How many of us have read a blog post that has made our blood boil or really got our backs up? Then started typing a response in anger………….
In those situations it is important to just walk away and calm down before responding.
The recent PR disaster by Ryan Air in response to the blog posting ‘Ryanair no credit card fee + 0.00 flight bug‘ was a great lesson on how not to manage such a situation (start reading the response from comment 10 downwards).
I was appalled that any employee would respond in such an arrogant, impolite and churlish manner. More importantly it highlighted to me that there was a lack of management within Ryan Air, around their online brand credibility and presence that could lead to such a messy situation.
Corporate Blogging Guidelines
What is becoming apparent to me is that companies need to have a blogging policy in place. That is what opinions people can write about in their blogs, and comments on other blogs with respect to the company. Otherwise, situations such as this arise.
With the dissemination of information the employees are usually the eyes and ears for the company in specific forums. So if a company does not have any online brand watching alerts in place, at least the employees should have a channel to escalate information through the correct channels.
Managing your brand online
More importantly, companies need to have monitoring in place so if there are negative comments with respect to your company / product or service there are channels of communication that pick this up. There then needs to be a process that funnels this information to the correct decision maker in the business, so action can be taken
This example shows the need for monitoring and operational processes to manage such situations. In the world of twitter and blogs, stories like this spread like wild fire so quickly. So before you know it, the problem has gone from small to a huge PR explosion in a matter of minutes.
Setting up the right processes
From an experienced online marketeer, I would advise any company to take social media marketing seriously. These conversations are happening with or without you, and it’s your decision on whether you participate or not.
The potential down side of ignoring this and having an online PR disaster on your hands, to me far out weighs the benefits of embracing the new opportunity and listening to what people are saying about your company / product / services…. the question is are you ready to take the leap of faith?
You’re so right Charlotte. Companies who take that leap into listening to their customers and providing ways for them to comment have to realise that it’s not about “managing” the responses it’s about engaging with their community – something the RyanAir employee signally failed to do.
Thanks for the comment Helen. I do think it’s a leap of faith that companies find hard to do. Moving from brand guardian to brand custodian is a big mental shift in the organisation.