Embrace Disruption Public Relations » PRdaily

Burger King, Jeep & MTV Twitter Hacked: Who’s Next?

Embrace Disruption PR — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:51:32 +0000

With the recent news of Burger King being hacked, followed by Jeep and MTV – we find ourselves wondering who’s next?

Incase you’re not familiar with the scenario, we’ll break it down for you:

Burger King Twitter Hack

The Damage

The hacker took over the account, changed the display picture to the McDonald’s logo, and posted some of the following tweets (Image via):

It was revealed that BK’s password was “whopper” (creative right?). Burger King later acknowledged the rogue tweets:

Interesting day here at BURGER KING®, but we're back! Welcome to our new followers. Hope you all stick around!

— BurgerKing (@BurgerKing) February 19, 2013

and released the following statement to media:

“We have worked directly with administrators to suspend the account until we are able to re-establish our legitimate site and authentic postings. We apologize to our fans and followers who have been receiving erroneous tweets about other members of our industry and additional inappropriate topics.”

The good news? Burger King saw a jump of 100,000 followers over the course of the day. Is it worth the headache? Time will tell!

Jeep Twitter Hack

The Damage

The hacker posted odd tweets, including mentioning luxury brand, Cadillac. The account has since been tamed, but looked something like this (Image via):

Cadillac later responded to ensure tweeps they were not involved:

Just to clarify, Cadillac is not connected to the hack of the @Jeep Twitter account.

— Cadillac (@Cadillac) February 19, 2013

MTV Twitter Hack

The Damage:

The hacker made promises to return Jersey Shore, changed the brand logo to BET, and continued on a wild tweeting rampage (Image via):

UPDATE: Reports are saying that MTV hacked their own twitter in promotion of their new show, Hacked. Good one, MTV..

PRDaily put together some rules of engagement that we thought we’d share – for all those managing brand twitter accounts:

1. Change your passwords regularly. And change them to something obscure that has nothing to do with the product you sell. Random numbers, letters, and symbols are your best friend. We change our passwords every month—that will probably change to every two weeks in light of this development.

2. Have procedures in place to stop an attack in its tracks. Create a fail-proof social escalation policy that can end something like this before it gets out of hand. Have the assets you need on hand to be able to restore the images on your profile.

3. Minimize the number of mobile devices that can access the account. If you look at all the apps that can access your account, you should know for certain where they’re all coming from and what their purpose is. If you’re unsure about any of them, ax them.

4. Make it mandatory that any mobile phones that link to corporate accounts are password protected. That way, if you leave your phone at, say, a Burger King and you’re signed into your brand’s account, no one can have easy access to it. Similarly, make sure that if you leave your computer at, say, a Burger King, it’s not logged into any accounts. Password protect everything that allows access to accounts that are password protected. Thinking about the computer I’m typing on, if I were to leave it somewhere and some swarthy character logged onto Facebook, they would be able to wreak havoc on about six different accounts (none of which are my personal account). That’s pretty scary when you think about it.

5. Change your passwords every time someone leaves the company—whether or not it’s amicable. Don’t trust people. There’s too much at stake here.

If you had to guess, which brand do you think is next – or do you think the hacker is done their dirty work?

Study: ‘Digitally mature’ companies are more profitable

Embrace Disruption PR — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 15:20:19 +0000

At times, it can be an uphill battle getting companies on board with some of the trends in the digital space. Embrace Disruption PR maintains a very large focus on digital in all our campaign efforts for a number of reasons. Our philosophy lies in understanding that traditional PR may grab the awareness you’re looking for – but tools like social, email marketing, and content marketing are extremely important in maintaining and engaging your audience. In today’s marketplace, it’s the ONLY solution that makes sense.

Recently PRDaily released this article based on a recent study examining digitally mature companies. The results are very telling, and further enforce just how important embracing digital (and disruption) is.

best hair loss products

This might be the evidence you need to persuade your boss or client to invest in social media: A newly released study says “digitally mature” companies are more profitable than their counterparts.

The years-long study from Capgemeni Consulting and the MIT Center for Digital Business looked at more than 400 companies and found that the ones that thoughtfully invest in social media and let it drive their business decisions “benefit from a considerable ‘Digital Advantage’ and demonstrate significantly better financial performance than their peers.”

In other words, it pays to use social media.

What, exactly, does “digitally mature” mean? According to the study’s authors, it’s based on two factors: “digital intensity” and “transformation management intensity.”

Apparently, it’s all about intensity—although really, it sounds a bit like word soup, so let’s explore what they mean.

“Digital intensity” refers to investing in technologies to “change how the company operates,” the study says. An example would be the high-end British fashion label Burberry, which has a robust presence on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. According to the study, the label coupled these sexier efforts on social platforms with a strategy of integrating the data it was collecting on a global scale.

