231: The Social Dilemma 2.0: Navigating the Next Generation of the Social Media Crisis

Last week, someone in a crisis communication workshop I was facilitating asked me a question about how to respond to one of their issues if they needed to use a social media platform. I have always had an answer for that question. Until then, I was stumped. Welcome to the Indestructible PR podcast where we use current events and tested media and PR strategies to help prevent or manage a crisis and build an indestructible reputation. Social media has revolutionized the way we communicate, connect and consume information. However, as we enter the next generation of social media, we must also face a new set of challenges when it comes to responding to the social media crisis. Did you watch the program the Social Dilemma? It came out in 2020 on Netflix. Oh, you've watched it, of course you did, because it was a pandemic and everyone was watching Netflix. But the Social Dilemma, if you remember it was a that shed light on some of the darker aspects of social media, such as the impact on mental health, the spread of misinformation and the exploitation of user data. No one who watched that program came away thinking, oh, social media, yeah, no biggie. No, it scared the hell out of everyone who watched it. Everyone was now wondering, what happens to the data? What happens to the information that you put on social media through Google, through your phone? Are they listening? Does some big brother out there know exactly what I'm doing and when I'm doing it? Also, if you're a parent, you worry about your kids, you worry about addiction, you worry about all of the things that can happen on social media. It's such a fear based app, but sometimes we forget about all the benefits that come with it as well. And for me, I have to be honest, I mean, it's my business. I've run a business, I've created a business around social media. Now, I'm not a social media person, but I've taken my brand of crisis communication response and I've made it for social media because I believe that's where every single crisis either begins or ends. So it's important to know how to navigate this next generation of the social media crisis. But here's the social dilemma. How do you do it when it is ever changing? Now, I had mentioned at the beginning of the episode that I was conducting a workshop. I was in beautiful Durham, North Carolina. Oh my goodness. To leave Boston Logan Airport and to land in sunshine. Oh, I can't wait for spring. Reminds me of baseball. Just reminds me of the sun. I can't wait. But anyway, on the flight I received a message from Eleanor Hawkins. She is a communication strategist and writer for Axios. I happen to read Axios. They have a great way of delivering the news. It's quick, it's succinct, it's very, very easy to read. That was one of the reasons why I wanted to get back to her. But another reason why I wanted to reply back to Eleanor is because of her take on the social media crisis. She was looking at it in a particular way that I wanted to find out where she was going. Even though I wasn't prepped. I mean, I took this call in my car, it was a little bit sweltering. I was still wearing a sweater over a shirt. I was still dressed for Boston, but I was in Raleigh and I didn't have my notes in front of me. I had nothing. I broke every rule in a media interview. You don't go in it with answers off the cuff, you not knowing what you're going to say. But I was more interested in what Eleanor had to say from her end and her deadline was very, very tight. Her take was not just how to respond to a social media crisis, but what has changed about it. She really wanted to talk about how companies are now responding and is it appropriate for the new form of social media. So she was so nice to listen to me start and stop and try and collect my thoughts as I was going through it. And the reason why I was pausing a bit when I was talking to her is because I was changing, I was changing my format, I was changing my whole infrastructure on how to respond to a social media crisis as she was asking me the questions, because I knew it was happening. I could feel it, I could see it in all the responses. I do a lot of case studies if you follow me on TikTok. I'm always looking at other people's apologies and brands, you know, when they're going through a crisis. And I'm noticing that everyone does it differently and also noticing what could be successful on one format in one social media channel may not work in another. Everything. It's almost like every crisis is its own unique crisis. It's like a fingerprint. Oh, that's a great line. Every crisis is a fingerprint. There's never more than one. Oh, I have to work on this. There's no to alike. Okay, come back to me next week. I'm going to work that one out anyway. But we were talking about the crisis communication response, so the first piece of it that I had said to Eleanor was this change in this expectation of video all social media platforms favor short form video. Sfv, Instagram Reels, Facebook owns Instagram. Facebook wants watch time on Facebook. They're competing against TikTok which is all short form video. Twitter Elon Musk is now bringing in video. If you pay for Twitter Blue, you'll be able to do more time on video and cut down on all the ads where there are videos. Everything is about videos and short watch time. They don't want you sitting watching for 60 minutes. It would be great if you did. But all these social media platforms know that no one is using social media that way. So in order to determine how to respond to a crisis, you need to identify who's watching your response. Who is it? What are their expectations for your response? Now, I don't know the article yet. It hasn't been dropped. It's going to come out tomorrow. But those were the two pieces that I talked about with Eleanor. You will be able to find a link in the show notes to Eleanor's piece. But let's just finish this podcast and talk about just some of the risks and the challenges out there. Now that I'm noticing that are changing. And if you can't tell, it's in real time. Not only was it coming to me yesterday in that interview or two days ago with Eleanor, but even when I was doing that workshop yesterday, it's always changing. There really isn't one answer. So it really kind of made the workshop a little bit different for the first time because Eleanor is the one who put this in my head at a time when I was already working through all of these changes. Now what do we see on the horizon? Well, the first thing we're going to see, and I don't spend as much time on this, but I will down the road, is the proliferation of deep fake technology. Now that's the hyper realistic videos or images that can