When a crisis only exists in the eyes of the critics

I’ve been avoiding any commentary on the Chick-Fil-A situation for a number of reasons. But I’ve been wondering for the last couple days whether or not the company is actually in a “crisis.”

Here’s where my head’s at: All the communications professionals who seem to believe that anytime there’s any sort of negative consumer reaction the company in question needs to shift positions immediately as an example of “listening” think that Chick-Fil-A is indeed in a crisis. They’re being assaulted by people who believe the company is filled with hatred because of comments made by the CEO about his support for traditional marriage.

But the company itself isn’t exactly acting like it’s in the middle of a crisis. If you look at companies who have experienced crises they act a certain way, in some other way running around looking for a way out. But Chick-Fil-A doesn’t seem to be doing that, at least not externally. The biggest change is that they’ve been silent on Twitter for the last week or so. The comments the CEO made are consistent with the company’s public image – they are closed on Sundays after all, observing the Biblical Sabbath in a way that used to be normal but which now seems to open them up for derision – even if they were, without question, alienating to a large portion of their potential consumer base.

So it doesn’t seem that Chick-Fil-A thinks they’re in a crisis. They have to weather this storm to be sure, but they aren’t really acting like this is a situation they need to extricate themselves from. This crisis seems to be solely in the eyes of the beholder.

It’s alright to take a social media break every now again

The Wall Street Journal has the latest version of a story that gets published every year or so since 2004, generally around this time of the summer, about turning off the social media firehose while you’re on vacation.

If you stop contributing, you take yourself out of the discussion. At best, followers will tweet at you to ask your whereabouts. At worst, they won’t notice you are gone.

Large, corporate brands typically have a team of employees staffing a social-media presence; when one is on vacation, others fill in.

But the most compelling social-media handles, whether a brand, a small business or a person inside a larger organization, usually are the work of one individual, with a unique personality and voice.

Yes, if you’re running a corporate account of any size but particularly if it’s for a big company, be sure to call in the bench to keep the lights on while you’re out. But keep two things in mind:

First, that it’s alright to completely unplug from social media for a couple days, a week or heck even a whole month. Take a break. Recharge. Personally I find when I don’t take those occasional breaks I start to push too hard and it comes off as uncomfortable. If the worst thing that happens is, as the article states, your Klout score drops a few points at the expense of focusing on yourself and your family, you’re actually coming out ahead in the bargain.

Second, don’t just have a bench; have a team. A program that’s reliant on a single person is one that’s setup for all sorts of problems. I realize the dynamics are different for small business like the food trucks that are mentioned here but there should still be a backup plan in place.

Both those are lessons I’ve learned from personal experience. And again, I realize the situation is a bit different if your personal profile, which you may still want to update while away from work, is deeply tied to your work or professional responsibilities. But it’s important to know where those lines are and – and this is the important part – set audience expectations accordingly. Let people know that you’ll be out and may still be updating but may not have the time to reply or interact as much as usual. It’s so simple (and it works) but the control-freak types who often are in charge of these types of programs or profiles understandably have a hard time saying that out loud.

Unplugging is good for the body, the mind and the soul.

Know which master is being served

Simon Dumenco at AdAge wrote basically what I had in mind about the whole “#NBCfail” meme that’s running around regarding the broadcast of the Olympics. And he pulls the best graf from a piece in The Atlantic that covers the same ground:

The easiest way to understand why NBC wants to force you to watch the Olympics in prime time is to stop thinking about what audiences want and start thinking about what advertisers want. NBC paid about $1.2 billion for the rights to broadcast these games. To make back most of that money, NBC needs to sell extremely expensive commercials. The most valuable commercials aren’t sold online to be viewed on browser tabs on 12-inch display screens. They’re sold on prime-time TV.

That needs to be referenced everytime someone complains about not being able to legally watch swimming at a time that’s most convenient to them.

Buzzfeed has wire stories in the crosshairs

If you’ve been paying attention recently then you likely know how Buzzfeed has been making a number of waves recently. They’ve added a number of staffers on the editorial side and otherwise significantly expanded their operations. Yes, a lot of their stuff is still along the “7 Hilarious Sandwiches That Look Like Justin Bieber” lines but they’ve been making news for acting less like a place for funny gifs and more for action like a serious news outlet.

On that latter point we have Buzzfeed’s desire to reinvent the idea of the wire service:

The old model, where wire stories run 2-8 paragraphs with varying degrees of fresh reporting, doesn’t work when people are exposed to so much information on a continued basis, (Buzzfeed editor Ben Smith) said. “There’s no audience for ‘Here’s this thing you just heard and I’m going to say again,’” he said.

The move gets to the heart, as the Neiman Lab story says, of how people are approaching news these days. They’re looking for stories that are chunked up, either as lists or in easily skimmable categories, and which are immediately engaging and relevant. These are people who, rightly or wrongly, feel they get what they need to out of a story from whatever the synopsis that’s pulled into Facebook shows.

So while this experiment by Buzzfeed may or may not succeed – I’m unclear what the audience they have in mind for these revamped wire stories – it shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. That site has a knack for knowing what the audience wants and even if this doesn’t work out, it’s highly probably that bits and pieces of what’s tried will work its way into future efforts by Buzzfeed or by another smart news organization that’s paying attention.