Preparing to…Manage Social Media in Crisis

GoCrisis: Crisis Management Leaders Summit, PerthThursday 8th October, 2015 11:20am – 11:50am

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Matt LynchWith over 23 years Online Marketing & Information Technology experience, my primary speciality is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). I am an experienced senior technical marketing specialist working both within agency and in-house roles. I am a certified Google AdWords Specialist, Bing Ads Accredited Professional.

I enjoy keeping up with the 'bleeding edge' of technology advancements and social media evolvement to ensure current knowledge in an ever changing landscape, leading to early adoption and determination of opportunity for marketing enhancement.

Vorian Agency - General Manager

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Vorian Agency is a full service Digital Agency based in West Perth, that provides customised marketing solutions including; search engine optimisation (SEO), pay-per-click advertising (PPC), social media marketing (SMM), web design and development, branding, print and graphic design, as well as video and audio production services that are aimed at promoting your brand’s products and services through a variety of results oriented strategies.

Vorian Agency is a Google Partner, Bing Ads Accredited Company, Hootsuite Solutions Partner and a MailChimp Expert Company.

Vorian Agency delivers integrated online and offline marketing solutions to business wrestling with how to market in today’s changing environment.

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Email: matt.lynch@vorian.com.au

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Join today’s conversation online: #gocrisis

Manage Social Media in CrisisSocial media has changed crisis management exponentially. It has become the primary source for news as it breaks, to maintain a connection to the crisis, and to reach out to ask questions, comment, or get support. Consumers flock to find the ‘official’ page of the business within search, and their official channels on Social Media. This session explores best practice across this broad, multifaceted, ever-changing and at times confusing platform.

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Scout Motto 'Be Prepared'"Be Prepared... the meaning of the motto is that a scout must prepare himself by previous thinking out and practicing how to act on any accident or emergency so that he is never taken by surprise."

Robert Baden-Powell

How prepared is your business?...

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What’s your Marketing EDC?Slide: 7

We don’t go online.We live online.150x per day.

Slide: 8Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, May 2013

How many on Social Media?• Facebook 1.49 Billion monthly users • Twitter 316 Million monthly users • Instagram 300 Million monthly users• Google+ 300 Million monthly users• LinkedIn 255 Million monthly users• Pinterest 250 Million monthly users• Tumblr 230 Million monthly users• Snapchat 200 Million monthly users• Flickr 65 Million monthly users• Vine 42 Million monthly users

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Search Engine Optimisation• SEO is the active practice of optimising a web site by improving

internal and external aspects in order to increase the traffic the site receives organically from search engines.

• If you business can’t be found, when and where it needs to be, you don’t get the traffic…

• When we talk about “Organic” or “Natural” Search, these are the results that appear in the main body of the Search Engine Results Page, that aren’t paid for, and are determined by Google based on an algorithm that considers the content of your website and matches this to a consumer’s search query.

• SEO is considered the more technical part of internet marketing. – 81% of internet users use search engines to find a website.– 87% of users only look at the first page of results.– 85% of clicks are organic clicks, as consumers trust these.

• For a ‘Dark Site’ or ‘Negative Brand Term’ site to be useful, it needs to also be found at the time of need.

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Brand Consistency• Research and do the due diligence, to determine a

consistent brand approach (name and logo) to avoid confusion and conflict to the brand, as well as limit impact of trademark infringement; business name, domain name, social media accounts, abbreviations/acronyms used.

• NameChk: http://namechk.com/• Knowem: http://knowem.com

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Secure Your Name(s)• Proverb: Failing to plan is planning to fail• You may not use them today, but secure them for tomorrow

and block competitors or disgruntled consumers using them against you!

• By offering its own official social media accounts, a company can ensure that customers looking for information online not only will be able to find it from a direct source but also will be able to engage directly with the company.

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Brand-negative Domain Names• Consider SEO optimisation for brand-negative keywords with

domain names (your-company-sucks.com), and using these as customer services portals for the brand, as well as for reputation management control.

• Among the 500+ new, generic top-level domains (gTLDs) that have been approved in 2015, few have generated as much concern and consternation as .sucks.

• The company who won the ICANN auction for the .sucks domain, is positioning the new gTLD as a platform for conversation. Its website declares that the domain “is designed to help consumers find their voices and allow companies to find the value in criticism.”

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Domain Prospecting & Typos• Domain name prospectors (cyber squatters) buy domains

that might be used by businesses that aren’t yet online, with the intent to sell the domain for an inflated price. Competitors do this to try to capture your traffic.

• Domain prospecting is an issue for you and your business because typos happen all the time, leading less savvy internet users to the wrong address.

• A quick and effective way to stop someone from squatting on variations of your domain name is to register the most likely variations yourself.

