The dark “site” of Enterprise 2.0

As proved in my previous blog post: the use of social media can be highly beneficial for the company’s revenue. However, using social media can also introduce many threats and risks to a company i.e. through brand-damaging customer comments on the company website or through other social channels. 

The customers are, however, not the only potential threat against the company. Both internal and external stakeholders also possess the power of creating negative publicity or even legal risks against the company

According to  Burrow and Shullich some of the most common legal risks rooted in social media are as listed below:

• Confidential information can by mistake or intentionally be published
• Infringement of the company trade mark, if a company has not insured its company name on all social media websites
• Statements made on the company social media websites could potentially damage the reputation of the company
• Malware attack – specifically through social media

Having a social media policy has, hence, become inevitable in many modern companies whether the company itself decides to engage in social media or not. The purpose of the social media policy is to inform and instruct its employees in what is acceptable social media behaviour, both in and out of the office, according to the specific organization. 

A McD story

Even though an organization has spent much time and effort developing a social media policy there is, however, still no guarantee that an apparently innocent post on a social media website, trying to reinforce the company brand, will not backfire and create severe damage to the company reputation. This is exactly what happened for the fast food restaurant giant McDonald’s.

So last week we learnt how McDonald’s awesome social media campaign resulted in a huge increase in revenue. This week is opposite dedicated to highlighting how McDonald’s also suddenly experienced the dark side of engaging in social media. The video below describes how McDonald’s tried to use Twitter to promote a sincere and positive reputation of the company by focusing on the pride of the hard working staff through their everyday stories. In order to do so McDonald’s introduced the hashtag “#McDStories”.

From the video clip it is obvious how McDonald’s attempt to create a positive wipe by using a specific hashtag backfired and turned in to what in Twitter language is called a “Bashtag”.

How can the companies deal with the risks?  

Even with a sound social media policy and with the best marketing staff McDonalds would not have been able to predict that the followers at twitter would react the way they did - turning the good intensions into a public mocking campaign.

The big question now is: How should the company react when the damage has already been done? One true answer to this question is not easily found. Some ideas has however, started to emerge in order to support the companies in mitigating the potential threats through social media.

To sum up companies should:

•  Be very careful how you select a post or a hashtag and avoid sensitive topics.
• Be prepared (have the resources) to answer criticism openly
• Have a backup plan if your post or tweed turns in to a negative campaign against your organization

As every organisation, and thereby its engage on the social media scene, is unique a clear set of guidelines or roadmap do not exist. The organisations can, however, only prepare themselves for potential adversity from both internal and external sources. This being said, I still believe that with some “common sense” the benefits of engaging in social media strongly uphold the risks. Hopefully the success stories will continue to exceed the social media horror stories ultimatly inviting more companies to join the game.

Refrences

many threats and risks to a company

Burrow

Shullich

a social media policy

video

“Bashtag”

mitigating the potential threats through social media