http://readwrite.com/2014/12/04/docker-coreos-how-not-to-manage-open-source
This article discusses how Solomon Hykes, founder of the Open Source company Docker, criticized a competitor's product through social media setting off a Twitter storm that demonstrated how not to manage a crisis. The rival company, CoreOs, released a product that they claimed addressed some of the issues with Docker's product. In the past, Hykes claimed that he welcomed the competition of ideas and products in the Open Source community. However, his company's actions did not match their words. For example, during the crisis Hykes tweeted that his company would only listen to the opinions and ideas of users, not those of his competitors.
The ReadWriteWeb articles makes some very good points about crisis management dos and don'ts:
Criticism of an organization's product can be a good thing -- "a leading indicator of success". But it's important to distinguish between feedback from "haters" v.s. negative feedback that can be viewed as constructive criticism. Hykes made the mistake of engaging with the haters, thus getting into a battle with Internet trolls.
Let the community respond to the criticism. This is a similar suggestion to the approach taken in the article we read about sports fans. Unfortunately, Hykes did not wait for the community to respond, he jumped right in, wasting no time in setting off an online war of words.
Comments on social media can amplify criticism of a company and lead to online battles as illustrated in this article. All organizations need to have a plan for how to handle negative criticism online. The essence of a real online community, such as the Open Source community, is two way open communication. A fact that the founder of Docker seems to have forgotten.
Using the Social-Mediated Crisis Communication Model (SMCC) to look at this example, I note that origin of the crisis is internal (Solomon Hyke's, founder of Docker started the Twitter storm with his negative comments about his competitor and their product), the message strategy should be accommodative (i.e., image repair, corrective action, full apology), the form of the message should be sent using social media (blog post, Twitter, etc.), and the source of the message should be the organization and not some 3rd party. Based on what I read in the article, these are exactly the steps that Hykes took after setting off the social media crisis. He apologized in a blog post, and tweeted about focusing on addressing the underlying criticism from the community and acknowledging that there are real and legitimate questions about his company's product.
