This past week we saw social media at its best. Trending on Twitter was news that Instagram was going to start selling member images to businesses for advertising purposes and those members would not be compensated. Social media was abuzz about this for two days. Account holders started defecting and deleting their Instagram accounts. Celebrities started tweeting that they were through with Instagram and some even threatened to sue them.
Where was Instagram’s Crisis Management team during all of this? Finally, by the end of the day’s ferocious attack on Instagram, out pops it’s co-founder Kevin Systrom.
In his most recent blog dated December 20, 2012 – Systrom stated that, “Because of the feedback we have heard from you, we are reverting this advertising section to the original version that has been in effect since we launched the service in October 2010.” You can see the updated terms here.
He went on to say, “Going forward, rather than obtain permission from you to introduce possible advertising products we have not yet developed, we are going to take the time to complete our plans, and then come back to our users and explain how we would like for our advertising business to work.”
So, why didn’t they think of any of this before they announced their policy changes? Good business practices should have resulted in their public relations/crisis management team telling them that their plans might backfire on them – which it did.
In a document published on The Institute of Public Relations website under Research dated October 30, 2007 by W. Timothy Coombs, Ph.D., “Crisis management is a process designed to prevent or lessen the damage a crisis can inflict on an organization and its stakeholders.” It goes on to say that crisis management can be divided into three phases: (1) pre-crisis, (2) crisis response, and (3) post-crisis.
The pre-crisis phase is concerned with prevention and preparation. The crisis response phase is when management must actually respond to a crisis. The post-crisis phase looks for ways to better prepare for the next crisis and fulfills commitments made during the crisis phase including follow-up information.
Every business needs to have a crisis management plan that is adhered to by the crisis management team and a spokesperson who is the only person responsible for speaking with the media.
If your organization does not have a crisis management plan in place, start out 2013 with a strategy to develop one. You never know when you might need it.