Don't tweet: In a crisis
Twitter can be an invaluable tool in your arsenal when your brand or company is plunged headlong into a crisis. However, it depends on how you use it.
At the 140 Conference, Mike Prasad, the brain behind the Twitter sensation Kogi BBQ, spoke about how savvy use of his Twitter account helped Kogi one-up its competitor, Baja Fresh.
This summer, when Baja Fresh announced a new item on its menu -- the "Baja Kogi Taco" -- Prasad was understandably shocked and concerned that Baja Fresh was "ripping off" Kogi's trademark name.
Prasad and @kogibbq wisely refrained from going on the attack and, instead, allowed followers to voice their unhappiness at Baja Fresh itself.
Within hours, Baja Fresh was overwhelmed with a deluge of tweets criticizing the company's move and declaring their support for Kogi BBQ.
Baja Fresh, unable to ignore the power of Twitter, set about changing the item's name from "Kogi" to "Gogi," another spelling of the Korean transliteration for "meat."
This move alone could have settled the crisis. In an effort to conciliate the Twitterverse, however, @BoldBajaFresh replied to almost every single one of the disgruntled tweets. Each of the replies mentioned and sometimes praised its competitor, with phrases such as "Kogi truck is in a class of its own" and "Kogi taco truck is a marvel."
Kogi BBQ, by wisely refraining from tweeting extensively on this issue, emerged from this episode looking classy and unscathed, secure in the power of its loyal and passionate core audience.
Baja Fresh, on the other hand, not only had to do an embarrassing about-face, but wound up dedicating its Twitter stream -- for a brief period of time -- to lauding and praising its competitor.
Two very simple rules on when not to tweet can be gleaned from this episode:
- Don't tweet when your followers can tweet for you. Allowing your core audience to shout your brand message from the rooftops is infinitely more powerful than you doing it yourself.
- Don't "tweet down the food chain." Baja Fresh was the bigger corporate brand. Kogi was just a local business. One single tweet acknowledging the change of the taco name could have sufficed. Instead, Baja Fresh conceded power to Kogi by feeling the need to tweet incessantly about its competitor.
Kogi won this round by staying silent, while Baja lost it through its lack of restraint on Twitter.
