bv02 Blog

15 May

bv02 awarded Mobile Specialization by Sitecore

Thanks to the amazing work of our development team members on projects for clients including CCC and the Canadian Council for the Arts, we’ve been a Sitecore Certified Partner for over 2 years now. Recently, however, Scott Mulligan’s work on rethinking the integration of responsive design solutions within Sitecore’s unique adaptive capabilities have earned bv02 a Sitecore Partner Specialization: MobileVision.

To achieve this level of specialization, Sitecore requires its partners to demonstrate three main criteria:

showing a unique use of mobile,
demonstrating significant difference in mobile from the parent site, and
demonstrate and share the level of experience required with the Sitecore team.

After several conversations with Scott and the bv02 team, as well as Scott’s extensive blogging about the benefits of using Sitecore with responsive design, using adaptive images in Sitecore and the Sitecore partner program, bv02 is happy to announce that the Sitecore team awarded us with a specialization in mobile.

Our team is excited to work with new clients to combine the powerful features of Sitecore’s CMS with the advantages of responsive web design, in order to deliver great user experiences on desktop and mobile devices alike.

Get in touch to see how we can work with you and your Sitecore implementation today to make sure you’re mobile-ready.

Tags: adaptive, development, mobile, responsive, scott mulligan, Sitecore
Categories: Sitecore, Web Development, Website Design, bv02 Clients

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25 Apr

Coming Soon: bv02’s Open Device Lab

by: Desirae Odjick 1 Comment

Definition: A collection of donated or loaned mobile devices for everyone to use at bv02.

Since more people access websites on their phones every day, testing websites on different devices isn’t really an option anymore, it’s a necessity. However, this comes with a problem: there are a lot of devices. A lot. Not only is there a constantly growing number of devices people can use to access websites, fragmentation of platforms is making it even more challenging. Add that to older versions of operating systems and browsers, and you can see the challenge. The sheer number of devices needed for testing can make the price of maintaining your own testing lab prohibitive.

That’s where bv02’s Open Device Lab comes in.

What is it?
An Open Device Lab is a shared collection of mobile devices for everybody to use, because the many different form factors and resolutions make extensive testing necessary to create great mobile apps and websites. Emulators are OK in a pinch, but nothing can replace testing on real devices. With the Open Device Lab, you don’t have to carry a suitcase full of mobile devices around; you can find them here.

Beyond that, the Open Device Lab will give developers access to all mobile platforms, ranging from iOS and WebOS, to Android and the upcoming Firefox OS, in order to stay on top of the mobile game.

Why are we building an open device lab?
The concept of an open device lab isn’t new. Open Device Labs have been set up in cities around the world, from Portland to Capetown to London to Zurich. We think that Ottawa’s developer community is on par with these cities, and needs a device lab that’s on par with them as well.

We also believe in giving back, and this is a way that we can use our existing device collection to help more websites and more developers in the community. Ultimately, when everyone has access to additional devices for testing, it raises the bar for the websites and applications we’re all creating, and delivers a better user experience for everyone.

How can I use the open device lab?
We are opening the doors to the device lab in May, but in the meantime, you can ask Paul or anybody else from the bv02 team for a device, and if it’s not in use we’ll hand it to you right away. To get in touch, send us an email to devicetesting@bv02.com. You can use the devices in our studio space as you like. If you leave, return the device to us. It’s that simple.

You can find us at:
858 Bank St. Suite 103, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 3W3

What does it cost?
It costs nothing, nada, nix. All you need to do is book a time to come into the lab through devicetesting@bv02.com.

How can I contribute?
If you have an old device lying around and collecting dust, you can contribute it to the lab in return for a link and a thank you on the device lab’s soon-to-come website (and of course, you can choose to retain full ownership of your device.) The community will be grateful for your contribution.

Are you a device manufacturer who wants to get involved and support an open device lab in Ottawa? That’s awesome, and we (and the community) appreciate your support. Let us know if you have devices to contribute, and we’ll highlight your contribution on the soon-to-come open device lab website.

Too long, didn’t read?
We believe in testing on real devices, and we believe in our community. Software emulators and simulators can be useful, but in the end they can only simulate the experience. To make testing on real devices possible for everyone, we need open device labs.

If you’re outside of Ottawa, there’s a directory of open device labs from around the world that you can check to find a lab in your area. If you’re in Ottawa, stop by the bv02 studio and experience it for yourself.

Image credit: Helsinki’s open device lab, http://devicelab.fi/.

Tags: bv02, device, mobile, open device lab, quality assurance, testing
Categories: Web, Web Development, Website Design, bv02 office, community, technology

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24 Apr

Lessons Learned at NSNorth 2013

by: Jen No Comments

This past weekend Brett Tackaberry and I went to the Ottawa Convention Centre for NSNorth, Ottawa’s first Mac, iOS, and web development conference. The weekend in a nutshell? Amazing. Being a marketer in attendance, I was worried much of the content would dive into a black hole of Cocoa and Objective-C, but I ended up leaving the conference on Sunday feeling educated and inspired.

