Followers of the page ranged from the upbeat and optimistic to the die-hard cynics – a microcosm of society, if you will. Regardless, controversy erupted in cyberspace when some negative comments ‘disappeared’ from the social media page. This was documented on a couple of blogs and word quickly spread over the selective deletion of comments, which led to accusations that the constituency did not care for negative feedback.

 

On the other side of the globe, a European company recently found itself embroiled in a similar quandary. Rumours had spread online over the company’s unethical sourcing of raw materials, which had some members of the online community up in arms. They created caricatures of the company logo, produced critical videos, and posted negative remarks about the brand.

 

The company responded by going on the offensive, demanding that people take down those sites, content and comments that debased the company logo and name – a move that fuelled consumers’ anger towards the company. “They created this huge firestorm online because they didn’t let consumers vent their anger. They wanted to control everything [but] you can’t control every message that goes out there,” said James Issokson, Senior Business Leader in Worldwide Communications at MasterCard Worldwide.

 

Issokson was speaking from experience – he is an avid tweeter, follower of tweets, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube user across both personal and corporate realms. Having lived through several online ‘crises’, he believes that social media challenges people to be better managers of time and relationships.

 

However, he admits that life has also become more complicated as new grey areas emerge, blurring lines between job responsibilities as well as personal and professional boundaries. Is it the customer service manager’s job to interact with consumers on a Facebook page, or is that better left to the communications manager? How does one measure the ROI for tweets? Do comments on YouTube have legal implications? Should businesses avail themselves on social media channels 24/7? Should a manager respond to a tweet that pops up during family vacation?

 

Speaking to a group of SMU students at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business Corporate Communications Seminar Series, Issokson took a moment to reminisce about the simpler days from when he first started working in corporate communications. “Things were simple. We would type our press release, send our contacts the press release, the then article comes out 2-3 days later; and maybe do a few interviews along the way.

If the article turned out to be negative, you’d write a letter to the editor, ‘Dear editor, I disagree with the way you’ve covered this…’ and you might see a correction the next day,” he said. To a certain extent, this ‘formula’ still stands today, except that communications managers need to cover a much wider base; work with a greater diversity of responses; account internally for the decisions made – and all of this has to happen quickly too.

 

Speed counts when it comes to managing online reputation, unlike the pre-web 2.0 days, where there was more time to deliberate and discuss. In a way, social media is forcing quicker decision-making, Issokson noted. “We had a fairly negative article about the company appear in a publication in New York. I saw the article at 5:30 in the morning. By 6:15, it was floating around the company, and by 8:00, consumers were blogging about it, and shortly, other reporters picked it up and then the firestorm started to brew. We started seeing tweets about the article too.”

 

So how does Issokson, who heads his company’s communication strategies for legal, regulatory and public policy issues, deal with the demands of social media? His starting point, it seems, is with the humble acknowledgement that there are no silver bullets: “With social media, new challenges arise each and every day. Our goal is to help solve problems, and we know we may not always be successful.”

 

For one, MasterCard does not respond to all commentaries and opinions expressed online, because if they did, they would need “hundreds of people in the communications department”. As a global brand operating in 210 countries, tracking online discussions can be a monumental task.