Yesterday Kelloggs (US)voluntarily recalled a variety of cereals due to a strange odour.  But how are they faring with regard to online crisis communications management?

First up a check of their website shows a recall message on the homepage so they are off to a good start. Within the recall message there are a range of well crafted FAQs regarding the recall.

Viewing the Australian Kelloggs website there is no mention of the recall yet Australians hooked into Twitter and reading about the recall will be wondering this morning if their cereal is affected.

Now on to Twitter… there is certainly a lot of chatter this morning from consumers regarding the recall (see below) 

tffny705264: RT @mykidseatfree: Kellogg Issues Massive Cereal Recall; 28-Million Boxes Pulled – http://bit.ly/aAOjXo http://myloc.me/8pFzw 40 minutes ago via UberTwitter

kmohara: Recall on Kelloggs Fruit Loops, Apple Jacks, Honey Smacks and Pops. http://ow.ly/23sBI

AndYaSayChIcitY: RT @ThickGirlThin: Re: recalled cereal. http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20100625/kelloggs-cereal-recall-due-to-odd-smell

Interestingly, it does not appear that Kelloggs have an official Twitter handle with which they could certainly respond and keep consumers updated hour by hour. 

I certainly hope in the least they have claimed their Twitter name or we could see someone having fun with the Kelloggs brand in the next few hours and day ala BP style.

Update! the Twitter handle looks to be taken by a consumer not the organisation view twitter handle – the last entry is about basketball! I have followed this character to see what unfolds in the coming days.

It is still surprising when organisations are not claiming their name or using Twitter as an online crisis communication tool.  Back   in 2007 when writing for Freshchat I noted the use of Twitter for this purpose but back then this Twitter thing was still reasonably new. Today no organisation can claim that Twitter is new or untested.

In fact only recently in Australia the ACCC encouraged Australian food companies to embrace Twitter and other web 2.0 mediums to get the message out to consumers – Twitter has indeed gone mainstream.

The Fruit Loops Community Page on Facebook will certainly be pulling in some negative comments over the next few hours so you would be hoping that Kelloggs are monitoring that page as will the Honey Smacks page.  This is a good lesson for organisations – even if you don’t want to have a Facebook prescence Community Pages exists so at least monitor those and get proactive on the site.

The company also has a  Froot Loops application on Facebook so it will be interesting to see if any messages appear via this mechanism (this is one of the cereals recalled).

Quick search of YouTube on the subject – nothing as yet although news reports regarding the recall have already appeared right now a statement from a Kelloggs official on youtube would be recommended but will they respond? it is possible that creative types might have a field day with the recall so expect to see some humorous videos on this channel in coming days.

Update: there is already one consumer recall video posted as of 1pm today.  Also notable was a news video that accidentally mixed up the Kelloggs story with another – to interesting effect.

Bloggers – yes they will be out in force and already there are murmerings about the cereal recall so let’s hope Kellogg’s have their social media monitoring in place and their blogger relations under control. Here’s one recall blog post I quite like regarding the quantities recalled.

Let’s not forget Online Forums and it is evident that the US  ’mommy forums’ are already quite active which you may expect but less obvious forums such as Pirate 4×4  (for offroad vehicles) are also discussing the recall and by nature the product itself.

Google Trends (in the US) is showing Kelloggs Recall as number 2 only surpassed by the World Cup.  It is interesting to note that no adwords have been purchased at the current time.

Naturally the issue is hitting online news sites and The Huffington Post have a nice wrap up including integrated Twitter feed.

Lessons for Online Crisis Communications

1. Use a variety of online platforms to get the message out – a simple line on your website simply does not cut it anymore

2. Claim your name in all the online platforms to ensure no spoofing of your brand occurs particularly during a crisis

3. Local organisations should  monitor the international situation and quickly get a message out on their websites that local stock are not affected (if this is the case) we are clearly operating in a global economy.

4. Twitter is a vital online crisis comms platform – understand it and use it in a crisis. Develop and stick to a relevant hashtag.

5. Don’t leave it till a crisis occurs to integrate online comms platforms into your existing crisis comms plans

6. Have a good social media monitoring system in place and monitor it regularly

7. Research what terms people are searching for online and ensure they are incorporated into your content strategy.  Understand the basics of SEO – if you are a communicator this is critical.

8. Buy adwords for the key terms to ensure that your messages get through.  Ensure your link sends consumers directly to your recall page.

Interview with Diffusion’s Stephen Byrne regarding the impact of social media on brands:

http://diffusionblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/in-turning-bay-some-questions-on-future_24.html

Two friends of mine Tessie Ting and Jean Davis from Conversition in the US are making quite a splash with their new product TweetFeel which gives real-time sentiment results for Twitter.

Conversition are working with Twitter to set band widths as apparently they are getting so much traffic to the site.

I think its important to recognise that there is not one social media monitoring product that will be the panacea for the industry. We need to find a range of tools that does the best job on each platform that complement each other. Nice work Tessie and Jean!

How many times have you heard marketers or pr professionals say:

- “Social Media is so hard to get over the line’  and -’Its hard to demonstrate the ROI of Social Media’ or

-’The CEO is just not on board with the Social Media idea’

These comments typically come from individuals that do not have the full business picture in mind when they are talking with their client.

As marketers we often think of Social Media as part of our own personal toolkit – albiet a growing and quickly developing one. Via Social Media we have the capacity to reach consumers,  with some prs still aiming to get a few messages across  (yes very old school) and ideally raise the brand profile and ultimately sell the item that we are marketing.

So what is wrong with that notion? After working in traditional media, online pr, market research 2.0 and knowledge management it is clearly evident that we need to recognise that Social Media touches all the above disciplines within a business including R&D and CRM.  As individuals within those disciplines we need to step outside our own areas and look at how we deliver business value across many areas of the business  – a much more wholistic approach.

So how is this relevant to you as a marketer? First understand that the Twitter account that you are trying to sell in for pr purposes can also be used for CRM and that means working with those relevant internally to support customers if complaints arise.  That branded Online Community that you are thinking about will provide ROI for many elements of your business including innovation and R&D. It is not just about your big shiny idea or your pr/marketing silo, or for that matter (and this is positive) the marketing budget.

Finally social media strategies can be devised and initially implemented by agencies but collaborative maintenance must come from the company itself.   What is maintenance? after the initial burst of creative activity is the hard yakka of continuing the conversation with your consumers, listening to them and embracing what you learn. If your social media marketing agency is simply selling you a one-off campaign and not educating you along the way they are doing you a disservice. Sure campaigns such as World’s Best Job have a finite time period but most customer engagement strategies should be for the long-term.

Social Media has the power to transform a company,  break down internal silos, deliver excellent ROI, engage with consumers and deliver more relevant products to the marketplace but we need to first recognise its not all about us.

About the Author: Jenni Beattie is the Director of Digital Democracy a Sydney based Social Media Consultancy . Enjoy the article?please subscribe to the RSS Feed .

Update May 9 Mashable produced an excellent article using Twitter for customer service well worth a read!

Has twitter reached maturity? This week it may seem that way with unborn babies now able to tweet.

A tech student from NYC who didn’t want to miss a single moment of his wife’s pregnancy, has invented a device that instantly posts his unborn baby’s kicks on Twitter…

 http://www.viralblog.com/widgets-apps/unborn-baby-kicks-its-first-tweet-on-twitter/