Domino’s Pizza Uses Twitter and YouTube to Manage Bad PR
June 19th 2009 1:04 PM
Categories: 
The fiasco last April with Domino’s Pizza demonstrates the importance of social media to organizations today. Several months ago, a video of two employees performing what I surmise is the equivalent of 2 girls 1 cup in the pizza world was leaked (I refuse to watch the video because I enjoy pizza). This video went viral within minutes on social sites such as Twitter and quickly received millions of views.
People were voicing outrage through social sites such as Twitter, demanding an explanation from Domino’s. Unfortunately, Domino’s did not have a Twitter account set up and lost valuable time in posting a rapid response.
What can other organizations learn about social media from Domino’s experience?
That social media is a great channel for damage control. It is the fastest way to distribute news, and information on social sites such as Twitter and Youtube usually extend into other channels. This can be newspapers, tv, human gossip, etc… Social media is where to plant the seed of information you would like to grow into other channels, and into the minds of people. It is not just a marketing channel, it is a customer relationship channel as well.
Realizing their mistake, Domino’s setup a Twitter account under the name ‘dpzinfo’ because they had not secured their company’s name on social media sites (ouch). This account was positively used to diffuse the tension and outrage of their customers, and they now have over 2000 followers on their account.
If you are curious about the video itself, and would like to possibly never want to eat a pizza again, you can watch the video below. As I’ve said, I refuse to watch it as I like pizza and may have to eat Domino’s at some point in the future. It’s interesting because these two idiots in the video will never be able to land even a fast food job anymore, they too got an important lesson in the power of social media (to destroy your life).
They also wisely used YouTube where the president of Domino’s issued an official response from the company titled Disgusting Dominos People - Domino’s Responds. This video has almost 1 million views and is also another good example of how social media is a great customer relationship channel.
So it looks like Domino’s got introduced to social media the hard way. On the bright side, without this incident, getting social media on their priority list would have been much much harder.
This is a great case study for others to learn from, about how to use social media channels to manage PR. They are just as important, if not more so now, than traditional channels such as the tv, radio, or newspapers, especially when speed is of the essence.
The biggest advantages of social media channels is the speed at which news flows, the most likely channel to make something go viral, have a lot of hype and buzz, and the typically younger, tech-savy demographic if that is what you are targeting.
Check out what people are saying about Domino’s on Twitter.
How do you use social media as a part of your strategy? What advantages does it offer you that other channels don’t?
