How Can You Minimize Social Media's Impact On A Food Recall?

Food recalls are a permanent feature of the industry’s landscape. A badly handled social media campaign can cause considerable reputational damage to a company, which in turn can lead to a loss of revenue and market share and some companies never recover from this. Conversely, a planned and proactive social media campaign can demonstrate a company's commitment to consumer safety, and retain consumer confidence.

According to a recent UN study, more people now have cell phones than toilets, and as of the second quarter of 2015, Facebook had 1.49 billion active monthly users. The good news is that social media allows companies to communicate directly with their customers and consumers. The challenge is that it is instant, unedited, and open to everyone. Consumers are able to, and do, instantly express what they think. Perception is reality and social media platforms can be a dangerous source of damaging rumours and misinformation.

In 2009, two Dominos' Pizza employees filmed each other violating health standards and posted it on YouTube. Within a short span of time, the video had been viewed more than a million times. Many comments on social media were asking what Dominos was doing about the situation. They took immediate action, but that was not reported on Twitter, and the perception of Dominos among consumers went from positive to negative, according to research firm Yougov. Eventually, Dominos realized they needed to use the same communication channels as consumers to manage the message. They set up a Twitter account and posted their own video on YouTube.

A food recall is a potential corporate crisis and the lack of time to respond means that companies need to ensure organizational preparedness if they are to survive the recall with their reputation intact. As with Dominos, the first a company may know about a serious issue with their product could be from a post on social media and they will need to be able to react immediately.

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