What Egypt’s Uprising Can Teach Us About Social Media Strategy
The uprising in Egypt has resulted in people all over the world taking to social media to share their thoughts on the crisis, while Egypt itself was forced into silence by the government for one week. According to Trendrr, 245,0000 tweets containing "Egypt" were sent on January 28 alone (only 8% coming from Egypt). Social media users are taking to the Internet to share footage and discussion of protests.
The Internet shut-down, bringing information to and from Egypt to a halt, is an extreme example of the role the Internet and social media play in our lives and the impact it can have on your brand - in this case the brand being a country's government.
What can we as online marketers take from these events other than democracy is needed?
Egypt continues to be associated with unrest, uprising, and volatility with media and social media exacerbating the spread. Whether you agree it is a good thing or not, is shutting down the Internet the best response? If you don't have the power to turn off the Internet, you may want to ask yourself the following...
- What does your social media policy outline in the event of a crisis?
- Do you try to silence or embrace the conversation?
- As marketers, when is silence a good option?
As we've seen so many times, silencing or ignoring a crisis rarely has positive benefit. People will find a way to be heard. What you need to decide is, do you prepare a plan to deal with a 'crisis' or do you wait until it happens to decide what your move will be?
Please leave a comment on how your organization handles crisis management using your Social Media channels.
Comments
Polarizing “old” social networks using new online social networking.
Two additional fascinating observations:
1.Protesters organized and promoted live gatherings using facebook event pages to: (example here: http://on.fb.me/dPDUlV)
2. When official live gatherings were disrupted by authorities, Protesters used a more “traditional” social network (formal prayer meetings held at safe mosques) to initiate post prayer demonstrations. Authorities were unable to discern protesters vs. those engaged in prayer.
Well done, Eric.
PCI Compliant
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