Earlier today, Burger King’s Twitter account was hacked and made to look like McDonald’s. While this move clearly caused a good deal of stress for Burger King execs, the heartburn-inducing wake-up call has led to many “what if” scenarios from brands and communications pros alike. While the actual hacking was disturbing for the brand and quite likely some Whopper fans, the key learnings come from Burger King’s slow, exceedingly maladroit response, which seems to have worsened the fallout.
To ensure you aren’t caught flat-footed if something like this were to occur to you, here are few quick tips to put in place right now to ensure you’re prepared to react more effectively and efficiently than the fallen King.
Update your log-in credentials often: Secure passwords that are updated frequently are the first step to prevent this type of situation. Hacks still happen but a little additional effort upfront will help stave off some attacks.
Actively monitor your name, product names and profiles: Good old fashioned real-time social listening would have helped Burger King jump on this crisis much more quickly. The account was actively tweeting under a hacker control for over an hour. Immediate detection and quick action is crucial, which brings us to…
Have a social media crisis plan in place: A well-thought out response will help to ensure that you can help your client minimize embarrassment and diminish subsequent ripples across social channels, on blogs and beyond. Crisis plan steps include:
- Identify and anticipate future risks as much as possible.
- Plan for responses with a social media SWAT team that knows the appropriate response for each potential issue and the chain of response.
- Listen and assess the crisis at hand before quickly jumping to action.
- Analyze the situation by referencing against what’s in your previously identified crisis issues to align with approved process.
- Launch the formal plan following set procedures, roles and responsibilities in a timely manner.
- Monitor and evaluate how the media and public are reacting to the company’s official response and modify as necessary.
Have any other questions about social media crisis planning? Connect with us to get the conversation started.
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