One undeniable fact is that Web audiences have been critical of this incident from the time it began to unfold. The YouTube effect was one aspect, but once this hit the Consumerist and tweets started spreading like wildfire, complete with reposts of email exchanges between corporate, workers and the people warning them about the videos, things got out of control at breakneck speed.

At the surface, I don’t think it would have mattered any if the video response was posted an hour after they found out (48hrs too late, as you describe) – judging from the pretty harsh comments it received, audiences were most critical about the autocued manner in which the message was delivered. The tone and strong language that corporate used in voicing their opinions about their employees actions may have had a hand in rising online temperatures.

We see this kind of thing happen with companies that don’t have a social media (brand monitoring) plan or a spokesperson in place who is made easily accessible to Web audiences demands for answers when a crisis occurs. Hard to believe, but even when a few hours or a day passes, the company comes across as slow or uncommunicative.

It is unfortunate, but it sometimes takes a reputation crisis like this for companies to get a social media plan together and stick to it.

Joseph
@RepuMetrix