manipulate artificial intelligence. So it will make you think you're looking at President Obama. He was always a target, a deep fake target. I don't see this yet, but it's definitely on the horizon. I taught it in my college class when we were talking about misinformation. So deep fake is certainly a thing, but I've yet to see the deep fake come into a crisis. But it's coming and when it happens, I'm going to be on it. And if you find out about it before me, you let me know. But the other challenge, and this is a big one, is the algorithm. And I said this for the first time in the training and I kept Coming back to it, kept coming back to it. You could have the best response in the world and it will not matter because human ears and human eyes are not taking in that response. You are writing a response for an algorithm, and in many cases it could be for bots. All of the hate that you're getting could be bots. So yes, there are people behind it, but what happens is the bots will follow what people are saying. So people start to kind of charge up. There's certain keywords that an algorithm is going to pick up. They're going to pick up all caps, they're going to pick up explanation point, they're going to pick up, you suck, you liar, you're wrong. All that type of hyperbole language, if you will, they're going to see it and they're going to draw more people to whatever conversation is happening there. And then you're going to add in the bots to make it bigger and bigger. So as a result, now we're becoming exposed to this narrow range of opinions and perspectives that can lead to polarization and also echo chambers, but it's also opinions and perspectives of technology, of computers. It's not real people. So when they ask you, do you care what a bot thinks if you have a response, do you worry if you've lost the reputation of a bot? Well, bot doesn't have feelings, but a bot has influence. And that's why you need to remember that that needs to be a part of the response. So I know what you're thinking. How do you respond to a bot? Well, it's more about how you respond internally. And that was another piece that came out in this workshop. We talk about the human factor in a social media crisis response, or any crisis response. But the social media element has commentary that people have to read who are going through that crisis. And those responses will get into your head. Without a doubt, they get into your head. The criticism, the feedback. And even if it's from a bot, I know this, I know this myself when I read negative comments on my posts. And it will be like, oh, that's a kick in the gut. And then you'll look and it will say, user 0074781 and you open it up and one follower, you know, it's a bot, but geez, it still hurts. It still hurts. I mean, me being knocked down by a bot somewhere out of Romania. But this is what the future of the social media crisis is. So what we're looking for is just this understanding of who exactly is forming Public opinion, who's shaping public opinion, especially coming out of a crisis? Still clear, concise, authentic, transparent and honest communications are necessary. You have to have that. In a way, you almost want the pablum response. It can be a little dry, it can be a little boring even. I would never typically say this, but for the bot driven world, we don't want to create this combustible environment on social media. So maybe you give people what they want a little, which is a playbook of the indestructible print response. Own it, explain it, promise it. You just go through the framework, you give them what they want and then they go away, and then the bots go away as well. So when it comes to responding and navigating this next generation of the social media crisis, the dilemma is figuring out who's responding, how they're responding, but the answer is what you do with that. How do you respond when they're starting to attack you? You need to understand the best platform is going to be the one that likely has the most influence with the people who matter. It could still be Twitter, it could still be just your website, but you need to determine how much trust you've lost. And in order to regain it, you also need to determine where's the best place that we can respond. And remember, it's not just where you want to respond, it's where the stakeholders are. If everybody is blasting you on TikTok, you may need to go over to TikTok, but maybe you don't have a TikTok account. And what you might want to do is go to Instagram. You could post something to Instagram or put a post graphic on Twitter that could be shared. You may not have to respond on TikTok, but know that that's where people are going to talk to you. So whatever information you're going to put up, make it shareable in a way, a safe way to share information and your statement. But nowadays you just want to get through that crisis without creating the combustible environment. I think that's how we navigate this next generation of the social media crisis. The key word is vanilla pablum. Make it just like a glass of milk with a side of graham crackers. You know, it's a little bit of protein, a little bit of carbs. It's just going to curb that hunger. The hangry people out there. Does that work? All right. In every episode, I leave you with one easy to remember takeaway to help you build an indestructible reputation. I know what you're thinking about right now. You're thinking about an a nice big glass of ice cold milk, maybe a little cinnamon sugar, graham cracker on the side. Ultimately, it's up to all of us to navigate the next generation of the social media crisis. How we respond to it is not going to be really in a playbook fashion, says the person who sells a playbook. It's really about the human factor. It's not reacting to all of the negative commentary unless they are guiding us in a particular way. To do the right thing. You must be aware of all the risks and challenges that are out there with social media. But you also have to recognize the benefits of using social media because it does connect with others, it does share ideas, it does promote a positive change. You want to stay informed, engaged, responsible as an organization, as a person, as a brand. And we can create this equitable space where honesty and a crisis can exist and it's you getting through it. But the key is in order to navigate it, you have to use it. That's what I think is happening right now. If you do not respond to your crisis and it is does not live in some digital place, then you cannot claim to have an indestructible brand because people will bring you down on social media. And if you're not there to defend yourself, you're done. That's all for this week on the podcast. Thanks so much for listening. Bye for now. Sam.