Some of the speakers dove into 3D imaging in Xcode, image processing with Core Image and OpenCL, and creating maps on iOS, which contained a lot of code snippets and fantastic demos. Even if you weren’t a strong developer, there were a lot of lessons to be learned at NSNorth.

1. Everything comes down to a basic, repeatable strategy.

Rob Rhyne opened up the conference on Friday evening and drew parallels between product development and the game of blackjack. What to do when you’re behind in your industry, when you’re ahead, and when to split or double down.

2. If you build garbage, it’ll end up in the landfill.

Joe Cieplinski started his talk by telling a story about a guitar he owns. This guitar was built with such heart and attention to detail, that it’s the only one he’ll ever use. In building applications (or any product for that matter) what’s under the hood matters just as much as the aesthetic, which in the development world often means creating clean code. Build a product that will stand the test of time–even if it only exists digitally.

3. Talk to your users, and do your research.

Caroline Sauve of Corel Corporation spoke on extraordinary user experience from a development angle. She drove home the point that designers aren’t the only ones on a project who need to plan for UX, and that it is a beginning-to-end consideration. Using a failed product feature experiment as an example, Caroline explained how to build features quickly, test with your strongest users, and waste as few resources as possible. Essentially: move fast and break things [link to poster].

We brought along Aski with us to show off what we’ve been working on, and of course he was a huge hit – proving that everyone is still a kid on the inside. Dan and Phil did a fantastic job of putting together the three-day conference, and we’re already looking forward to NSNorth 2014.

Tags: bv02 conference, bv02 mobile, Cocoa, iPhone apps, Mac apps, NSNorth, Obj-C, Ottawa development
Categories: technology

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18 Apr

Digital Strategy and Cultural Institutions

by: Andrew No Comments

I’ve been reading and having a lot of conversations lately around digital strategy, big data, and how it applies to business. As someone who is passionate about cultural institutions and museums, and has worked with many of them over the years, I can’t help but think about these topics through the lens of culture: how does digital strategy influence the present and future for cultural organizations? Digital is relevant for cultural institutions, but the approach needs to shift given some of the unique facets of the cultural institution model and offerings.

Looking back at the past 10 to 15 years of digital engagements I’ve worked on with cultural institutions, the common thread is that engagements have largely been project-based: digitizing an exhibit, taking content online to make it more accessible, and always in support of a physical, in-person engagement either in the past or future. These projects and initiatives became more and more frequent, and more and more necessary due to shifts in audience attention towards new media.

The one thing that still hasn’t happened is that digital hasn’t been truly integrated into the overall strategic model at cultural institutions. The intent of most digital efforts I see is to ultimately bring people in the door at the physical location. This doesn’t consider that there is a portion (potentially sizeable) of the digital audience who may engage frequently and meaningfully with your organization, but yet never visit the physical location. The data on these visitors, thanks to the analytics available on digital platforms, is there, but there hasn’t been a widespread effort to use it as effectively as we can, because value is still seen as converting digital visits to analog, in person visits.

Instead of carrying on with project-based digital engagements, in the next 10 years we’re going to see a shift. Digital strategy will become integrated with the overall goals of cultural institutions, and this will be marked by recognition of how digital-only engagements with audiences can be used to support strategic goals other than driving in-person visits. Cultural institutions will build upon their status as a signpost and a place where people come to connect and experience while at the same time integrate digital into every step of the process. We’ll see organizations making more use of the wealth of data available about their audiences – not who they are necessarily, but where they are, what they’re doing to connect with the organization and how they prefer to engage. Targeting audiences effectively based on these factors will become the norm, and we’ll see more and more creative ways of doing so.

We need to move away from a project- and pain-based engagement model. Right now, every cultural institution has a huge opportunity to make digital an integrated more natural fluid experience. This is something I’m passionate about, and I want to start a conversation about the best ways those inside and outside of the cultural sphere see this happening. What does the future look like for your institution? Leave a comment, send me an email or get in touch with bv02 so we can figure this out as a community.

Tags: Andrew Milne, art, bv02, culture, museums, strategy
Categories: Digital Marketing, Web, bv02 Clients

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15 Apr

Gutsy Walk 2013 – For Crohn’s and Colitis

by: Desirae Odjick No Comments

The bv02 team loves being involved in the community, whether it’s the local art community or the international technology community, so it’s no surprise we have a slew of upcoming community events. One of the events we’re most excited to be involved in? The Gusty Walk taking place on Sunday, June 9th.

