, Twitter, tweet, Linkedin, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube, public relations, corporate communication, reputation management, risk, natural disasters, accidents, customer complaints, rumors, rumor management, apologies. Contents Introduction ..........................................................................................ix Chapter 1 The Age of The Instant Crisis ............................................1 Chapter 2 Susan G. Komen’s “Race for the Headlines”.....................17 Chapter 3 #DearNetflix: I Am Cancelling My Subscription! Signed Social Media..........................................................25 Chapter 4 To Tweet or Not to Tweet? .............................................37 Chapter 5 Bank of America Stands Down.........................................47 Chapter 6 The Friendly Skies Turn Ugly ..........................................55 Chapter 7 Racing from the Storm .....................................................77 Chapter 8 A Less Than “Progressive” Approach ................................87 Chapter 9 “Refrigerator Gate” in China ............................................97 Chapter 10 Herding Cats—The Challenge of Controlling Employees...................................................107 Chapter 11 Crisis Planning in the Conversation Age ........................117 Notes .................................................................................................125 References...........................................................................................133 Index .................................................................................................141 Introduction I spent over 40 years in the public relations business, both as the leader of a major agency and the chief communications officer of a large insur- ance company. I witnessed and managed dozens of crisis situations over that career. And, I’ve seen “the golden hour” of crisis management turn into “golden minutes.” Now I teach a course on crisis management at New York Univer- sity. My students selected a current crisis to review and wrote case studies analyzing the situations, evaluating the quality of the response based on the principles we had discussed in class. Each is given credit for their contributions later in this introduction. Here’s the assignment the students were given: Analyze a crisis recently in the news. You may choose the corporation or organization that will be the subject of your research (no indivi- duals), as well as the particular crisis experienced by that organization. Using secondary research tools, describe the following: • The nature of the crisis. • When it was discovered. • The timeliness of the organization’s response to the crisis. • The nature of the response. • Any unintended consequences of the response. • The effectiveness of the response. • How individual constituencies were affected by the crisis and response. • How the crisis was resolved, if it has been. • Your assessment of what worked, what didn’t and how the organization might have been more effective in its response. Social media drove each and every one of the cases chosen by the students. That’s not a coincidence. That’s the new reality of crisis x INTRODUCTION communication today. Now every crisis finds its way onto social media, either by accident or purpose, but always with consequences. Until recently, I included a section in the course devoted to the role of social media in crisis management. But after this experience, I real- ized that social media had transformed the way every crisis emerges, how it’s driven, and how it’s handled. No longer could I teach a course on crisis management with a “section” on social media. The topic needed to be integrated into every facet of the course. This book presents examples of social media-driven crises. We offer analyses of what went right, what went wrong, and how to learn from them for the future. The authors intend to offer readers a tool to learn from. If you work for an organization or a brand, the principles and cases discussed here should help you prepare for the time when—not “if”—you come under the hot lights of social media scrutiny. Thanks to the students who contributed their case studies, which were edited and expanded by the authors. They include: Pristina Alford Bindya Bajaj Erin Clark Robin Drew Kaycie East Malorie Ginsberg LoriBeth Greenan Myriam Greene Weisi (Tanja) Li Ignacio Baleztena Navarrete Susan Rucci Kirsten Simmons Bernice Stevens One of those students, Susan Rucci, was not your typical graduate student. An Emmy award-winning producer, Susan has worked for CBS News, Retirement Living TV, Good Morning America, and CNBC. She covered some of the most groundbreaking news events of recent INTRODUCTION xi history including the O.J. Simpson trials (criminal and civil), Colum- bine School shootings, and D.C.

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