Using social media to ward off PR crisis

The use of social media to address a public relations crisis is fairly new, but more and more companies are learning.

Last year KLM’s President and CEO Peter Hartman apologized due to the unprecedented ash crisis in Europe and BP’s CEO Tony Hayward apologized: “The gulf spill is a tragedy that never should have happened“.

Now the turns comes to Taco Bell.

Taco  Bell Corp. has been sued for false  advertising, with claims that its products are not “seasoned beef” as advertised. The point of contention is that Taco  Bell uses “meat filling” to flesh out its tasty delights, which does not consist of approved USDA standards for food labeling.

Faced with a social media crisis, Taco Bell is now fighting back via its Facebook Page, Twitter account and YouTube channel.

The video so far has over 66,000 views with a range of responses in the comments. One user felt, “Yum Brands will be ditching it soon. Companies can’t ever recover from an incident like this. This company went from king of fast food and bankrupt in a few days. What a shame.” On the other hand, there were several who believed that any publicity is good publicity while few others admitted that all the talk around the Taco Bell meat has only increased their appetite for it.

On Facebook, Taco Bell has over 5,000,000 fans. The food chain is making use of the social networking site as well to woo its patrons. But the comments seem to show that Taco Bell does not have a big task ahead as people still love their food.

Furthermore, Taco Bell is keeping its 47,000+ followers on the microblogging site Twitter informed as well as entertained on the latest updates on the lawsuit. The food chain is tweeting on the media coverage of the suit.

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Using social media to ward off PR crisis — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/plz

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About the author

Torben Rick Experienced senior executive, both at a strategic and operational level, with strong track record in developing, driving and managing business improvement and development and change management. International experience from management positions in Denmark, Germany and Switzerland View full profile

About the author

	Torben Rick
Experienced senior executive, both at a strategic and operational level, with strong track record in developing, driving and managing business improvement and development and change management. International experience from management positions in Denmark, Germany and Switzerland View full profile