Ford Apologizes for being Gazopted – The Ford Figo India Ads By Karen Masullo, EVP Social Media Risk, Firestorm Executives at Ford were as shocked as the public when distasteful ad mockups featuring the Ford brand were posted on the Internet, and quickly went viral. According to a report by the AP, “The Indian unit of Ford Motor Co. has apologized for advertisements decried as demeaning to women, including one depicting Italy’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi with a trio of bound women in the trunk of a car.” “A Ford India spokeswoman said Monday that the company is investigating whether anyone at the automaker ever saw the print ads, which were never used commercially but appeared over the March 24th weekend on a website showcasing creative advertising.” Ford’s India Ad agency, WPP Plc (WPP)’s JWT (J. Walter Thompson) India unit fired an undisclosed number of employees fo...

A Bully in the BuildingIn a video released by ESPN's Outside the Lines, footage of Rice physically abusing players quickly went viral, and has resulted in the firing of Coach Rice. "Based upon recently revealed information and a review of previously discovered issues, Rutgers has terminated the contract of Mike Rice," the school statement read. “I am responsible for the decision to attempt a rehabilitation of Coach Rice,” said Rutgers Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Tim Pernetti. “Dismissal and corrective action were debated in December and I thought it was in the best interest of everyone to rehabilitate, but I was wrong. Moving forward, I will work to regain the trust of the Rutgers community.” Social media allows the instant distribution of content, and results in public outcry far louder and more immediate than many organizations anticipate.This now spotlights a broader...

Regulating Risk by Jim Satterfield, President and COO, Firestorm In several articles and webinars last year, Firestorm discussed the evolution of regulatory agency guidance, rules and regulations with regard to social media use. As social media use has grown, we have seen regulators such as FINRA, promulgate regulation to protect investors; the SEC issue notices which provide guidance for using social media in the context of regulated business transactions. We have suggested best practices for monitoring use, both internal and external, and are continually reviewing risk reduction as it applies to social media policy.Also notable, is the ever increasing body of case law emanating from social media risk, including claims of defamation and copyright infringement; discrimination; breach of non-compete agreements; employee misrepresentation on social media sites - all with significant cons...

By Karen Masullo, Firestorm EVP Please join Firestorm CEO Harry Rhulen and Karen Masullo a they look more closely at this event on their webinar on February 6th at 2 PM Eastern. REGISTER NOW! When UK Entertainment retailer HMV made the tough decision to downsize a total of 190 employees yesterday, they did not anticipate that their brand would go viral. “We’re tweeting live from HR where we’re all being fired! Exciting!!” read a message sent out over @hmvtweets at about 9:45 a.m. “There are over 60 of us being fired at once! Mass execution, of loyal employees who love the brand” read another. As detailed in news websites from the National Post to Business Week, HMV company officials did not realize what was happening nearly as fast as the Internet did. “Just overheard our Marketing Director (he’s staying, folks) ask ‘How do I shut down Twitter?’” The offending tweets were only onl...

Firestorm selects uberVU as its Partner of Choice for Monitoring by Karen Masullo, EVP Social Media, Firestorm Last year, Suzy Loughlin and I authored an article for the American Bar Association’s eMagazine on adding a strong monitoring approach to a company’s social media and crisis communications management toolbox. In the article, we outlined features Firestorm considers “must-haves” when selecting a monitoring tool. From the article: Immediate Engagement and Alerts: You’ve seen the commercials: “That is so 17 seconds ago.” Social media has created an overload of messaging and millions of “news-desks of one.” As a result, it is imperative that a social media monitoring tool provide real-time or near real-time monitoring and alerts to foster immediate engagement (and damage control) as needed. How long is it acceptable to your organization for a negative review posted by a client t...

The following post is reprinted by permission: from Firestorm Expert Council Member Melissa Agnes of MelissaAgnes.com.  Melissa will Co-host a Firestorm Session with Grant Rampy on September 12 on Transparency: Can There Be Too Much?. Melissa Agnes is a Firestorm Expert Council Member, and social media crisis manager and consultant. She keeps a daily blog on the subject over at MelissaAgnes.com, is co-host of The Crisis Show and the creator of The Social Media Crisis Academy, an online training course aimed at helping small to medium sized businesses and PR professionals develop strategic social media crisis communications plans. You can connect with Melissa on Twitter and Linkedin.   How To Regain Control in a Social Media Crisis One of the biggest stresses of a social media crisis is the loss of control that comes with one. Organizations see their social media platfo...

Social Media Risk Management Commentary by Grant Rampy, Firestorm Expert Council Member Mr. Rampy is director of public relations at Abilene Christian University. He was White House Correspondent for Tribune Broadcasting in Washington, D.C., from 1999 to 2009. Facebook post leads to protest, apology, resignation Jason Vincent should have known better. As a former television news guy, I can tell you: Most TV people know implicitly that they’re being watched. If you’ve been given the privilege to come into people’s homes to share word of the day’s event, you can bet the people watching have certain reasonable expectations about who you are and who you aren’t. They assume you behave in a certain way – that you, for instance, are not going to pull a Randy Travis (driving while buck naked and allegedly 99% lit); that you aren’t robbing banks on the side; and that, as a matter of course,...

Corporate Governance and Managing Social Media Risks HEADLINE:  Company Could Pay for CFO’s Misguided Tweets SUMMARY:  The company that fired its CFO last week over his social-media postings may not have let itself off the hook by doing so. Despite the company’s claim that it was unaware of the finance chief’s activities until May 11, it still may face a Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement action. On at least one occasion, Gene Morphis, the former CFO of Francesca’s Collections, revealed confidential company information via his Twitter account.  Analysis by Firestorm Expert Council Member Jerry Hudspeth Overview The continuing growth and use of social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have created yet another risk segment for corporate America to analyze, embrace and manage.  The stories and accounts of corporate social media issues are almo...

Social Media Risk   Local business battles name confusion SUMMARY:  Charlotte Blake’s small B&B Tax Service office is a lot less quiet than usual this time of year. On May 5, nine people were indicted in a fraud and identity theft case at a totally unrelated tax service across town — a business that had the same name as Blake’s office. Reports about the arrest led to a landslide of fear and misinformation from friends and customers that Blake said she’s still working to defuse.  Analysis by Firestorm Principal Guy Higgins Charlotte Blake, who runs B&B Tax Service in Montgomery, Ala., with her husband, has been working to fix the fallout from a case of mistaken identity since several people were indicted for fraud at another business operating under the same name. To complicate the issue, a local TV station that reported on the story mistakenly filmed Blake's b...

Social Media Risk Management   Get your Social Media House in Order in 2012  If you’ve simply been floating happily along on the wave of Social Media growth and use, it’s time to get a bit more serious and understand the maturity management model needed secure your Social Media return on investment while mitigating potential risks. One of the primary objectives of any program is to assist in establishing long-term policies, strategies and processes involving cross-functional participation to improve Social Media management and adoption. With a long-term corporate focus on risk management and prevention, organizations minimize possible damages resulting from Brand Detractors and attackers, while leveraging success with Brand Advocates. Firestorm believes that the key components of an effective Social Media Risk Management program are: Formation of a Social Media Leadership...