Formal social media processes and structures can minimize or prevent some crises

With a surge in the number of crises companies experience online, you’d think organizations would be clamoring to adopt practices that prepare them for the inevitable kerfuffle and help minimize the damage. Most, though, have failed to take the steps that could diminish or completely avoid a damaging crisis.

That’s the conclusion of the Altimeter Group in its new report, Social Business Readiness. The report, released today, found that the incidence of crisis not only increased from 2005 to 2010, but that the number of crises covered by mainstream media doubled.

(I’ve posted a summary of the report, produced for For Immediate Release… Read More »

FIR Interview upcoming on Altimeter Group’s Social Business Readiness survey

Note: This is a cross-post from the For Immediate Release blog.

Your FIR co-hosts are planning an interview for next week with Altimeter Group‘s Jeremiah Owyang about the release of a new study, “Social Business Readiness.” The study was released today—the presentation is embedded at the end of this post. In preparation for the interview, we’re sharing some of the study’s highlights in this post. Let us know in comments here or in the FIR Friendfeed room if there are any questions you’d like us to ask Jeremiah.

Companies are at various stages of integrating social media into their business processes. (Interestingly, a third of the… Read More »

Supply chain partners’ practices could make your company a target

Greenpeace learned its lesson well.

Back in March 2010, in response to YouTube’s removal of a Greenpeace-produced parody TV commercial, the advocacy organization launched a campaign against Nestle that ultimately forced the powerhouse consumer products company to seek a new source for its palm oil. Palm oil from non-rainforest sources is more expensive and Nestle was taking its time trying to find an alternative, but the pressure—much of which targeted the company’s Facebook page—led them to switch suppliers much sooner.

This time around, Greenpeace didn’t wait for a trigger like company lawyers forcing YouTube to remove its video.… Read More »

Business be nimble, business be quick

The real-time dimension of social media has challenged businesses to rethink their slow, deliberative processes in order to address the speed with which their brands can be damaged. Every minute it takes to hold conference calls, sit in meetings, get legal review and wordsmith offical responses is a minute in which thousands of uncomplimentary messages can be distributed to millions of consumers.

Today, Delta Airlines has shown how it can be done.

Yesterday, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Robert O’Hair uploaded a quick-and-dirty video to YouTube expressing unhappiness with Delta. The video, shot on board a flight from Baltimore to Atlanta… Read More »

Content: It’s not just for marketing any more

Realistically, content doesn’t drive customer service, crisis management, reputation management or market research in social media, nor does it drive conversations about customer service, crisis management, reputation, market research or even shopping experiences about a brand in social media. Since these and other key business function are principal building blocks of every successful social media program (for business), you see how an emphasis on content can hobble an organization’s social media program right from the start if its importance is mistakenly overstated…An emphasis on “content” in social media and social…

Read More »

The Kenneth Cole post you haven’t read yet

I just ran a Google Blogsearch and found about 25,300 results on “kenneth cole” twitter Egypt. The world doesn’t need another post about the fashion designer who stumbled badly with a tweet that hijacked the #Cairo hashtag to promote his Spring collection.

And yet, an elephant lingers in the room.

The posts I’ve read (which, admittedly, doesn’t come close to 25,300) have fallen into a couple clear categories. Some, like Todd Defren’s great post with the provocative headline, offer advice about how to avoid such incidents. “Think before you tweet,” Todd says; “What goes online stays online.” eConsultancy wants readers to avoid… Read More »

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