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Social Media and Strategic Considerations
by John Pavlik
Rating:3 
April 22, 2009
Social media represent a central challenge and opportunity for public relations practitioners. As a case in point, consider the recent video posted on Youtube by employees of Dominos Pizza, offering viewers a twisted view of food preparation at the national chain. Although the video was quickly discredited as a hoax, it nevertheless was seen by millions of potential Dominos customers who may have had their views of the company’s products seriously downgraded. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhBmWxQpedI
How should a company respond to a crisis generated by such communication on social media such as Youtube, Facebook, Myspace and the like? What are the appropriate strategic considerations? What goals and objectives are realistically achieved when utilizing social media in a pro-active or reactive fashion? Dominos responded to its Youtube crisis by posting its own video on Youtube. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l6AJ49xNSQ Is this the right response? What other steps should be taken? How can results be measured?
Comment:
What I thought was effective about Domino’s response was that the company established its own Twitter page following the crisis, which was helpful in forming a dialogue with concerned stakeholders. Posting an apology video to YouTube allowed Domino’s to return to the original source of the problem and address those who had originally seen the video. The apology video seemed genuine; Patrick Doyle’s response was appropriate.
However, Domino’s waited 48 hours to respond- which in the immediate world of social media- is far too late. The internal team was hoping that the crisis would die down on social media outlets and the company did not want to alert more people to the incident than necessary, but those assumptions were dangerous ones to make. When crises involve social media, policies of containment will not work because information is spread so rapidly.
Although I applaud Domino’s for using social media to respond to the crisis (which Motrin did not do after the Motrin Moms incident), the company should have responded in a more timely manner. It also would have been helped if Domino’s had created content on its corporate website to address the crisis and reached out to mainstream media before news sources such as The New York Times covered the story. While social media can be helpful tools for rebuilding trust, interacting with traditional media and issuing press releases cannot be completely neglected, either.
It seems that Domino’s needs to review its employee relations. Employees now have the power to represent their employers- for better or for worse- on social media outlets. Essentially, every Domino’s employee has the ability to conduct public relations. Hopefully, in the months following the incident, Domino’s has outlined policies about employees using social media and examined its hiring practices (one of the employees had a criminal record and was a registered sex offender).
The age of social media has arrived, and organizations like Domino’s have to be ready for any crises or opportunities that social media deliver.
By Lindsey Steinseifer on 2009 12 13