Steve Farnsworth’s has published a great crisis response case study at his Digital Marketing Mercenary blog. He tells the story of Shaunak Dave, the director, multi-channel integration for Sears Hometown Stores. It begins like this:
You are the social media strategist for Sears Hometown Stores. It’s Friday, the end of a long day, at the end of a long week. You are ready for a refreshing and well-deserved cocktail to start your weekend. You make one last pass at your social media listening dashboard before you head out the door, and you come across your worst nightmare:
- A picture of a cute little dog named Toot.
- A story about a tragic accident where your delivery truck runs over and kills Toot.
- Details about how a local representative of your company apologized, but then went on to tell the distraught pet owners it was not his delivery guy’s fault, but theirs. It keeps getting better. He tells this to them not just once, but on two separate occasions.
- All this is on a website called, and here is where your heart skips a beat and your blood runs cold, SearsKilledMyDog.com.
- And oh, it’s blowing-up on Reddit, Twitter, and the Internet at large.
We highly recommend the full case study at Steve Farnsworth’s Digital Marketing Mercenary blog.
