Like much of the BlackBerry nation, I woke up Dec. 17 to a BlackBerry with no e-mails. I had nothing from 10 p.m. the night before. Thinking it was an issue with my phone, I called Verizon as soon as I got to the office. Around noon, my e-mails were back up and running. But in that five-hour span, there was a huge disconnect in my social media world – I received no social media updates from Verizon, BlackBerry or Research in Motion (RIM, the developer of BlackBerry). A small social media crisis for the mega-brands? I think so. But let’s back up . . .
When I called Verizon around 9 a.m., an automated message notified me of problems with BlackBerries in my area. I hung up because I knew they were aware of the issue. Then I went to Tweetdeck to see what was happening in the world of social media. It turns out, several of my Twitter friends were tweeting that their BlackBerries were down.
So I proceeded to tweet to the most appropriate source – Verizon Pittsburgh (@VzPittsburgh). They tweeted back that I should contact the Verizon Support account (@VzwSupport). Verizon support tweeted me before I could tweet back with the following: “Please contact Tech Support to discuss your issue: 800-922-0204 option 3.” Reading down their Twitter page, I noticed this was their response to EVERY tweet they received. Then I checked out Mashable’s Facebook and Twitter pages and noticed they had posted an article identifying the problem: “BlackBerry Email Not Working For Some Users.” Looking on BlackBerry’s Facebook and Twitter pages, I saw no acknowledgment of the issue. Even BlackBerry’s support page, @BlackBerryHelp, had nothing. I also couldn’t find anything with Verizon or RIM.
This got me thinking: Yes, Verizon had an automated message on its hot line, and RIM did put out a statement to mainstream media, but what about the social media component between Verizon, BlackBerry, and RIM? This is especially important for companies spending millions in marketing dollars to promote the social media use of the BlackBerry and their networks! Not to mention, at one point “BlackBerry” was the number six trending topic on all of Twitter.
With a problem that happened around 10 p.m. EST on December 16 that was not resolved for 14 hours, BlackBerry, RIM, and its carriers should have worked together to develop a message for users on social media networks letting them know there was an issue and they were working as fast as possible to get it resolved – since that’s where their users were discussing the issue most.
Something so simple could have helped tremendously, changing tweets from “My BlackBerry is down – what’s going on?” to “BlackBerry is down but they’re working to fix the problem.” Crisis resolved.
E-mail servers going down in certain areas are probably a regular problem for phone companies. I don’t think they’re going to lose customers over a 14-hour issue, but I do think taking a cue from a company like Comcast and developing a few protocols and messages for times like these could have helped the brands involved and helped them be social media winners.
At WordWrite, we work with our clients to develop protocols for their companies with hypothetical situations to ensure the proper response for any crisis. Perhaps if RIM and BlackBerry had developed these ahead of time, the 14 hours would have been a lot smoother and perhaps they’d even be praised for it. Social media crisis? At WordWrite, there’s an app for that.
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Deanna Ferrari is an account executive for WordWrite Communications.
