At 5.55pm today News online ran with a story Mouthwash Recalled Over Bacteria Scare. My first thought was to view the Colgate Palmolive website where I expected to find at least a news item or ticker regarding the issue.  But nothing.

I then went into the actual product page for Savacol once again nothing!

Next stop Twitter – it doesn’t appear Colgate have a company Twitter stream if they did it would be an ideal crisis communication vehicle, if they do it is not advertised on their home page and is well hidden.

Finally off to Facebook to see if a product or company page exist? No – once again a lost opportunity to communicate and answer consumers questions and fears regarding the recall.

Are people discussing the Savacol recall online? you bet.  These are just a few comments that appear on Twitter from consumers:

-Thousands of bottles of #Savacol antiseptic mouth and throat rinse taken off shelves in Oz after traces of harmful bacteria were detected

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.

Over a sunday breakfast that included a BLT I opened the papers to read about the outbreaks of Swine Flu. Over the course of the day it was clear that this flu was spreading and discussion online ramped up.

swine flu

Swine Flu received its own Hash Tag on Twitter evidence of growing interest and Mashable wrote an excellent post about the best way to stay on top of the issue.

There is no doubt that the introduction of innovative technologies used by authorities such as the CDC  (such as Mashups of health outbreaks,CDC HandWashing ECard , CDC Streaming video  on Youtube and CDC Twitter ) and WHO (WHO Twitter) are a great addition to our health communication toolkit.

On the negative side speculation was also raised in an article in Foreign Policy that technologies such as Twitter may also increase community panic.

Some years ago in a previous role I did some research on the subject of Bird Flu for an article regarding how countries were tackling the issue from a crisis communication perspective.

I will now be following how Swine Flu is communicated to the Australian public.  There is no doubt that getting the balance between informing/preparing and not alarming the public will be crucial.

It will be interesting to see what online communication tools are employed locally.

Following the CDC information is important but having our own local (NSW Health Twitter) updates will be critical if the flu progresses.

Update

CDC has  fully embraced social media tools to disseminate their message.

Uncovered this document from Peter Sandman and Jody Lanard (risk communicators) that discuss pandemic communication. It is quite insightful and explains the WHO phasing from a communication/messaging  perspective.