Earlier this year, HMV had a social media crisis on its hands. a situation that any digital marketer or PR professional should be able to relate to and, potentially, fear.
HMV’s Twitter account (@HMVtweets) was hacked by an employee, who after being laid off decided to tweet a lot of the company’s internal personnel decisions. A nightmare for any company.
What would you do if this happened to you?
There’s no one right answer, but there is one thing you must do and that is act immediately and have a plan in place.
HMV acted quickly but the story and tweets had already gone viral by the time anything could be done. While the company did many right things during this crisis, there are still lessons to be learned.
You have to be careful the employees who have access to your social media accounts, as well and the backend of your Website. A new employee or someone without senior authority should be trained thoroughly before being given access.
A social media account has great value and can do a lot of good and bad. Make sure there is training protocol and proper supervision, especially in the early going for all social media activity.
Most important, learn from HMV’s situation and be prepared for whatever crisis can occur in the digital arena.
What are your goals for social media? At the end of the day, what is social media going to do help drive your business?
It should not come as a surprise to anyone that social media is becoming more and more synonymous as the main marketing and advertising tool for businesses of all sizes.
On Tuesday night the NHL playoffs started. 16 teams are vying for the chance to lift the great Stanley Cup high above their heads and proclaim themselves the 2013 NHL champions. But it’s a long way to owning the Cup soon. And just who will be the teams to play for the Stanley Cup is still yet to be seen. But today, I’m going to use social media data to determine which two teams will be playing in the Stanley Cup finals.
Yesterday the latest issue of Sports Illustrated hit the shelves. The cover story featured NBA veteran Jason Collins in an interview where he told the magazine that he was gay. Collins is now being dubbed the first openly gay man in a professional sport. Of course, something like this has gotten people talking.
CBC, Canada’s national television broadcaster, recently launched a fairly aggressive digital campaign aimed at letting Canadians share their stories via a Website called 
The funny thing about social media is it’s a market dominated by fickleness and new, shiny services. One minute, you’re the belle of the ball, the next you’ve been shoved aside by a cooler, more interesting service.
Remember a year ago when Facebook shocked the world and purchased Instagram for $1-billion? It seemed crazy at the time, didn’t it?
