Sometimes it is very difficult to deal with the extreme situations that an online reputation crisis can generate. But when it happens, everything seems to be out of control; chaos originates and hundreds of sharpened knives with a desire to cut flesh begin to be seen. This is the reality faced by many companies and brands in social networks and unfortunately we have also had to experience recently.
Everything arose after the publication of an article published in our own media that after a few hours was the subject of controversy after the plagiarism complaint of its original author, the popular and well-known @TwittBoy. And yes, quite right was when it spread on Twitter since indeed, it was a perfect copy with semicolons of the original content.
The influence of Twitter’s social network was enough to generate a crisis where rumors, accusations, assumptions and opinions of all kinds were replicated. But the cherry was missing. The sharp knives gave cut after cut no matter what the cause. If it is a crisis of reputation many are those who get on the cart since we all have enemies and archenemies wanting to party. Such are the crises!
However, suspicions that this subject had a darker background began to emerge after evaluating the information of the user who suggested the content itself in our collaborative system and that we later published. It was a fake profile!
Commenting on this issue with some experts, the answer was obvious. “It is clear that the one who created that false profile knew that plagiarizing TwittBoy would detect it, because TwittBoy is in a company that is dedicated to that precisely, to analyze the noise in social media.” In addition, knowing fully the scope it could have given the TwittBoy community is very large and the level of affinity with it is especially important among influencers who have been many years in this, so it was a good target to create The Perfect Storm.
Our great mistake was undoubtedly not to notice beforehand and to trust in the good faith of our authors and collaborators, although in this case as it is evident, it was a user who knew well, placed a grenade in our own house waiting for it soon will explode. And that’s right, it exploded, giving way to a reputation crisis through Twitter serving as food to many of the trolls and vampire hunters who were waiting for such an opportunity.
Acting in these situations may seem like a simple task. But the truth, and whatever they say, no company is fully prepared for it and much less to dominate this indomitable beast of social networks. However, in our case, the decision was to establish a margin of silence and active listening to analyze certain aspects without adding fuel to the fire seeking answers. Why did the crisis originate? Who was reviving it? and even detect the possible interests that this would occur given our suspicions.
The silence in these cases corresponds to the refusal to give publicity to those who might be looking for this type of strategies a moment of glory and fame. And act, do it privately to solve the problem in the best way. Even so, once the crisis is triggered the important thing is to try to stop it and to clarify the lights and shadows learning everything possible of it.
In fact, this has served to increase the level of security and the requirements of our users and collaborators when suggesting or publishing new content in our environment. Even so, it is always extremely difficult to control all the sources sent since we also trust in the good faith of each one of them. Unlike other media, we always respect the authorship of the content giving visibility to authors and professionals of great prestige such as.
In this case, we must recognize that we have gotten a goal in own door. An explosive grenade in our own house to generate on Twitter an explosion and a perfect storm. Assuming our error by apologizing for this, we leave a sample of the reality that many companies and brands face in social networks, and how difficult it is to deal with it when it breaks out this type of tornado that drags everything that comes in its path .