In the past we’ve discussed the benefits of using Twitter as a business tool (here, here & here), and it is becoming a necessity for every business in today’s social media driven landscape. In these stories, we offered some insight into what Vistaprint and other large companies have done as examples to learn from. However after reading Sarah Neeleman’s column in the Wall Street Journal, it’s clear there are things that everyone can learn from small business owners who have averted a crisis and PR headaches via Twitter.
Of the examples mentioned, the story of Peter Bianachi and Innovative Beverage Group Holdings, Inc. best shows the power of the populaer micro-blogging site. Following a segment on Fox News about the company’s relaxation beverage, their site crashed due to the influx of visitors intrigued by the story. While the initial boost from the story was great, the overwhelming visitor count crashed the site for a whopping 12 hours.
While this might have been disasterous, the company seized the moment and posted a message to their Twitter account noting that they were working to resolve the issue and also responded to any mentions of the site crash on Twitter, to let the consumers know that they were on top of it. Bianchi’s response to the WSJ was, “Twitter gave us an up-to-the-minute ability to take what would normally be a crisis situation and make it just another event. You can’t do that with a 1-800-number.” In the day following the crash, the company saw online sales peak to its highest level to date. Click here to read the full article.
It may be tough to tell whether the rapid response on the social networking site directly helped drive sales, but it did help to avert a crisis. It is not often that a small business gets national attention in a positive light, so this snafu was potentially a defining moment for Innovative Beverages. The quick thinking allowed them to not only get the word out there, but to also show that they were human and were dealing with something the best way that they could. Site outages happen to the best companies and their actions helped keep the buzz of the Fox story on the minds of everyone by letting them know that updates could be found via Twitter.
The article also touches on ways that other companies have utilized Twitter to avert problems of their own and to defend their reputations. It’s also important to keep in mind that the messaging going out to customers needs to be carefully crafted and thought out. You don’t want to fall into the subject of SAS’ recent e-book How to Lose Your Customers in Five Easy Steps.
Have you used Twitter or another social network to avert a crisis with your business? Let us know, we’d love to learn from you.
Image courtesy of Twitter.com
