(Report) Social Media Crises On Rise: Be Prepared by Climbing the Social Business Hierarchy of Needs

Categories: Altimeter, Social MediaPosted on August 31st, 2011

What’s a crises? We did analysis on the list of social media crises aka “punkings” to find out what went wrong, why, and what should have been done.

First, a workable definition on Social Media Crises for this report: A social media crisis is an issue that arises in or is amplified by social media, and results in negative mainstream media coverage, a change in business process, or financial loss.

To refine further, while crises may happen on a daily basis we wanted to focus on crises that had the actual outcomes: We categorized each crisis according to three severity levels: Level 1 is for crises that result in negative coverage in mainstream media; Level 2 is for crises that result in negative coverage in mainstream media, and a significant response or change by the company; and Level 3 is for crises that result in short-term financial impact.

Above: Social Media Crises (as defined above) are on the Rise

To make matters worse, we also saw a slight uptick from unavoidable NGO attacks against brands (like Greenepeace vs Nestle/Mattel), which is a new form of one organization and its members attacking another, causing their social media efforts to quickly be overrun from hundreds to thousands of NGO fans.

Most Crises Could Have Been Diminished or Averted if Company Was Prepared

Above: Yet most can be Diminished or Averted, and Causes of Most Crises Originate from Company

Interestingly, we found that 76% of these crises could have been prevented or diminished had the brand been prepared and had proper training, staff, and processes to respond (Read the report in detail to learn more).

Social Readiness: How Advanced Companies Prepare

View more documents from Jeremiah Owyang

Above: Embedded is the report, which details the methodology, findings, and recommendations. 30k views in 24 hours on slideshare.

In this Report, Learn How Advanced Companies Prepared
What you’ll find in this report, is we found out how the advanced companies (I’d also add that many of them have experienced crises as a turning point, like Dell) used this to their advantage to spearhead internal change momentum. We found there are four common ways brands are investing in internal readiness, and we dissect their business benefits, as well as where they need to continue to invest. Here’s the full report, embedded below, you can download it from slideshare at well, there are no registration pages.

Be Prepared: Companies Must Ascend the Social Business Hierarchy of Needs
In a tribute to Maslow’s work on our individual hierarchy of needs, we noticed a pattern than companies undergo a similar growth. Companies must fulfill the requirements at the bottom of the pyramid and then layer on top of success, building each layer. To date, we found only a few companies that are getting near enlightenment, which we will feature in our upcoming work. Here’s a pattern we found from the advanced companies:

1) Foundation: First, develop a business plan and put governance in place.
2) Safety: Then, get organized by anointing a team and process to deal with crises.
3) Formation: Next, connect business units to increase coordination and reduce duplication.
4) Enablement: Grow by letting them prosper – give business units the support and flexibility to reach goals
5) Enlightenment: Finally, weave real-time market response into business processes and planning.

Open Research: Read it, Apply it, Spread it
The more you spread it, the easier it is for me to produce more reports. This research was 100% funded by Altimeter Group, and we are releasing it under Creative Commons so you can use it in your planning, presentations, and blog posts. You can download the report directly from Slideshare, and use the images provided below for your slides. I’ve embedded sharing buttons on the upper right side of this post, for your convenience. This six month plus research project was conducted by a team, and I’d like to thank Andrew Jones, Christine Tran, and Andrew Nguyen.

Coverage: Related Links About This Report
I’ll cross link to valuable reviews and mentions.

Background:

Brand Side

Press, Media, Interviews

Thought Leaders

Agencies

Social Software Providers

Professional Organizations

Learn More: Upcoming Speeches and Webinars Discussing These Findings
Here’s a few upcoming locations I’ll be discussing these findings, to learn more, see my speaking page.

Update: Thanks Jon Spangler for noticing a typo, which I’ve corrected

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 at 8:58 am and is filed under Altimeter, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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http://minimanifestos.com/ Bryan Jones

Every morning, I hear ads for Reputation.com, and it comes off as black-hat social media crisis management. Do you have any insight into their product?
http://web-strategist.com/blog Jeremiah Owyang

Nope, I’ve not done a briefing with them, but cleaning it up after the fact is the wrong approach. Be proactive first.
http://funestrat.com Gawed

excellent study and even more, you’re share policy is amazing, one of the things that makes me see Altimeter just like others see Google: an awesome place creating knowledge and being open and fun to be at!
http://susanetlinger.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/dreamforce-2011-set-the-social-roadmap-for-your-company/ Dreamforce 2011: Set the Social Roadmap for your Company | Thought Experiments