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Managing Online Reviews

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Monitoring Review Sites• Online review sites can be tricky for businesses because

there is no opt-out option. • Your business can be listed on a review site without your

knowledge.• Reviews are important as seen as a sign of ‘trust’. Having a

strong online presence is key to maintaining a competitive edge over your competitors. Positive online customer reviews can not only help your company stand apart from your competition, they can also impact your search engine rankings, and strongly influence many buyers’ decision making process through this form of 'social-proof'.

• Negative reviews after a crisis can have a lingering affect.• Familiarise yourself with all the main review sites, set up

accounts, setup a monitoring process, and be prepared to respond and address feedback.

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Negative SEO Attacks• Competitors use of Negative SEO tactics, through

amplification of negative reviews, creating negative social sentiment, can affect consumer perception.

• The creation of spammy backlinks can impact your website’s link profile and result in Search Engine penalties.

• Regularly monitor for these types of activities.

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A Social Media Policy• While detailed social media policies are recommended for all

organizations, they really should be considered an absolute must for companies that maintain a social media presence.

• It is imperative that a company’s employees engage in the use of social media in a uniform and approved manner, consistent to the brand values.

• Social media policies may address a variety of topics, including guidelines for all employees (e.g., whether they are authorised to speak on behalf of the company), strategies for engaging with customers who offer feedback (e.g., how to personalise a response), and use of intellectual property (e.g., whether logos can be used in tweets).

• Create and publicise your internal crisis communication plan before it’s needed.

Slide: 19Brian J. Winterfeldt and Diana Moltrup et al. Brand Protection on the Internet: Domain Names, Social Media, and Beyond, 2015

A Social Media Policy• To maintain our company's open, honest and transparent approach, and our genuine personality,

we’ve set out a few Guidelines and Policies to follow. They should be read and followed by all staff, and especially anyone who updates a Social Media profile for our company.

• Our Social Media objectives– Have fun. If you enjoy what you do, they will too!– Respect the audience. Even if their opinions differ.– Handle Consumer posts in a timely manner. Social Media is about NOW.– Don't delete comments, take the conversation offline to customer service.– Know when and what to post. Right message, right time. Be mindful of situations where you

need approval signoff before responding or posting.– Leave competitors to it. They may talk about us, but the best response is no response.– Act responsibly. Do us proud and keep it honest. Don’t post negative comments, avoid inflating

feedback with other profiles and importantly never leak confidential business information• Remember to follow these policies

– Keep it quiet – never discuss company or customer details. This includes subjects like sales figures, customer details, internal policies, complaints, staff members or incidents.

– Keep it nice – Never refer to our company or others in a way that is defamatory, harassing or indecent.

– Keep it private – Never reference any clients, customers or trade partners without obtaining their permission to do so.

– Keep it real – Never post online on behalf of the company or competitors (under your own name or anonymously) unless it’s part of your job role or you’ve been given permission to do so.

– Keep it calm – if you’re in a bad mood, or someone riles you, take a step back and come back to it later.

– And finally, remember to keep it cool – We know you love social media as much as we do, but remember your social media usage shouldn’t interfere with your job. Usage may be reviewed and monitored by your Manager. Slide: 20

Staff & Company Accounts• In the era of Integrated Search Marketing, we encourage the

creation of staff social media accounts, from ‘C’ level executives, BDMs, Sales Team Members through all levels of the company, to support the brand activities, and amplify the company’s social media posts and engagement.

• Consumers (both in B2B and B2C markets) follow leaders of companies, as they are considered influencers of interest.

• 82% of LinkedIn users will use LinkedIn to research, reach-out and connect either before or immediately after meeting someone new, and this is to their personal account not the company account!

• In time of crisis, companies need to have a policy in place, coordinating communications, and monitoring of these accounts as consumers may reach out to them directly.

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Brand Mention Alerts• Google Alerts are email updates of

the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your keyword search queries.– monitor a developing news story

or crisis situation– keeping current on a competitor or

industry– managing your own company or

personal brand reputation• Another free alert solution is Talk

Walker Alerts– www.talkwalker.com

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• Hootsuite is the world’s most widely used social media relationship platform. More than 10 million users, including 744 of the Fortune 1,000 companies, trust Hootsuite to manage their social media programs across multiple social networks from one integrated dashboard.

• Pioneered social media management when it launched in 2008.• Preferred, certified partner of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+

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Social Media Management

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Why Hootsuite?

• There are different Stream types depending on which Social Media channel is selected.

• Create a stream for each social media channel, and account, to monitor your brand #hashtags, keywords, mentions, competitors, staff accounts or other focus areas.

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Hootsuite Search Streams

• Save approved messages as templates, that can be used as canned responses for quick consistent replies by the Customer Service teams.

• Companies can buy time by being prepared to meet the press with statements that are appropriate but are relatively vague until there’s time to formulate more specific responses. “Our hearts and minds are with the families,” and “We’ve implemented our crisis plan, which is designed with the utmost priority on our staff and customers.”

