Getting Scooped Via Social Media: But What If They’re Wrong?

Controlling the Conversation – Part 3 0f 3 on the Impact of Social Media and Marketing Agencies

In my second post of this series, we talked about the impact of social media on reporting news about your company.  Getting scooped on announcing your own news is only one problem that’s been exacerbated with social media and i-Reporters.

Even more troubling is what do you do if they get it wrong?  Now all you can do is respond and hope people listen.  We in the PR world call this Crisis Communications.  Reporters have a process they go through before running with a story, with credible sources and usually giving you a chance to respond; i-Reporters do not share this process.

Within five seconds – or however long it takes their fingers to type – there story is now viral all over Twitter, Facebook and the Internet.

So what do you do?  Just like most companies today have a Crisis Communications plan, you need a social media action plan for your agency and your clients.  As with any crisis situation, it’s better that you have a plan in place before you need it.

Here are a few things to consider:

• What is our platform for responding to potentially derogatory information about our company that’s gone viral?  Do we even have a Twitter account set up or Facebook?  Who updates this company webpage?
• What function of our company is responsible for responding?  In most companies public relations is leading the charge.  But what about companies that don’t have PR departments or outsource PR to an agency?
• How should we respond, or should we even bother responding?  They may not be talking to you but they are talking about you.  While you want to respond, you also don’t want all of your social media efforts to turn into nothing more than another customer complaint outlet.

What does this mean for marketing agencies?  It means the days of just creating a nice Twitter background or customized Facebook page are gone.

If you take your client down this path, you have to give them direction and counseling on how to make this social media stuff work for them. Otherwise, guess who they’re going to blame when it blows up in their face?  Of course it’s your fault – you’re the one who told them to get that darn Twitter account.

Social media is a very dynamic tool but at the end of the day, it’s just a tool.  Like any tool, you need to make sure it’s the best tool for the job and you have someone competent using that tool.  You also need a proper instruction manual on how to use this tool.

Safety glasses not required.