[...] to define and formalize those roadmaps. Earlier today, he published a new research report, “Social Business Readiness: How Advanced Companies Prepare Internally,” which lays out a great deal of data on how business is integrating social media within the [...]
http://web-strategist.com/blog Jeremiah Owyang

Thanks Gawed, we enjoy Open Research sharing, please help spread
http://www.twitter.com/patrickdh patrickdh

Really like the logic behind the preparedness required to manage real-time
http://imrebuildiq.com/2011/09/01/crisis-communications/ Crisis Communications: 9 Ways To Avoid The Worst Case Scenario | IMRE Build IQ

[...] With the growth of social media, the 24/7 news cycle and a rise in citizen journalism, PR professionals will attest that what people say about a company and its products, how they say it and where they report can sometimes be anything but good. Negative sentiment – whether in the media or online – can change partnerships, damage stock value, and hurt employee recruitment and retention. It can negatively affect sales, harm overall reputation, and much more. And as a recent study by the Altimeter Group shows, brand crises, particularly social media crises, are on th…. [...]
http://www.rosariomultimedia.nl/AniBlurbs/2011/09/social-business-hierarchy-needs/ Social Business Hierarchy of Needs | AniBlurbs (Column)

[...] Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Social Media, Web Marketing WHAT? No tags for this ’Blurb?! Contact Anibal and tell him to get busy! No Comments yet, [...]
http://www.fuellhaas.com/2011/09/02/wie-sich-social-media-krisen-vermeiden-lassen/ Wie sich Social Media Krisen vermeiden lassen – fuellhaas.com – Online Reputation Management und Social Media-Kommunikation

[...] zum Thema hier Social Media Crises On Rise: Be Prepared by Climbing the Social Business Hierarchy of Needs (Web St… The Anatomy of a Social Media Crisis (Mashable) Social Media-Sturm über Mammut (BisCulmCom) 24 [...]
http://freecrmstrategies.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/in-an-era-of-crisis-revolution-is-your-company-the-next-target/ In an era of crisis & revolution, is your company the next target? « Brian Vellmure's CRM Strategies Blog

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[...] Jeremiah Owyang and the Altimeter Group, undoubtedly one of the foremost thinkers in the social media space recently published a review of the state of readiness amongst 140+ organisations with 1000+ employees, and found a distinct lack of readiness across the board – apart from some of the very largest organisations. [...]
http://web-strategist.com/blog Jeremiah Owyang

Thanks Patrick.
http://thefuturebuzz.com AdamSinger

Great stuff Jeremiah – finally got around to reading this one. You guys rock
http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/25-unmissable-social-media-articles-from-the-last-7-days-to-read-this-weekend/ This weeks top 25 posts about social media that are well worth reading

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http://web-strategist.com/blog Jeremiah Owyang

Thanks Adam, I hope you use the research in your presos.
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Awesome and thorough report here. It really goes to show you that having an informed social media manager is an important investment, first in avoiding possible crises and in dealing pro-actively with the unavoidable. You really need to stay on top of social media 24/7 because things can swing so quickly.
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2011/09/12/podcast-for-immediate-release-social-business-readiness/ Podcast: For Immediate Release Social Business Readiness « Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Social Media, Web Marketing

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http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/05/02/a-chonology-of-brands-that-got-punkd-by-social-media/ A Chronology of Brands that Got Punk’d by Social Media « Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Social Media, Web Marketing

[...] Update: Aug 2011, we’ve conducted a research project to analyze these social media crises, read the full report to find out what went wrong and how to prevent it. [...]
http://web-strategist.com/blog Jeremiah Owyang

Exactly the findings we uncovered, thank you
benitocastro

Solid paper and interesting one. Congrats, from Sevilla, South Spain.
http://blog.seesmic.jp/2011/09/owyangs-social-readiness-report-be-prepared/ Owyang’s Social Readiness Report: Be Prepared | Seesmic 日本語ブログ

[...] またOwyang氏のソーシャルメディエ・クライシスに関するレポート（英語）も是非ご一読ください。 [...]
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[...] Further, there is no way to identify the company culture. Is this company too busy to do quality control? If so, do you want to work for a company in an industry where public blunders can lead to PR crises? [...]
http://www.youtern.com/thesavvyintern/index.php/2011/09/29/employers-your-job-postings-suck-part-i-2/ Employers: Your Job Postings Suck, Part I | The Savvy Intern by YouTern

