Social media for the Paranoid

The NY Times is reporting a YouTube video suggesting that the FDIC sale of IndyMac to a group of investors was a sweetheart deal. No surprise, particularly the day after Valentines Day.

What is interesting is to analyze their reaction, and place it within the constraints that as an august Government body they are bound to follow. Then I am going to suggest what they should do in the short and long term.

So on one side of this public bun fight is a gentlemen called Leo Schruppruns a combined mortgage broker and bank called FirstPriority Financial that works in  a series of states including California (home of both FirstPriority Financial and IndyMac). He has created an organization called ThinkBigWorkSmall (TBWS)that is focused on using Web 2.0 tools (ie Social Media) to build marketing databases for mortgage professionals. they sell access to their approach for $49.95/month. Part of their strategy is to build a Social Media based campaign against mortgage related issues. This information can be found from the website, but it takes quite a bit of work.

One of those is against HVCC, which stands for Home Valuation Code of Conduct, which basically state that Freddie Mac will not purchase mortgages from Sellers of mortgages that do not adopt the code with respect to single-family mortgages that are delivered to Freddie Mac. This matters alot to some mortgage originators who claim that the code is resulting in faulty appraisals. One would guess that “faulty” means too low.

So there is a small outfit with limited funds but a clear agenda that will clearly benefit them financially it succeeds, and will also benefit them because it builds their brand as they run the campaign. Great strategy, and so far, great execution.

On the other side there is FDIC, Federal Deposit Insurance Company, which is an independent agency of the US Government, that insures certain bank or saving deposits. It is funded by a tax on banks, and has the power to take over failing banks – which is what it did to IndyMac. Their goal is primarily to be invisible beyond that little FDIC insured sign you see at your bank. As they are funded by banks and not the tax payer (who ultimately guarantees FDIC and so is on the hook for their losses) they really don’t want alot of public attention. So when they get some unwanted attention they have very little experience or material to fall back on.

FDIC is also bound by all the restrictions placed on a Government agency such as the First Amendment of the US Constitution, Public Records Law, and the Open Meeting Laws (also known as “sunshine laws”). I’ll discuss all of these in a separate blog, but for now the core issue with these laws is that it is very unclear how they relate to social media, and so that naturally makes Government bodies cautious.  Private individual and companies really have none of these worries, so their lives are much simpler.

So there you have the scene set – David versus Goliath, though it is not clear that it is a clean fight because Goliath has so many constraints that it is hard to push back, and that is exactly what you see so far – a very weak response for the FDIC where they seem to have had the first video taken down by YouTube, but almost immediately replaced by a new one with a response to their critique. A press release, which was relayed in a twitter feed, and some main stream press.

So what should they do, in the short and longer term?

Short Term

In the short term they gain very little by getting YouTube to pull down the video, you can actually argue that they lost alot by pulling it down because it is easier to attach a video with alot of errors than one that has been modified to blunt the criticism – which is what TBWS did when their first video was removed (for unknown reasons). US Government agencies also have to be careful of getting a video or a posting removed because of free speech issues.

Instead they first need to defend by responding directly on the YouTube page quickly enough that they are “above the fold”, which in an online context means that the response can be seen at the same time as the video. All the response needs to say is that this video is misleading, and then point to a webpage. Initially all the webpage has to say is “We are FDIC and this video has errors and omissions”. While this is not very informative it has the huge benefit of getting a word in at the very beginning of the discussion which is bound to follow if the story is at all newsworthy. Then the FDIC can work on expanding out the webpage with the key responses, knowing that the link to the page is in prime position on the offending page.

Next they need to attack with the very short (less than 140 character – so as to fit on Twitter) key messages over all of the key social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz, YouTube, etc.) This means alot of postings in alot of different places, which means when the search engines pick on the story they will show the key messages directly, then only later would the user get to the offending video. That way they already have the criticisms in their mind when they start to watch (if they do).

Then the FDIC needs to open up a second front of attack, by using those same conversations to remind readers of the context. In this case – FDIC saves the day, or a video of a frustrated IndyMac customer. At the same time a very small amount of research about the organization launching the attack is very helpful in framing the response because it shows the underlying motivations and hence which messages will work best in response.

Finally as the newsmedia responds with stories and analysis then these can be used as re-enforcements t to the balanced version of the story.

Long Term

By the long term I mean what can be done when not fire-fighting.

The most important long term goal is to occupy your territory.  What I mean by this is to ensure that you own and use all of the major social media channels under an identity that is clearly identified with your organization, and ideally validated or verified. Here is Twitter’s verification process – they only do this with selective accounts because of the “cost and time required”, so plan ahead!

Next is to stock-up. This means having canned responses pre-approved. All the standard stuff about who you are and what you do. Equally a list of all the good press coverage – so that you have things to send out before you have anything to say.

Finally – gather allies. Social media is all about friends. You need them when things get tough, so look after them when things are good and keep them up to date. Then when you need their help – ask them with a clear call to action – please reply to these postings, here are some facts that we think are important.

Conclusion

The most important thing to realize is this is all about emotion not fact. You probably have all the facts laid out and the conclusion is clear, but you feel like you are loosing. You have no choice as a reputable organization but to ensure the facts are correct, but you can’t stop there. You have to bring in emotion. You have to show people who think they are about to loose everything in  bank crash being saved by your organization. They are your defenders.