Social media changes the crisis management strategy



http://hollywoodoncrack.net/camille-grammer-quits-real-housewives-beverly-hills-reunion-sho/

Recently, I am required to consult on one crisis Bravo faced two months ago.
Bravo is a cable television channel owned by NBC Universal, and produces original reality content, such as "The Real Housewives", "Inside the Actors Studio", and others.

"The Real Housewives" is one of the most popular reality series. The series follows the lives of relatively affluent, bourgeois housewives and professional women in the suburban or urban areas of several American cities, and the suffix portion of the title takes on the name of that metropolitan region. ( Wikipedia)

On August.15,2011, "the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" husband Russell Armstrong killed himself. Because Russell once mentioned this TV show made his life under big stress in an interview with People magazine, his death put Bravo and its Reality TV franchise into a difficult situation.

Then how did Bravo handle this crisis?

Russell's death was reported on August.16. In the wake of the Armstrong suicide, Bravo executives didn't hold the press conference or respond to journalists as expected, instead, they declined all the interview requests. On the contrary, Bravo executive Andy Cohen immediately acknowledged the death of Russell on his own Twitter, said, "I am so very sad about today's news. My prayers and thoughts are with Taylor Armstrong and her family." Other cast members also reacted to this strategy on twitter and Facebook quickly. A statement from the Bravo's official forum reads: "All of us at Bravo are deeply saddened by the tragic news of the death of Russell Armstrong. Our sympathy and thoughts are with the Armstrong family at this difficult time." Messages were spread out fast on the social platform, and before the journalists making any comments, many people had already known about the accident.
It's interesting to notice a fact: Bravo chose the social media as the first battlefield instead of the big media. Also, in the whole process, Bravo took more measures on the social media. In this case, traditional media was not regarded as critical as before to solve a problem.

In the past, journalists were the only bridge between the truth and the audience. However, the delivery of information was edited and time-costed during the completed process. Uncompleted disclosures easily lead to misdirection, and many cases were not perfectly handled due to the misdirection of the reports. Now, the social media provides a platform for corporations to enable their words heard directly and widely in the shortest time. Companies could take more control in their own hands of the communication with audiences. No wonder Bravo and other companies would choose to skip the traditional media at the first minute when the crisis broke out. They have to disclose the real situation and create a favorable public opinion environment before the intervention of the big media.

Social media does not only change the way of Marketing, but also change the way of crisis management strategy.

Forever 21& Social Media

Picture: http://fashionlawyerblog.com/?p=371

Celebrated by many fashion-conscious and trend-savvy shoppers, Forever 21 has become a phenomenon in the fashion world, and is developing quite rapidly.

There are several brands under Forever 21: Forever 21, Heritage 1981, Forever 21 Girls,and 21 Men. Literally we could tell that its main target audiences are young people.

Many factors have contributed to the success of Forever 21, one of which is social media.

Forever 21 currently uses a vast number of social networkings. Its web site is polished-look, and convenient for customers to purchase online.

 Link: http://www.forever21.com/

Besides web sites, Forever 21 is active in Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and the Skinny ( Blog). Its Twitter has already owned 215,965 followers, and 5,167,081 people like its Facebook.

Also, Forever 21 follows in the footsteps of other big brands like Kia, Snuggie and Toyota, tapping into the YouTube audience with a new online video contest called the ‘Haul of Fame Contest.’ This contest asks girls to make their own haul videos showing off their favorite ‘Back to School’ fashions. Contests like this are great publicity for brands, because each  haul video is spreading the world to tell about the brand and this fun opportunity to win cool Forever 21 prizes.

These social networkings all provide a link to its official website. Therefore, an information network was developed through the social media with Forever 21's official website at its hub, sending the latest news directly and widely to customers as soon as possible. This network not only offers customers an integrated online experience, but also enables the company to hear what the audiences really think.

The active performance on these social media shows the emphasize Forever 21 has put on these new communication platforms. As Forever 21 clearly positions its target audience under 30, who are also the main users of the social media, it's necessary and smart for Forever 21 to make this strategy. Let's look forward to a better social media campaign conducted by Forever 21!

Reference Link: http://socialtimes.com/forever-21-youtube-contest_b19901

iPhone5 turns out to be iPhone4S

Yesterday's Apple Special Event: Let's Talk iPhone turned out to be a big disappointment to most Apple fans.

There were several rumors of concerning the launching date of the iPhone 5, but no one doubted the actual existence of this new product! People had been eagerly anticipating the arrival iPhone5 for a long time and some of had even waited on line to buy one. As Apple always likes to use the “hunger marketing strategy” to generate interest in their new products, once again the customer's appetite had been stimulated to ravenous proportions. However yesterday, Apple did not meet everyone’s expectations and the result was a severe fall of its stock price.

Now the emotion of anger and disappointment is spreading on Twitter and Weibo. People make jokes of iPhone4S as "iPhone for s**t". And there are many other interesting comments on this event, such as " There were always surprises in Apple's launching conference every year; this year, the biggest surprise is no surprise at all!". The most funny thing is the cry of China's Emulational mobile phone makers. They have already created the copies of iPhone5!



picture: http://store.taobao.com/shop/view_shop.htm?user_number_id=334927212



                                picture:http://news.itxinwen.com/yejingdongtai/2011/1005/354505.html



Like most people, I was a little angry with Apple at first. I remembered in September there were news re-twittered by thousands of people that iPhone5 would be launched on October 5th.. Then I suddenly realized that Apple never officially announced the coming of the iphone5. I searched on the Weibo and Twitter only to see " We are going to launch a new product in October" . Also, the invitation to media was creative and mysterious, but never referred to iPhone5. So, the fact was that the launch of iPhone5 was just media speculation, but became a ‘fact’ after several misquotes. What Apple did concerning this rumor was to just keep silent. This unique company really did good work on strict confidentiality, which successfully satisfied people's curiosity and created the much more buzz for Apple.

Only rumors, no truth. It seems that Apple played a trick on all of us. But maybe we would be more correct in saying that this time people worldwide deceived themselves… with the strong help of social media.