I’m going to go ahead an assume that, like me, you were one of the 330 million Twitter users who received an email from the social media platform this week, alerting you to change your Twitter password.
The reason: a “bug” resulted in some passwords being stored in text-form, rather than in encryption-form, as best practice and security demands.
How did Twitter fare in their response to this situation?
I found it refreshing that Twitter was so proactive with their investigation, actions, and response to the situation… and then they went and stuck their foot in their mouth!
One of my Crisis Ready Rules, taken from my book, Crisis Ready: Building an Invincible Brand in an Uncertain World, is:
One poor statement (or tweet) can undermine an entire crisis management strategy.
Twitter’s CTO, Parag Agrawal, unfortunately demonstrated the validity of this rule when he tweeted the following:
We are sharing this information to help people make an informed decision about their account security. We didn’t have to, but believe it’s the right thing to do. https://t.co/yVKOqnlITA
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) May 3, 2018
Which then led to the following tweet being a necessity:
I should not have said we didn’t have to share. I have felt strongly that we should. My mistake. https://t.co/Cqbs1KiUWd
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) May 3, 2018
In the following video, I analyze Twitter’s overall response to this incident, and provide thoughts and warnings to this “poor statement” situation in hopes of helping your team prevent such a mishap. Take a look – and then let me know how you felt about the entire situation and Twitter’s response.
By the way, if you’re interested in discovering more of the Crisis Ready Rules, check out the free “Crisis Ready Rules Poster” available here.
Note: At the start of the video I say “33 million other people”, when in fact I meant – and it was – 330 million other people.
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Crisis Ready.
Building an Invincible Brand in an Uncertain World.
By Melissa Agnes
Order copies for you and your team on amazon, or contact info@mascotbooks.com for special bulk pricing!
Author of Crisis Ready: Building an Invincible Brand in an Uncertain World, Melissa Agnes is a leading authority on crisis preparedness, reputation management, and brand protection. Agnes is a coveted keynote speaker, commentator, and advisor to some of today’s leading organizations faced with the greatest risks. Learn more about Melissa and her work here.
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