How do we survive surviving? By Ann SanCartier for Firestorm
Imagine. You head to pick up your child from school and abruptly, the only thing separating you, your daughter and your sister from 200 mile per hour winds are two collapsed walls supporting each other in a triangular formation. You hold your daughter with adrenaline-induced strength while you scream and pray as the realistic fear of being sucked up into a monster overwhelms you. That’s what happened to a family I spoke with who survived the Moore, Oklahoma Tornado. As they cowered for protection at Briarwood Elementary, what we now know to be an E5 tornado, whipped them with flying debris leaving their feet, arms, and heads lacerated by its ferocity. As this mother shared her traumatic experience with me, she related that her sister was waiting in their van parked outside the school. When the school advised her that a...To Full Article
Why Monitoring is a Must
My how the interwebs were abuzz on 11/26 when news broke via PRWeb, that Google was buying - for a whopping $400 million - penny stock, wi-fi company ICOA.
The news was reported by AP and picked up by, well, everyone.
Too bad the story wasn't true.
On Monday 11/26, a press release posted via PRWeb.com stated that Google had acquired ICOA for $400 million in order to "further diversify it's already impressive portfolio of companies." The release listed contact information for ICOA and described ICOA's operations. The Warwick, R.I., company operates Wi-Fi hot spots in public areas such as airports, hotels and retail businesses.
I read the release. I read it again. It looked "hinky." It contained a typo (that happens), but it was what it did not contain that was odd; no PR contact information on the release, no company spokesperson official quotes, no fin...
Oh boy. There are so very many things one can do to get fired when using social media, and we have documented many instances on this blog: you can insult your audience, insult the First Family, release confidential information, or be a complete arse as a CEO.
All of the above have the common thread of immaturity at their root - we discuss this quite often at Firestorm; indeed we have a Performance Maturity Rating™ scale we use when engaged with our clients, because "Maturity" is the right word.
From the Psychology Glossary:
"Maturity in psychology has little to do with age, but with the ability to react, cope and reason in an appropriate way for the situation. Maturity is learned through experiences and comes from healthy growth, just like a strong body....The way a person deals with a crisis or makes decisions are good clues about their level of maturity."
Enter the most ...
Often when I write an article on Social Media, I am discussing a faux pas on Facebook or a trip-up on Twitter. This past week however, as all eyes were on Louisiana and Mississippi, Hurricane Isaac, and protecting people and property in harm's way, I came across a company that "gets" it; not a slick marketing company, not a cool start-up, but a company that uses the phrase "Hard Stuff Done Right" on its products page. And what they do is hard - they build ships.
Not boats, not yachts. Ships. Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) designs, builds and maintains nuclear and non-nuclear ships for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard. I noticed Huntington Ingalls Industries while monitoring various news sources, Facebook, and Twitter crisis hashtags such as #SMEM (Social Media Emergency Management) as Hurricane Isaac approached the Southern Gulf. What I saw was a company putting emplo...
Dear Secret Service: Facebook is not so Secret
Social Media Risk Management
By Karen Masullo EVP, Social Media for Firestorm You may remember a story we commented on back in May of 2011 when the Secret Service first established a Twitter account "Secret Service Apologizes For Tweet About 'Blathering' On Fox News". Slightly embarrassing but correctable. This latest faux pas? Not so much. I'm not going to delve into the entire, recent Colombia scandal, but rather one related piece of it; an agent posting on Facebook. Back in 2011 when we discussed the Secret Service delving into the social media space, we said; "While a general social media policy for your employees is a good start, it is not enough." If you are a Secret Service agent, I would think posting an image of the high-profile, public figure you are protecting, along with yourself in the background, and captio...
A CEO Flames Out on Facebook
Social Media Risk Management
By Karen Masullo EVP, Social Media for Firestorm. In addition to serving as Firestorm Solution’s own in-house social media advisor, she also serves as the Firestorm Blog Editor, on the Firestorm Solutions Expert Council and delivers social media strategy and policy services for Firestorm clients.
