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 make. 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. There are already tools that allow you to monitor where the negative mentions 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.

This role has been defined in a report published this month by Fast Future Research that identifies new jobs that will be in demand from 2020 to 2030. Driven by continuing rapid growth in use of the Internet and increasingly complicated and connected mobile devices, it's predicted that virtual clutter organising will emerge as a profession by 2015.

Virtual clutter organisers will look after our email, make sure our data is stored properly, and manager our electronic passwords and profiles.

This is not a job for a glorified admin assistant - an IT background is needed. As the Fast Future report states, "A Virtual Clutter Organiser will typically be an expert in data management, security and networking and operate in three different ways - offering a downloadable solution to reside on your electronic devices, providing an online Software as a Service (SaaS) solution and delivering a totally personalised service managing your data for you.

"....They scan everything, work through your emails, documents and online registrations and create a data management framework to hold your electronic information. They would install routines that guide the user to ensure data is stored properly as it is created and encourage deletion of redundant data."

I think this type of role will become indispensible to people, as it will help reduce the stress associated with information overload. Mind you, people will have to change their views on privacy, as they will be letting a stranger access some of the most sensitive and financially intimate parts of their lives.

And although virtual clutter organisers rely heavily on automated tools, it will require a real live person to interpret, analyse, consult and execute, so it's a job that will offer long-term prospects.

We still don't have this anywhere near to being sorted. A recent post by Malkuth Damkar about the way in which Twitter makes celebrities of us all makes the point that people who would otherwise escape notice are often judged and gossiped about on Twitter in a way that's disproportionate; as though by conversing publically, we've abandoned our right to privacy and respect. Not to mention the recent furore concering hapless British Twitterer Paul Chambers who jokingly threatened to blow up an airport ,then found himself jobless and facing criminal charges, which clearly demonstrates how serious the consequences can be.

Media and marketing website Mumbrella recently covered an exchange on Twitter between a journalist and the personal account of someone working in PR, as evidence of a sometimes tricky relationship between the two disciplines. While naturally journalists often choose to ignore context and nuance for the sake of a good headline, this seemed a particularly unfair conflation of public domain and public interest. The journalist has a relatively large public profile and is employed by a media organisation, arguably making her tweets our business; the other person is not - and public or no, her personal Twitter account exists independently of her employer.

It served as an excellent example of this rather messy grey area. I've personally hired people because of their significant digital presence - people who came to my attention because of the way in which they communicated online and their degree of influence. And I've been more than happy for these people to use their talents for the good of the company, for example by sharing content to their personal networks, using data gathered from their accounts etc. By creating a social media usage policy that, reasonably enough, prohibited any mention of confidential or sensitive information, I could, as a boss, be reasonably sure my team were clear about what would be appropriate to share via both the corporate and personal accounts and allowed common sense to guide their behaviour in the grey areas on an ad-hoc basis.

But I think with hindsight I have sometimes got it wrong. On one occasion I effectively muzzled a team member who had a long standing online stoush with another public figure, arguing that as he linked to the company website from his Twitter bio, this feud would reflect poorly on the company. I now think that I should have suggested he remove the link, and made clear he was operating under his own auspices and his views were not shared by his employer. Non-celebrities with large Twitter followings and extensive personal networks have generally developed them through communicating interesting content in an expressive manner, with a distinct voice and point of view.

Crucially, this influence is built up over time, not on the company dime. By allowing employees to use their personal influence to share content, engage communities and achieve corporate objectives while simultaneously restricting the individual's right to express a contentious view or enter into critical discourse, the company is attempting to have its cake and eat it. Not only is this problematic from an ethical standpoint, but it's also ultimately illogical: a toothless tiger can only maintain its edge for so long before the social network begins to sense inauthenticity and drift away. I for one choose not to follow people I feel to be little more than an RSS yes-machine.

Drawing the line is essential. My suggestion - and this is a work in progress, subject to review and evolution - is that professional and personal accounts need to be separate. If you refer to your employer in your bio, your account is going to be inextricably linked to their profile, at least in public perception. So don't risk it. Unless there's a scenario in which your boss will compensate you for allowing the company to bask in your reflected glory - which could mean attributing a dollar value to influence, or specifically stating in your contract that your network is an asset the company will be able to use during the life of your contract with them - then be very wary of using your own account as another channel for sharing corporate content - whether on Twitter, Facebook or anywhere else. A profile that's specifically you @your company might be one way of resolving this, or by using shared corporate accounts.

Because nobody wants to end up like Tennessee Ernie...

You load sixteen tons, and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. Saint Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go; I owe my soul to the company store...

There…I feel better now.

I do spend a significant amount of time dealing with schools and I am frustrated that some administrations underestimate their community’s connectedness to things digital. Equally I find young marketers guilty of the same misconception that digital equals young.

Social media is the culprit and its evolution the cause; I’ll explain.

Technology over the last 20 or so years has been dominated by computing and mobile phones. These two devices have launched industries and changed the way we live quite dramatically. Now both started life as serious business tools so they had a conservatism and to an extent an age defined user group. I can assure you that there weren’t too many 20 year olds paying $5,000 for a mobile back in 1989 (yes you heard correctly and a car phone was $2,750 with installation of course) and there was minimal computing in the home – unless of course you count the Commodore 64 (for Gen Y’s, that’s not a car).

PC’s and mobiles had to become entertainment devices for the market to grow and for the young to participate. Both have re-invented themselves and succeeded remarkably.

Social media on the other hand has had quite a different pathway evolving from entertainment and via the young. It’s the reason why companies have struggled to come to grips with its use. Its lack of structure, transparency and entertainment base is ‘mucking’ with marketers minds. Brand control was the old mantra which has been replaced with ‘being part of the conversation’.

Given the recent and continuing social media hype and the speed by which it is propagating, it may be time to pause and recalibrate your digital compass. Look at who, by demographics, is using the net and what they are doing.

Here are some stats that should dispel the age myth.

· Over 70% of Mums are on facebook (Telstra State of the Nation report 2009). Average age of a primary school Mum is 40+. Interesting to note that most signed up to keep tabs on their kids – ah mums, gotta love 'em.

· In 12 months, the % of total facebook users in the U.S in the 35-54 age group shifted from 16.6% (2008) to 29%. Conversely there has been a fall in the 18-24 from 40.8% (2008) to 25.3% (istrategylabs.com 2010) – not in absolute terms though.

· The 55+ age group (replace the number ‘55+’ with ‘12 second beanbag dismount’) visits shopping and classified sites more than any other segment; 26% vs 12% for 18-24 (Australia – The state of online retail Ponerous)

· 60% of 65+yrs have used the internet in the last 12 months. 90% of 60-64 yrs and 97% of 40-49 yrs (Sensis 2009 e-Business Report)

· 99 per cent of households with an income of more than $85,000 are connected to the internet (Australian survey of 1500 Online Community Engagement 2009)

· 34% of 45-54 yo Australian women are social media ‘critics’ (Forrester Research Social Technographics Profile 2009)

I will concede that while we have an older demographic now participating in the digital space, their use of it is different to the young. Simply put, the young loiter – think of it as the new age digital mall – and the more senior are seeking practical outcomes. This is a simple assumption that can be challenged I know. Being a recent convert to the iphone, I must admit to spending time and money on apps – 140,000 available at last count. Have you tried that bubble wrap game? A complete waste of time but sometimes it’s good to get lost in the frivolous.

Now back to Billy Connolly’s age determinant, it took me only 2 seconds more to leave the beanbag than it did my 16 yo son, but there was a lot more knees and palms involved.

Not pretty but rather pretty quick.