Social Media In Crisis PR – A Case Study

View this document on Scribd

Marketing Business communications twitter

Social Media Rubber Has Met The Road

This one blog post from Ford’s new social media director, Scott Monty, illustrates a terrific example of the role social media is playing in crisis PR communications.

In this particular case, the post demos how social media is being used to progress the overall conversation to a more positive consideration of the automotive industry… at a time when that industry, from a PR standpoint, seriously f-ed up.

From Scott Monty’s blog:

It’s been a rough week. And for someone who is new to the auto industry, this is truly a test.

And at Ford, our social media efforts are just in their nascency. My colleagues at GM have a pretty strong team in place, while I’m just one guy doing what I can. Since Ford doesn’t yet have a robust public platform in the social media space, it’s largely been a matter of individual engagement. And for much of the week, it’s been like fighting a forest fire with a squirt gun.

Full blog post here. You will need to explore it to understand this post at all. But in a nutshell, Scott jumping immediately into the media cycle to circulate this one YouTube video alone, the compelling statement from a Detroit area Congressman at the now infamous “Gulfstream Hearing,” has likely shifted the conversation already.

And how did I first come to click-on that particular video and LISTEN to it? Why Twitter. Of course. Scott from Ford is not only my Twitter friend now, but he’s also a Facebook friend. Now that’s getting up close and personal with crisis communications!

But the real winner here will be Ford… for having had the good sense to hire a social media director as autute as Scott Monty. He knows the medium he’s operating in like a cop knows how to sniff the air for doughnuts.

Scott might be new to Ford, but he clearly is not new to being precise, transparent, honest, blunt, no-frills and totally straight-up when the BS was (is) swirling all around him.

Take note Edelman. Wal-Mart, etc.