[...] Further, there is no way to identify the company culture. Is this company too busy to do quality control? If so, do you want to work for a company in an industry where public blunders can lead to PR crises? [...]
http://annelinkesocialmedia.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/76-prozent-der-social-media-krisen-lassen-sich-mit-governance-verhindern/ 76 Prozent der Social-Media-Krisen lassen sich mit Governance verhindern | Anne Linkes Social Media

[...] interessant erscheinen mir die Schlussfolgerungen anhand von Benchmarks, die ganz mit dem Social Media Governance Konzept konform [...]
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[...] (Report) Social Media Crises On Rise: Be Prepared by Climbing the Social Business Hierarchy of Needs (web-strategist.com) 51.542209 -0.317528 Share this:LinkedInTwitterFacebookStumbleUponEmailMoreDiggRedditPrintLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. [...]
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[...] back at previous stress times to predict how corporations will react We just completed an extensive study focusing on 50 social media crises examples to understand what companies did, and what they needed [...]
http://darinrmcclure.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/occupy-sf-while-nascent-is-rapidly-self-organizing/ Occupy SF, While Nascent, is Rapidly Self-Organizing « Darin R. McClure – The Good Life In San Clemente

[...] back at previous stress times to predict how corporations will reactWe just completed an extensive study focusing on 50 social media crises examples to understand what companies did, and what they needed [...]
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[...] Social Readiness: How Advanced Companies Prepare [...]
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[...] Thanks to Jonathan Gourlay of Search Content Management for interviewing me after my keynote at KMWorld in DC, discussing our latest research report, which you can download on Social Business Readiness. [...]
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[...] Holtz, one of the FIR hosts, also points out that the DET experience reinforces Altimeter research findings that those organisations successfully using social media have dedicated teams – [...]
http://cooperative.wordpress.com/2011/12/08/die-bedrfnispyramide-fr-das-social-media-business/ Die Bedürfnispyramide für das Social Media Business « c/o operative

[...] LeWeb Konferenz hat Jeremiah Owyang von der Altimeter Group eine Keynote gehalten, die auf einer Untersuchung gründet, in der Anwender in großen Unternehmen und Software Anbieter befragt wurden, komplettiert [...]
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[...] LeWeb Konferenz hat Jeremiah Owyang von der Altimeter Group eine Keynote gehalten, die auf einer Untersuchung gründet, in der Anwender in großen Unternehmen und Software Anbieter befragt wurden, komplettiert [...]
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[...] embedded both the slides from the keynote as well as the report (original post here) which it’s based off of below, feel free to widely share. Also, I’m thankful for the [...]
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[...] we published a research report discussing the aspirations and challenges of this Open Leader, and how they organize internally. They are primarily focused on the overall program ROI, and are internally focused to drive [...]
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– Man Ray
http://bytes.fallonhotdish.com/2011/12/29/8057/ Composition of a Corporate Social Media Team [Data]

[...] published a research report discussing the aspirations and challenges of this Open Leader, and how they organize internally. They are primarily focused on the overall program ROI, and are internally focused to drive [...]
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2012/01/05/buyers-guide-a-strategy-for-managing-social-media-proliferation-altimeter-report/ Buyers Guide: A Strategy for Managing Social Media Proliferation (Altimeter Report) « Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Social Media, Web Marketing

[...] Social Readiness, video of speech at [...]
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[...] Da es leicht ist, sein "soziales" Engagement zu zeigen indem man eine Botschaft teilt, weiterleitet oder einen Kommentar abgibt, werden mit zunehmender Nutzung der Social Networks auch die Anzahl der User Aktionen zunehmen, siehe auch via web-strategist.com "(Report) Social Media Crises On Rise: Be Prepared by Climbing the Social Business Hierarchy of Need… [...]
http://www.socialmediatools.ca/2012/02/05/jeremiah-owyang-altimeter-group-state-of-social-business/ Social Media Tools for Work & Learning » Jeremiah Owyang, Altimeter Group: State of Social Business

[...] of social business. He refers to business as moving through a “heirarchy of needs” (full Altimeter Report here). I think his talk is so bang on as he explains how businesses are becoming predictive in how they [...]
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[...] http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2011/08/31/report-social-media-crises-on-rise-be-prepared-by-cli... Pages [...]
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[...] space is just heating up. But don’t listen to us, instead, let’s review a sample from a recent Altimeter Report on Social Business of what actual corporate decision makers said in a recent [...]
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[...] this space is just heating up. But don’t listen to us, instead, let’s review a sample from a recent Altimeter Report on Social Business of what actual corporate decision makers said in a recent [...]
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[...] this space is just heating up. But don’t listen to us, instead, let’s review a sample from a recent Altimeter Report on Social Business of what actual corporate decision makers said in a recent [...]

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