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August 13, 2007
Leveraging social media to deal with a corporate public affair's nightmare
(Posted by francois to: blogging | marketing communications )Johnson & Johnson is suing the Red Cross and other parties over the use of the Red Cross. Talk about one heck of a juicy story. The reality is that J&J is suing the Red Cross because it is licensing the use of the Red Cross symbol to for-profit organizations, while J&J holds trademarks to the Red Cross symbol since before the Red Cross actually existed.
So what is a VP of corporate communications at J&J to do in response to such a corporate public affair's nightmare? Send out press releases, hold press conferences, use all the traditional tools available to corporate communicators in crisis management mode? Not so for the J&J corporate com VP, Ray Jordan, who took his story to the J&J corporate blog, where he wrote up J&J's point of view in an everyday and personal voice.
The result? A large number of comments and stories generally providing broad support for J&J's point of view. While there are negative comments, the blog achieved what no other crisis communication's vehicle would have delivered.
(via Johnnie Moore)
[Tags: Red Cross Johnson & Johnson J&J corporate communication crisis management]
Posted by francois at August 13, 2007 8:10 AM | Bookmark This
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Comments
Absolutely. I’m curious to see how far the ripples go. Is the world ready for corporate giants to don a human face and enter into open conversation? I’m sure the bloggers and the blog-aware out there will be receptive of the method even if they disagree with the corporate position. But will the general public pick up on the discussion? Will the message reach mainstream media?
And will J&J manage to keep the topic alive and fresh as events unfurl without getting bogged down in legal mumbo jumbo or excessive self-justification, either of which could alienate readers?
Topic picked up at shoppingbasket.wordpress.com.
Posted by: shoppingbasket at August 13, 2007 7:22 PM
