@CaraPosey

Carnegie Mellon University Heinz College

Symposium on Arts Management and Innovation

October 6th, 2012

Cara Posey, Speakerfile Inc., Chief Marketing Officer

Crisis Communication in a Social World

@CaraPosey

Who is this person talking to me?

Cara PoseyChief Marketing Officer

Speakerfile, Inc.

10+ years experience in communications, public relations, social media, marketing,

fundraising, management, strategic planning and more.

Signature Worldwide, Ohio State Government, Girl Scouts of America,

Brookings Institution, Pittsburgh Opera, Pittsburgh Youth Symphony,

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

Adjunct Professor, Communications & Marketing, Franklin University

M.A.M. (Carnegie Mellon University)

B.A. (College of Wooster)

@CaraPosey

“

”

Everything’s fine and dandy till

someone picks their nose with your

product and posts it on YouTube.

@CaraPosey

Social media is ripe with crises No one is immune from these types of disasters…

@CaraPosey

@CaraPosey

Planning

Training

Have a game plan for handling a crisis

Helping your people not do stupid things

Ground Work

Build positive relationships and a solid

presence

Be Prepared

Crisis communicationHow to prepare, take action, and move on

Quick Response

Be prepared to act quickly and confidently

Repair

Continually listen to feedback and work to

rebuild reputation

@CaraPosey

@CaraPosey

Planning

1. Do you have a crisis

communications plan?

2. Does it include social media?

3. Is it actionable?

4. Who owns it?

5. How do we know when to enact

the plan?

@CaraPosey

Planning

Training

Have a game plan for handling a crisis

Helping your people not do stupid things

Ground Work

Build positive relationships and a solid

presence

TrainingIf they might speak on behalf of your organization, train them

Quick Response

Be prepared to act quickly and confidently

Repair

Continually listen to feedback and work to

rebuild reputation

• In-person training with

takeaways for reference

• Crisis drills for executive

team and spokespeople

• Monitor actions daily

• Reinforce training with

regular social media get-

togethers & discussions

@CaraPosey

@CaraPosey

Prepare potential crisis

situations including

scenarios your executives

could encounter

Table drills with small

groups to ensure

consensus and identify

areas of disagreement

Individual drills in front

of the group can identify

individual strengths and

weaknesses

FasterDrill

Check social networks

multiple times a day,

including organization

pages

Set up Google Alerts for

organization name,

executives names,

programs or products, and

your name

Don’t be the only Admin–

always have other people

serving as eyes and ears

FasterMonitor

Email updates can be

quick and effective to keep

employees or volunteers

engaged with your social

media efforts

Regular meetings to go

over new social media

trends or technology help

reinforce training and keep

people engaged

Answer questions

through whatever method

makes the most sense,

but if one person has a

question, consider

whether you need to

answer it for the group

FasterReinforce

In-person training is

optimal for uniform

understanding

Give examples of the

good and the bad

Set expectations for

behavior and participation

Provide takeaways for

reference after training

FasterTrain

Training

@CaraPosey

Ground work

Planning

Training

Have a game plan for handling a crisis

Helping your people not do stupid things

Ground Work

Build positive relationships and a solid

presence

“The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” – John F. Kennedy

Quick Response

Be prepared to act quickly and confidently

Repair

Continually listen to feedback and work to

rebuild reputation

• Build awareness of your

organization’s personality

• Get to know media and

thought leaders in your

industry or area

• Engage your customers,

volunteers, and employees

regularly and consistently

@CaraPosey

@CaraPosey

Getting to know you…

@CaraPosey

Planning

Training

Have a game plan for handling a crisis

Helping your people not do stupid things

Ground Work

Build positive relationships and a solid

presence

Quick response

Quick Response

Be prepared to act quickly and confidently

Repair

Continually listen to feedback and work to

rebuild reputation

Social Media

Never Sleeps

@CaraPosey

@CaraPosey

You have limited to no time to mitigate a crisisSocial media goofs are easily recorded and hard to erase

National Organization Local

Time until

meltdown

Don’t get lazy

@CaraPosey

How do I know it’s a crisis?

• Messages are coming from many people, not just one person

• The story is starting to be shared with more people and multiple platforms

• Your phone is ringing no matter what time it is

• Your mom knows about it: it’s gone viral

Oh $%@&!

@CaraPosey

If you don’t want it on the front page, don’t

tweet it…

@CaraPosey

You can pull the tweet, but the damage is done

@CaraPosey

How to respond to angry mobs of people

1. Listen

2. Identify Context of

Problem

3. Determine Appropriate

Response

4. Respond Quickly

5. Empathize and Apologize

6. Be Brief and Sincere

@CaraPosey

So what did KitchenAid do?

During the debate tonight, a member of our Twitter team mistakenly posted

an offensive tweet from the KitchenAid handle instead of a personal

handle. The tasteless joke in no way represents our values at KitchenAid,

and that person won’t be tweeting for us anymore. That said, I lead the

KitchenAid brand, and I take responsibility for the whole team. I am deeply

sorry to President Obama, his family, and the Twitter community for this

careless error. Thanks for hearing me out.- Cynthia Soledad

“

”

@CaraPosey

Planning

Training

Have a game plan for handling a crisis

Helping your people not do stupid things

Ground Work

Build positive relationships and a solid

presence

Quick Response

Be prepared to act quickly and confidently

Repair

Continually listen to feedback and work to

rebuild reputation

Repair your reputation

There’s a new crisis every

day, but the internet rarely

forgets.

The good and

the bad:

@CaraPosey

Sometimes it takes time or money or both

• Original social media

disaster happened in

2009

• 18 months spent

developing turnaround

• Self-deprecating…we

used to be bad

• Tens of millions of

dollars spent

revamping product

• Hired one of top

marketing firms in

country

@CaraPosey

Repair doesn’t have to be complicated

We are an organization that deals with life-changing disasters and this wasn’t one of them…it was just a little mistake. - Wendy Harman

“”

@CaraPosey

Bonus: public service announcement

You do not need to add your personal accounts to Hootsuite to intermingle with your business accounts.

Given how many mistakes have happened due to this, proceed with caution if you use social media for anything other than business.

@CaraPosey

Hootsuite is a tool, you have to be the brains

@CaraPosey

When all else fails, use the website application

This is harder to screw up…not impossible, but a lot harder

@CaraPosey

Planning

Training

Have a game plan for handling a crisis

Helping your people not do stupid things

Ground Work

Build positive relationships and a solid

presence

Crisis communications in a social world

Quick Response

Be prepared to act quickly and confidently

Repair

Continually listen to feedback and work to

rebuild reputation

@CaraPosey

1. Plan ahead

2. Train your people

3. Lay the ground work

4. Respond quickly to a crisis

5. Repair your organization’s

reputation

@CaraPosey

Cara Posey, Speakerfile Inc., Chief Marketing Officer

cposey@speakerfile.com | www.speakerfile.com

Thank You!