Hey Pharma… What would you do if Christian Bale were your brand?
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- February 17th, 2009
Health care communicators are in double trouble:
- Do too much and you’ll become the next Yaz with FDA fining you $20 million dollars in make-good advertising obligations
- Do too little and when you’re caught unprepared to manage a mishap, you could be the next Christian Bale news cycle
This article provides a quick case study of how bad news moves from audio to web to video to broadcast TV in 13 days time, and offers 3 suggestions based upon your budget to prepare themselves for a social media mishap.
You want to build a solid defense first
You might think that embracing a defensive social media strategy is a sign of weakness in an economy that demands strength. But a rule of thumb says that 40% of a publicly traded company’s value consists of intangibles like corporate image, citizenship, responsibility, culture and diversity. So I say there is strength in protecting brand reputation from erosion that moves quickly and jumps channels.
60 second case study:
From Rant to YouTube to Prime Time Broadcast in 13 Days
- Feb. 2, 2009, an audio tape of Bale yelling and cursing at Director of Photography Shane Hurlbut on the set of the film Terminator Salvation surfaces on the Internet.
- Feb. 5, 2009 - 3 days later, video artist “BrendanBrendan” creates mash up of the Christian Bale audio and YouTube sensation ”David After Dentist” video. The latter being a funny kid to father conversation.
Warning: explicit language in clip below.
(Click to watch the original “David At The Dentist” video)
- Feb 15, 2009 – 13 days later Christian Bale jumps from YouTube to Family Guy (note: link expires around March15th per Hulu terms of use)
The Christian Bale “rant meme” has moved from Hollywood backstage to YouTube to traditional broadcast in less than two weeks.
What health care communicators can do to prepare for social media mishaps
If you have no staff and no budget:
- Set up Google alerts from your brand and brand name variations.
- Monitor YouTube, Facebook and Hulu weekly
- Set up accounts for the top 20 major social media properties so IF provoked you CAN respond immediately.
If you have some staff but no budget:
- Monitor YouTube, Facebook and your 20 other social media sites DAILY via RSS
- Ask a staff member to help you gather metrics. Start with Site, Search and Social and your job will be easier later
- Find someone who is good with Excel in your company. Ask for their advice on creating charts and reports for performance metrics. You want the reports to be so easy they “seem to write themselves with only an hour of my time.”
If you have some staff and some budget
- Outsource the monitoring to a third party
- Develop in-house expertise for establishing and interpreting brand reputation metrics.
- Buy everyone lunch. Get your marketing, public relations, investor relations, legislative affairs, call center, human resources and I.T. people in a room or on a conference call for 90 minutes. Ask “what is the very next thing we should to make sure we are prepared for a social media mishap?” The answers constitute your plan-of-action.
- If your budget permits, find and hire the right vendor to do the heavy lifting.
Still not convinced that defense makes for a good offense in 2009?
Ask yourself this question:
When did Noah build the ark?
Answer: Before the flood.
Tip of the hat to Sean and Amy of Dangerous Digital for having three large screen monitors going at the same time, which inspired this post.