Crisis Management Case Study: Digiornos Social Media Mistake

Written by Jonathan & Erik Bernstein | Edited by ian
Sections of this topic

    Social media crisis management done right

    DiGiorno landed itself in the middle of a social media firestorm when it accidentally made light of a discussion on domestic abuse by using the #WhyIStayed hashtag, tweeting “#WhyIStayed You had pizza.”

    Whoever was running the account realized their mistake within minutes, deleting the offending post and sharing a frank apology:

    Following that, the account went into full crisis management mode, spending a solid 24 hours apologizing to Twitter users, followed by a drastic alteration of its social media schedule, which typically involved snarky posts from morning to night. From September 9 through October 1, @DiGornoPizza went virtually silent, only tweeting to apologize or resolve customer service issues.

    On the 1st, DiGiorno’s kicked back into action with the tweet below:

    The brand’s return to levity was met with enthusiasm from many on Twitter, and all signs point to the reputation threat created in the first place being nullified. Excellent social media crisis management from DiGiorno, and an example other organizations should be filing away for possible use in the future.

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    For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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    [Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also the editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

    – See more at: https://management.org/blogs/crisis-management/2014/09/30/the-not-too-distant-future-of-reputation/#sthash.896NkmSl.dpuf

    Jonathan & Erik Bernstein