A number of businesses including Myer, Dick Smith and Mitsubishi have seen their Facebook pages hijacked in a coordinated attack by protestors who want the companies to cease advertising with Austereo after host Kyle Sandilands made insulting comments towards a News Ltd journalist.
The incident has sparked warnings for other SMEs to start developing social media policies around these types of occurrences – which experts say are beginning to happen far more frequently than they used to.
“This really illustrates the need for organisations to have a good think about how they can deal with coordinated attacks,” head of online reputation management group SR7, James Griffin, told SmartCompany this morning.
The comments began yesterday, with multiple users diverging on Facebook to pressure Myer, Dick Smith and Mitsubishi into abandoning advertising contracts with Austereo. While some companies – including Myer – have halted advertising with the Kyle and Jackie O Show, some protestors want the businesses to stop advertising with Austereo altogether.
Myer has responded to the latest outburst, repeating its position that the business took during the first outcry a few weeks ago.
“As confirmed on November 26, Myer in no way condones the comments by Kyle Sandilands on his radio show, we do not have any advertising planned on the Kyle and Jackie O radio show now, or in the future,” a spokesperson confirmed with SmartCompany this morning.
Griffin points out the attack is different than a more grassroots approach, with all the comments appearing to start at the same time yesterday.
“You should also look at the comments. Many of them are well written and well-constructed, which seems to indicate this may be a thoughtful, intelligent group of people that has decided on doing this,” he says.
Such an attack highlights the varied nature of communication available to customers on the internet. While many consumers may choose to complain after a particular incident has occurred, many others take the opportunity to create organised attacks whenever they like.
Griffin says as a result, it is imperative that businesses establish plans to deal with such attacks.
“Businesses need to have a good understanding of how their social media strategy fits within their business, because if they don’t understand that then they aren’t going to deliver an appropriate response.”
Firstly, he says, businesses need to communicate with every department about what a response will be.
“So you need to be talking with other marketing departments. If you look at Qantas as an example, they should perhaps consider what other marketing initiatives are going out to ensure the tone on social media is correct.”
“You should also get messages signed off so everybody is aware of what the message will be, and what will be going out to the customer.”
Griffin reminds businesses that if there is an opportunity to respond, they need to make sure that response doesn’t affect other areas of the company.
“You don’t want an incident to migrate from Facebook to Twitter, where it will spread even more quickly.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