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Canned Messages

• During Hurricane Isaac August 28th, 2012 it wreaked havoc on the US Gulf Coast, claiming forty-three lives.

• In the wake of the crisis, the region’s largest energy company Entergy was left with the challenge of communicating with hundreds of thousands of customers without power in their homes and businesses. Entergy, enacted an emergency social media plan to keep communication open during the crisis.

• Entergy’s Manager of Social Media & Digital Communications Strategy, Alex Schott, chose Hootsuite for this purpose:

1. Leverage the real-time nature of social media.

2. Be prepared. Centralise your social media monitoring in advance for best results.

3. Don’t be tied to a single location. Take advantage of mobility.

4. Keep your plan simple. The only predictable thing about a disaster is unpredictability.

• Make sure your crisis response plan is maintained and up-to-date, with all stakeholders, PR team, Agency Support personnel added to Hootsuite to expedite information sharing, collaboration and approval processes in the event of a situation should it arise.

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Hootsuite Case Study

Social Media use in a CrisisOut of a group of crisis survivors in the United States:•37% use information on social media to buy supplies and find shelter.•25% download disaster-related apps in preparation and for support.•76% use social media to contact friends and family to make sure they are safe.•24% use social media to let loved ones know they are safe.

Slide: 28Hootsuite - Using Social Media Command Centers in a Crisis, 2013

Social Media news distributionDuring disasters and crises, news now spreads as follows:•Citizen journalists, news outlets and authorities share the news on social channels.•News is picked up and amplified across Twitter and other major social channels.•Amplified sharing to spread hope and concern for the affected areas.

Slide: 29Hootsuite - Using Social Media Command Centers in a Crisis, 2013

#Hashtags• Hashtags (#) are used to focus tweets/posts on topical

keywords, or brand name, across the majority of social media channels.

• Hashtags are powerful tools in crisis communications. When used correctly, hashtags, unify all communications during a crisis and position a company as the true source of accurate information.

• Currently trending topics can be seen on most social media channels or at http://www.hashtags.org/

• By visualizing regional hashtags or keywords, such as #Japan or #Fukushima, newsrooms can track Twitter mentions to get facts, figures, rich media straight from the source and other important real-time information.

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#Hashtag Tips during a Crisis• During a Crisis, use a single #Hashtag to unify all posts.• Keep #Hashtags short and easy to spell.• Create a #Hashtag that is incident related and avoid

marketing campaign related #Hashtags.• Use capitalisation for each word in a multi-word

#MultiWordHashtag• Keep an eye on trending topics and particular #tags, and

blend these into your social media content posts.

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#BostonMarathonBombing• During the Boston Marathon Bombings, the Boston Police

Department made terrific use of hashtags. They clearly had a hashtag strategic plan in place, and used social media for media alerts, news conferences, as well as information request from the Boston community.

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How not to use #Hashtags• American fashion house Kenneth Cole, known for its socially

conscious advertising, created a Twitter storm when, during the height of Cairo protests for democracy, on a day in which it was estimated that thirteen protestors were killed and hundreds more injured in Cairo, the erstwhile social media-savvy Kenneth Cole sent a message from its Twitter account that plainly aimed to use the Twitter trending topic to shamelessly promote its spring collection.

Slide: 33Glen Gilmore, SocialMediaVoice.com How NOT to Use Hashtags & RTs in a Crisis, 2011

Respond to Questions• Fewer than 30% of questions to brands on Twitter were

answered in Q2 of 2015• Consumers are expecting immediate answers, and actually

want a conversation!• Twitter has published a free 122-Page Customer Service

Playbook For Brands• The playbook, includes best practices and ‘real world

examples’ from companies such as Hilton @HiltonSuggests, Best Buy @BestBuySupport, Comcast @ComcastCares, Spotify @SpotifyCares, T-Mobile @TMobileHelp and Microsoft @LumiaHelp.

• https://twitter.app.box.com/customer-service-on-twitter

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Check what's Scheduled• At the ‘outbreak’ of a crisis situation,

check with the marketing department as to what campaigns are scheduled across all media.

• With Social Media management tools enabling scheduling well in advance, you want to avoid any embarrassment.

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Reputation Reporting• Klout - klout.com/home

• Kred - kred.com

• Naymz - naymz.com

• PeerIndex - peerindex.com

• TrustCloud - trustcloud.com

• Trackur - trackur.com

• Thinkup - thinkup.com

• TweetReach - tweetreach.com

• Sumall - sumall.com

• Mentionmapp - mentionmapp.com

• Social Mention – socialmention.com

• Xefer - xefer.com

• Unfollowers - unfollowers.com

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Matt LynchThank you – I look forward to connecting with you on Social Media, networking together during lunch and at the end of the conference.

Twitter: @mattrlynch

#gocrisis #vorianagency

Vorian Agency - General Manager

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