Do you have a social media problem or an organisational problem?

Why is it that when someone says something negative about our organisation online we think we have a social media problem or a social media crisis? And yet if someone says something positive about us we pat ourselves on the back and remind ourselves what a great organisation we are. The action is the same, albeit with different content, and yet the reaction is different. One we consider to be an issue with a platform or channel (or, worse still, a 'problem customer'), the other we consider to be feedback on our organisation. But both are feedback and the only difference is that one we want to hear, the other we don't.

When Dave Carroll posted a YouTube video about United Airlines breaking guitars, United Airlines didn't have a social media problem, they had a problem with sloppy baggage handling. When a disgruntled customer posted a video of one of their engineers asleep on her sofa, Comcast didn't have a social media problem, they had a problem with an engineer behaving inappropriately on the job. And when 2000 students form their own Facebook group to find out whether their exams are going ahead or not tomorrow because it's snowing too heavily and they haven't had a firm answer from the university, you don't have a social media problem, you have a flawed communications process.

Feedback is everywhere for us to listen to, take note of and, if appropriate, respond to and do something about. We need to hear the bad as well as the good and so does the senior management team. This is a good thing. Because if we don't listen, those problems that might have seem minor at first will escalate, and people will talk about them more, and eventually they'll realise they're not the only one to have a bad experience, and then the power of the group begins. And when that happens, reputations are damaged, organisations fail, and perhaps (if you believe the argument), governments can even be overturned. This is why senior managers cannot bury their heads in the sand and see this as a social media problem. There is no such thing as a social media crisis, only a crisis that finds its voice and resolution through social media. You don't have a social media problem, you have an organisational problem.