Brands

Brands, crisis, customer care, social listening, social media

British pub chain JD Wetherspoon shut down all of its 900+ pub’s social media profiles this week, with the chairman, Tim Martin, citing a variety of reasons. Apart from his general opinion that people spend too much time on social…

The perils of change: lessons from the #KFCCrisis

Brands, clarity, crisis communication, Crisis preparation, Crisis Simulation, crisis training, social media simulations

In February, Kentucky Fried Chicken started working with a new “delivery partner”. Now, usually, most people wouldn’t care about this, but then hundreds of KFC branches closed down temporarily because they ran out of chicken and, well, a lot of…

Can humour be toxic to brands?

Social Marketing

authenticity, Brands, listening, reputation management, social media

There’s a big difference between funny and patronising – this is especially true for brands on social media. Of course, much of our humour is down to personal taste. What one person finds offensive, another may find side-splittingly funny. Being…

Social media crisis management in the age of anger

anger, Brands, social listening, social media

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t need research to tell me that we’re all a bit angrier than we used to be. But, research we have. BMB recently conducted research in conjunction with The Drum and House51; it…

Is your brand prepared to be attacked on social media?

Brands, crisis communication, politics, values

Social media has revolutionised the way we communicate, but it’s also caused some problems. Issues that shouldn’t touch a brand can become reputational crises within hours. Fringe groups use social media gain disproportionate airtime for views held by a tiny…

How to respond to negative reviews

#smcrisis, Brands, crisis communication, critical feedback, Facebook, Negative reviews, reputation management, social media, TripAdvisor, Twitter, Yelp

The subtitle to this post should be: “in a way that doesn’t blow up in your face”. No reasonable person expects brands to be perfect. Mistakes happen, it’s the response (or lack of one) that counts. But sometimes businesses seem…

Why brands need to simulate a social media crisis

Brands, crisis communication, crisis training, reputation management, social media, social media simulations

It’s not hard to understand why your team needs to train to deal with a crisis breaking on social media – one look at the news shows the power that social media posts have over the headlines. Whether it’s the…

Brands are more than their CEOs

boycotts, Brands, CEOs, crisis communication, reputation

On a business level, when it comes to reputation with clients, governments, media and the industry that they are in, CEOs (and their actions) carry a lot of weight. But what about their wider reputational impact? For example, I’m currently…

Brands & Politics: why it’s time to get involved

action, Brands, crisis communication, politics, social media, values