Susan Miller: Responding when video vandals strike

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Susan Miller, columnist for THB. John P. Cleary

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September 1, 2010

By Susan Miller For The Herald Bulletin The Herald Bulletin Wed Sep 01, 2010, 08:44 PM EDT

ANDERSON, Ind. — Sometimes inspiration for this column comes from unusual places. Boy Scout camp, NCAA college mascots and proliferating political signs have all prompted past column ideas.

The idea for this week’s column was delivered right to my door. Well, actually, it was delivered to my neighbor’s door, but all’s fair in love and story ideas, so my neighbor enjoyed the pizza and I avoided a missed deadline.

I’ve often said that businesses face two kinds of crisis: sudden ones such as tornadoes, robberies and acts of God, and smoldering ones such as employee misconduct that may never become public knowledge. I’m changing my views to include a third type of crisis — a viral one, also known as a social media crisis.

So how does my neighbor’s pizza fit into this? Well, in April 2009, two Domino’s Pizza employees taped themselves doing “disgusting” things to food and posted the video on YouTube. The video was posted on April 13, the employees were fired on April 14 and on April 15, Dominos issued an apology on YouTube.

By April 20, more than half a million people had watched Domino’s online apology. Despite the rapid response, some critics said that Domino’s didn’t act quickly enough. Domino’s officials said they didn’t respond sooner in hopes the crisis would blow over.

The scenario underscores the viral nature of social media; the need for businesses to be constantly tapped into what people are saying about them, and the urgency of a speedy response often measured in hours versus days.

Dominos did a number of things very well during the crisis. First, they didn’t invest all of their time apologizing on traditional media or even on their website. Instead, they used the same medium — YouTube — as the video vandals and even flagged their video with a similar name so that people searching for the offensive video would also see the apology.

Dominos also created a Twitter account specific to the video, so that staff could monitor and participate in the conversation.

Perhaps Domino’s response could have been strengthened had they had a blog in place. While companies often grouse about the time a blog requires to update, blogs can serve as ready pulpits when a crisis breaks and communication must happen immediately. A blog established during a crisis looks much less authentic.

While Domino’s no doubt had a crisis communications plan, it is uncertain as to whether the plan accounted for social media crises. In the past, Tylenol was the “poster child” for effective crisis communications due to its response during the 1982 cyanide tampering crimes. The Tylenol recall involved weeks — not hours.

Today’s crisis plans also need to acknowledge that the Internet doesn’t forget. Once something is posted, it can be online for years.

If there’s an upside to the Domino’s incident, it may be that while the Internet may remember forever, people tend to forget. Pass the pepperoni!

Susan Miller is owner of Ewing Miller Communications, an Anderson-based marketing firm. Write to her at susan@ewingmiller.com.

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