How do you control social media when an employee goes beserk?
Wednesday, August 11, 2010 at 9:04AM How Steve Slater Is Stifling JetBlue's Social-Media Strategy. Even Good Practitioners Must Bow to Legal Department During Crisis
Excellent story in today's AdAge detailing the dilemma JetBlue is facing regarding how is utilzing social media in the wake of the bizzre story of the flight attendant who went crazy after an altercation with a passenger. If you go to JetBlue's Facebook wall, there's absolutely no mention of the incident. But, when you click on the discussions tab, there are a few posts, mostly supporting Mr. Slater and encouraging Jet Blue to back its employees and get tougher with misbehaving passengers. Here's one example:
Lisa Support your employee! Flight Attendants have been taking crap from passengers for YEARS! I know that employees need to be polite to customers but this is ridiculous. The rules on an airplane are there for a reason. That customer should be cited for assault and barred from Jet Blue. Show a little compassion, get him some help and you will once again have a great employee.
Meanwhile, a new tribute page to Steven Slater now has more than 106,000 people who like it. The page is even selling t-shirts and has a link to to a cartoon called "Quitting Your Crappy Job." It's a full-blown circus.
WHAT TO MAKE OF ALL THIS? Companies are anxious to join the conversation with customers and stimulate authentic discussions--letting customers control the dialog, which is what social media is all about. But, every company must have a crisis management plan for incidents such as this and part of that plan must include how to handle social media. The lawyers will always push for a complete shutdown of all communication, which is good for protecting a company's legal position, but awful for business because it confuses customers and makes media that much more aggressive. It looks like Jet Blue has done a smart thing, keeping the subject off its Facebook wall, but allowing posts in the discussion section. For other businesses, other strategies may work better. Apple, for example, has a Facebook page for the iPhone. It doesn't have a discussion section, but there are plenty of comments posted about the phone's recent technical troubles. No matter the approach, the key is to have a plan; otherwise, your social media could run amok.
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