Let us pose a hypothetical: You have an employee. A pretty good employee. A pretty good employee with a Facebook account. A pretty good employee with a Facebook account and a zeal for using it to discuss whatever happens to cross their mind, not always in the best taste and at times, downright offensive. You warn the employee to comply with the company’s social media policy. The behavior continues - for eighteen months. Eighteen months? Now, imagine that employee is the CEO.
Ben Polis Flames Out
O...
Dallas Fort Worth Airport, Schneider National use Social Media for Emergency Communication
SMEM - Social Media Emergency Management
Are you a Twitter user? Were you at the Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) Airport on Monday, April 3rd 2012. If so, you may have seen messages from the airport via your Twitter stream, requesting all travelers in the airport to seek shelter as tornadoes approached the facility. The @dfwairport team did a great job of keeping people informed via social media as the storm wreaked havoc on parts of the city, and continued afterward to update travelers on delays and damage; "We had about 12 tornadoes touch down around #DFW yesterday. 100+ aircraft were damaged from hail," tweeted @dfwairport. "If you're in one of our terminals please don't hesitate to let us know if we can be of assistance." For American Airlines, flight cancellations at Dallas Fort Wor...
Sickweather.com Launches in Beta – Being Sick is Social
Social Media Risk
"Just as Doppler radar scans the skies for indicators of bad weather, Sickweather scans social networks for indicators of illness." By Karen Masullo, EVP Social Media, Firestorm Baltimore-based Sickweather says they are a social network with a difference; their goal is to let you know what illnesses are out there, and how likely you are to catch them.
"With more and more people turning to outlets like Facebook and Twitter to update their friends and followers as to when they get sick, there is now an immense amount of real time data available on the health of our population," the site explains.
Sickweather plans to use that information to create a "real time weather map" of symptoms across the country and from there, offer forecasts of maladies to come. The site, currently in beta, plans to si...
Social Media Risk – When an Employee Quit Goes Viral
What’s all in fun for one may be a security risk for another
By Karen Masullo, EVP Social Media, Firestorm Every business has had an employee abruptly quit; sometimes it’s a simple phone call or no show for a shift and sometimes, it’s a viral YouTube video. Yup. Get ready for the Social Quit as demonstrated by 23 year old Joey DeFrancesco, a former Marriott Hotels employee. DeFrancesco was an unhappy employee and had been for some time. He fantasized about quitting in a “spectacular” way. That way was an early morning resignation accompanied by a 19-piece alternative brass band of which he is a member (What Cheer Brigade), filmed for YouTube, and shared to Cheer Brigade's 4700+ Facebook fans. DeFrancesco says he's been overwhelmed by the response to the video, which has racked up more than a million YouTube v...
Fox, NBC and USA Today – Who’s the Next Script Kiddies Target?
Social Media Safety and Risk Management
By Karen Masullo, EVP Social Media, Firestorm Summary: USAToday’s Twitter account became the latest victim of the hacking group Script Kiddies: Unlike previous Script Kiddies hacks however, the USA Today effort apparently did not include tweets with fake news stories. Instead, the group boasted about previous hacks and encouraged people to "like" them on Facebook. You may recall we discussed a breach of the FoxNews Politics Twitter account by the Script Kiddies Hackers over the 2011 July 4th weekend. Next, NBC News found itself victim of a tasteless attack via its Twitter account on September 9th of this year. The NBC News hacks read:
"Breaking News! Ground Zero has just been attacked. Flight 5736 has crashed into the site, suspected hijacking…more as the story deve...
Business Continuity - Business Risks Statistics
We put together some statistics for you, including those on Social Media Risk. Please join us Wednesday, 09/14/2011 for our 5th Webinar in our Social Media Risk Webinar Series: SOCIAL MEDIA RISK - WHO ARE YOU? presented by Expert Council Member Karen Masullo In this session we’ll address policy and consistency for your company’s social profiles to improve your brand and lessen risk; we’ll look at specific cases where inconsistency resulted in litigation, and what you can do to create a culture of consistency without stifling individuality. Meanwhile, enjoy the video and let us know your thoughts in comments!
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Moore Tornado Resources - How You Can Help
