According to Adage on Monday they did have a plan. They launched an outreach program featuring U.S. President-Chief Operating Officer Jim Lentz. Mr Lentz was sent into the "Today" show, where he talked to host Matt Lauer about why the company halted sales and production of eight models over an accelerator-pedal-sticking issue. "This will be under control," Mr. Lentz said, at the same time denying that Toyota dragged its feet on the issue.

They extended the outreach program to social-media channels in the form of Mr. Lentz talking about the recall.  This was posted to the Facebook page early Monday morning, and hours later, more than 150 "liked" the video and some 70 commented on it -- many of them positively. "Thank you Toyota for stepping up!" said one, and another: "Toyota will pull through this."Thats when Toyota must have gone away and congratulated themselves on a job well done.

That was Monday. Have a look at some of the latest comments I just took off the same facebook fan page at 1.00 EST Wednesday (so no excuses that its too late), and all comments were within the last 10 hours;

Comment from group member - I simply dont understand why you're company couldnt do the right thing earlier and without delay. The fact that it took this long for you to issue a recall is scary to me, after so many complaints of defects. STOP HUMMING ALONG AND START LISTENING TO US, YOUR CUSTOMERS. WITHOUT US, YOU WOULD BE NOTHING.

This comment had been up for 10 hours and had no response

Comment  from another group member fan spreading bad articles: This here from the Wall Street Journal. Toyota's gonna get what's coming to them. Check out this article - Toyota's Troubles Deepen.

This comment was exposed to fans remember and no response an two hours later

Another wrote - Well look at this. Toyota being investigated by Japanese athorities. Faulty brake pedals on the Prius?
http://www.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/02/02/japan.prius.investigate/index.html?hpt=T2

Most wont bother to read the article, but according to CNN its true. Not addressing it makes the posting above more powerful?

Another wrote: They do not employ anywhere near the Americans factory workers that GM does. Engineers, testers, and other employees count as well. Plus, you have to love how the Japanese were qouted as stating these problems are the fault of the US employees. Thats is how little they think of their "american" people. 14 hours and no response.

On a side note its Interesting to see how many reports were sent via Facebook for iPhone. It seems like 50%+ but thats only in the last hour. Bad news travels very fast and they are comming in thick and heavy. 

To be fair, there is a box in the top left that says - If you are looking for the latest information on our recent announcement (not recall) regarding the voluntary safety campaign (not safety concerns), please visit our website. Any updates will also be posted to this location. http://www.toyota.com/recall. Note its called a recall in the url, not an announcement. 

That link leads you through to a static page that has static brochure look and signs of with the comment If you have additional questions or concerns that have not been addressed here, please contact the Toyota Customer Experience Center at    1-800-331-4331 . The Toyota Customer Experience Center hours are: Mon.–Fri. 5:00 am-6:00 pm PST, Sat. 7:00 am-4:00 pm PST. In this day and age, where is the human interaction. Where is the speed.  to resolve. If you have any further fears why not email us and we will make an effort to sort you out with 24 hours. I am not feeling warm and fussy here people.

Meanwhile over at Twitter. more confused scilience. They don’t even seem to have a twitter feed by the looks of it. The biggest Toyota group has 14,830 and is now talking about other things, their crisis has passed. But they do to be fait still list the recall site. Unfortunately its not clickable, its a static image.  
On one of the other big ones, Boston Toyota (opposite), they seem to be putting a very positive spin on it, actually they say in the 4th post down that Peugeot, Honda and Hyundai are having problems also. Has no obvious link however to the recall page. Its a talk about something else and it goes away strategy.

Finally let’s go to the site http://www.toyota.com which is business-as-usual and why not I hear you say. If anyone needs to know about that messy business see on the button bottom left in red named RECALL INFORMATION. Guess where that links through to? Yes the same static dull brocher page, made all the duller as you are coming from some beautiful images of Toyotas on the page.
 
On search, something they could have done quickly. No campaign bought here anywhere but would like to hear (UK) from US readers if they at least bought the key words ‘Toyota Recall’.

I am being somewhat harsh on Toyota here, but this is a company whose name is synonymous with TQM and flawless execution is a key brand atribute and it should extend to their media strategy. The consequences of a poor crisis management could also severely damage Toyotas reputation as the number one global automotive brand. Its now valued at $31.33 billion (down 8% from 2008) according to Interbrand so its no small change.

Regardless it brings into focus the importance of having a crisis/response plan made. Also the importance of making sure everyone knows the plan, have been trained on the plan and know where the plan details are kept.

Yes you need to have an official press release, or statement from the CEO but remember you are then taking questions.  Answer these questions on Twitter and Facebook fast, and not by the intern i may add, but by the senior management, ideally by the head of QA in Toyota's case and the CEO Inaba-san. But you are also talking to real people, sometime rational, sometimes emotional. They are possibly angry people and they have a right to be. According to Newsweek the fault has been linked to 19 deaths. You need to avoid anger spilling over into frenzy and people changing to a virtual mob out of control.

Ideally Toyota should have an early warning system. But some have also said that these problems go back 10 years and this is not the problem. The problem is a company culture that mixes defensiveness towards the outside world with exaggerated deference towards senior management. This makes them badly equipped as a company to identify and then deal with this kind of situation.

There are tools already that allow you to monitor where the negative mentions, comments are coming from. You treat these small pockets early and fast, think of them like small forest fires. There were many possible fires in the above comments. Why exactly is Toyota being investigated by Japanese athorities? Is there another recall coming? Has there been a quote by anyone within Toyota 'that these problems are the fault of the US employees'. Do you Care about 'American people"? Of course they do, but just tell them.

So relax, take a breath. In this case I would advice that a roll in the big guns is necessary. Tell them to start typing and telling their customers they are sorry. Start with the 71K+ on facebook. Tell them to not take attacks personally, dont argue with detractors and calmly state the facts. Be Zen, be honest be transparent and be consistant. The mob smells BS a mile away and reacts unpredictably. Be swift, be kind, be talkative, be human, chat on Twitter, post often on facebook, get blogging and turn a disaster into a mere scrape. Above all don't stick your head in the ground and hope it goes away, or the accelerator may stick and you may find yourself out of control.