Since adopting social media, Burberry has seen a profit boost of 21 percent, reports The Next Web.

“Transformation management intensity”—the real doozy, jargon-wise—is really quite simple (in theory): It’s all about leadership that believes in digital and will work to drive transformation at an organization. Nike, for instance, built a digital division to corral and grow the many things it was already doing on social media.

The study noted that although many companies have leaders who believe in digital, they are also slow to adopt programs or else overly conservative. Basically, they don’t put their money where their mouths are.

Based on these two factors—“digital intensity” and “transformation management intensity”—the study slices the companies it examined into four quadrants.

Here’s how Business Insider describes them:

“‘Beginners’ have barely started, usually because they’re unaware of the opportunities, ‘Fashionistas’ adopt the newest or sexiest digital innovations, but without a cohesive strategy or eye to maximizing business value, ‘Digital Conservatives’ have a cohesive vision, but are slow to invest in new technology, and finally, the ‘Digirati,’ who both invest in digital and integrate it with their whole organization.

These seem like fairly accurate categories, although companies certainly bleed from one category into another, as this chart shows:

And this chart shows the profitability of companies within each category:

Clearly, based on the study, it pays to have a well-developed and robust social media program. The problem is, reaching that point remains a challenge for cash and resource strapped companies, and those with leaders who still don’t see the benefits of social media.

Here’s the full study from Capgemeni Consulting and the MIT Center for Digital Business.

(Image via)

By Michael Sebastian

8 Ways To Persuade Your Boss To Embrace Social Media

Embrace Disruption PR — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 13:04:23 +0000

The following is a fantastic post that originally appeared on PRDaily.com.

Not every CEO should be online—and few of them are embracing social media, according to a report by CEO.com and Domo.

The report found that only 9 out of 19 Fortune 500 CEOs registered with Twitter were active (a tweet within 100 days of the survey), a mere two CEOs had more than 500 friends on Facebook, and zero Fortune 500 CEOs were on Pinterest.

I have been fortunate to work directly with CEOs who are social offline. They are charismatic, well spoken, and lifelong members of the nonprofit fields that they oversee. However, neither of these CEOs had an online presence worth sharing.

So how do you take an engaging figure and bring them online?

Here are eight tips to help you:

CONFRONT PHOBIAS

CEOs, presidents, and members of senior management can have phobias regarding social media. If you’re lucky, they have private accounts and have a sense of the various forms of communication.

Regardless of their experience, you must further educate them about the benefits and risks of pursuing this form of communication professionally. Find and share accounts of other CEOs. Encourage your senior leaders to follow these conversations and show how they drive support for an organization. It is easier to overcome a phobia when someone else is leading the way.

EXPLAIN THE IMPORTANCE OF PERSONALITY

Teach your senior leaders the importance of adding personality to their online image. They must be comfortable with sharing some emotions or reactions publicly if this is going to work. If they cannot agree to take sides on issues that are relevant to your mission then this may not be the mode of communication for them.

FIND AN OUTLET

Just as you decided which social media resource was appropriate for your organization, there is not a standard platform for CEOs. Discuss goals, time commitments, a support network, approval process, and personal interests with your CEO.

Some CEOs are more suited for the brevity of Twitter, while others require a blog to state their views. If your CEO prefers photos of his work, you might consider Tumblr or an Instagram account like Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh.

TRAIN AND EXPLAIN

Once you’ve agreed upon a social media platform, both of you must commit to training. Set aside time for one-on-one tutorials, behind closed doors to protect any egos. Supply draft posts for review until your CEO—and you—feel comfortable sharing them publicly. Remember that social media training should be a continuous learning experience.

DEVELOP UNIQUE ANGLES

Some CEOs may think they don’t have any updates to share. Impress upon them that this is about providing insight into their character as well as enhancing the organization’s brand. Your CEO has a unique view of your organization and can provide an insight that can assist with a goal of transparency.

SHOW YOUR DIRTY HANDS

Social media is the perfect opportunity to shatter the image of a stuffy CEO stuck behind a desk. I frequently shadowed my CEOs when they ventured from the office—which was often—to photograph them engaging in our missions and gather information for future posts. Above all, the ensuing updates demonstrated the connection between the organization’s leader and the mission our followers supported.

STRESS THE 24/7 NATURE OF SOCIAL

Your CEO should be available to answer questions from the public and participate in dialogues. If you are ghostwriting for your CEO, he or she may need to become accustomed to approving posts that you run by them day or night.

FORGET LEGAL

Unless the legal department reviews all of your posts as part of your social media policy, trust your CEO just as he or she trusts you. Your process should determine the level of review you will need to perform. If you ghostwrite the posts based on discussions then a quick review with your CEO is appropriate.

Brian Adams consults with nonprofits, including Komera Project, regarding communications strategy. I am the former senior director of communications at United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley. A version of this story first appeared on the author’s blog.