Understanding What Fuels the Fire

Online media is a strange new animal that we are all still trying to figure out. In Chapter 13, I list some tips about what makes a video go viral, but the fact is that nobody really knows why it happens. If anyone did, he could make quite a lot of money creating videos for companies with deep pockets.

I believe that the reason why so many social media firestorms happen is that most people online want to do good or to share stories that they feel are newsworthy. When an organization doesn’t respond to the growing number of complaints, questions, and comments concerning the issue at hand, it leaves room for lots of speculation.

Savvy bloggers understand how to boost their blog traffic by picking up on online trends and writing about them. When that first post creates buzz, another blogger picks up the story, adds a fresh perspective, and creates even more buzz. Soon everyone is discussing the story.

Often, these buzzworthy stories are controversial, or simply incite passionate responses. In a real crisis, those passionate responses are directed at you. The best way for you to dissipate that high emotional energy is to address the issue with

Honesty: You are seriously playing with fire if you think you can create a fake profile in order to infiltrate what inflammatory groups may be saying about you on their private forums. It’s a huge breach of trust that has a huge chance of getting found out over time.

Respectfulness: You can be kind, respectful, and engaging without being a pushover.

Transparency: Explain what’s being done to resolve any issue to your audiences as it happens.

Some brands even set up special Facebook Pages to address issues, but using your own site for updates is better because Google indexes it. You want to be found online by everybody who’s looking for you. Lots of people don’t have Facebook accounts and can’t see information on there.

Efficiency: Time is of the essence when you’re confronting a fiery echo chamber of dissent.

Consistency: This is why telling the truth is so handy. Be honest and keep a consistent message across all your affected channels, while keeping an eye on other social media channels, such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube at least every 15 minutes in a true crisis.

Comprehensive action: Spread your message across all social networks that are affected.

Dogged persistence: Don’t take off for the weekend or go to sleep thinking that everybody else online is taking off from this issue too. Some of the biggest brand blowups I’ve seen are with companies that “took the weekend off” and assumed that bloggers work only Monday through Friday, too.

If you’ve gone through the steps in this book, you already have crisis communications and executive teams chosen and trained. Call them in as soon as you realize a true crisis is brewing.