What’s the Gutsy Walk? It’s a fundraiser in support of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada (CCFC), an organization dedicated to finding a cure for these gastrointestinal illnesses. Our very own strategist Matt Davidson is actively involved with the CCFC and is helping to put together this year’s Gutsy Walk, and when he asked us to form a team, we knew it would be an event we didn’t want to miss.

After being diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease in 2010, Matt began to see first-hand the impact the disease has on the people it affects, and how prevalent it is in Ottawa. He immediately became involved with the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada and now sits on the board for the Ottawa chapter as the Director of Digital Media (a fitting role, given his wealth of experience!)

bv02 will be joining Matt this June 9th for the Gutsy Walk, the Foundation’s biggest annual fundraiser. Further to our individual participation, the agency has pledged to be a Partner of the event, contributing even more to the cause. The best part? The team is open to the whole community, and we have some amazing “guest stars” on this year’s Gutsy Walk team, including Suzy Kendrick and Amie Beausoleil. Want to join us for a morning of fun? Register for the bv02 team today.

Don’t feel like walking in this year’s event? You can still contribute to help eradicate Crohns and Colitis!

Tags: bv02, CCFC, community, team
Categories: bv02 office, community

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11 Apr

Carleton’s Futurefunder: Crowd-funding Campus Projects

by: Desirae Odjick No Comments

There’s nothing we like more at bv02 than helping great clients launch successful digital projects. That’s why we’re so happy to see that Futurefunder.ca, a crowd-funding platform launched by Carleton University last month, is receiving so much positive attention from the university community and the media.

The concept behind Futurefunder is simple: allow members of the Carleton community to post projects they’d like to have funded, and allow them to share it with their networks in order to collect small, targeted donations in support of their project. This way, donors can support specific projects, and they can do so with an amount that works for them.

The initiative has received some attention in the media, with an article in YourOttawaRegion.com featuring the successes of the project in the past month. More importantly, however, are the projects that are receiving attention and funding thanks to the Futurefunder initiative. Several of the Carleton community’s projects have been partially or fully funded already, helping support scholarships, additions to the library and student initiatives.

We’re so happy to have been involved in the development of this unique platform with our clients at Carleton University. It’s always great helping clients bring their projects to life, and even better seeing them succeed and receive the recognition they deserve.

Tags: bv02 Clients, Carleton University, crowd funding, Design, Futurefunder, microgiving, Web
Categories: Web, Web Development, Website Design, bv02 Clients, community

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22 Mar

Mobile Photography Vernissage

by: Desirae Odjick 1 Comment

At bv02 we work hard, and play hard. We’re just as creative outside the office as we are in the boardroom, and we wanted to share some of that with you. Every once in a while we’ll post something (like this) on the blog that sets the work aside and gives you some unique insight into the people behind the projects.

You might know Mika Trottier as Account Manager extraordinaire, but she is also an extremely talented mobile photographer, who blends technology with traditional media to create unique art pieces. She’s so fantastic, in fact, that she is hosting a Vernissage this Saturday (March 23rd) at Black Tomato in the Byward Market at 10pm. A lot of bv02-ers will be in attendance supporting our talented teammate, and we’d love to see you there!

For more information, and to RSVP, check out the event page. If you can’t make it Saturday night (we’ll miss you), her artwork will be on display at the Black Tomato until June. You can see some of her work on her Instagram page, where she regularly publishes new work.

She’ll be sharing her insights into how technology and art are intersecting next week on the bv02 blog, so make sure to stay tuned.

Categories: Design, Digital Arts, New Media, bv02 office, community, technology

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10 Mar

South By Southwest Recap – Day 1 & 2

by: Matt No Comments

Love it or hate it, South By Southwest is certainly one thing: one of the largest gatherings of the technology world’s best and brightest. Everywhere you look, and everyone you talk to is doing something awesome, from creating amazing apps, to helping facilitate the relationships between farmers and technologists. Each time I strike up a conversation with someone here my mind gets blown by the stories everyone tells. I think that’s really what SXSW has become to me: a place to meet and learn from brilliant people whether it’s in sessions, keynotes, or just riding in an elevator.

Day 1
We made the mission to pick up our badges and battle the giant lines at the convention centre. Surprisingly the lines were short and we were simply in and out. I did get to make an awesome face for my badge.

Our first day opened with one of my favourite parties of SXSW, Food Tech connect cocktails. This event brought together folks from all over the world in food, open data, and technology to chat, mingle, and hopefully find situations to work together. (Oh yeah, and the empanadas were amazing.)
The rest of the night was quiet (lesson #1 of SXSW: don’t blow it on the first day) we ended up in an Irish pub listening to covers of awesome songs done on the harp.

Day 2
Day 2 kicked off just like I would expect for SXSW, with a party. The North of 41 Canadian Geek Event by Rogers Media brought out the Canadian technology innovators to have a bite, connect, and build more opportunity for Canadian companies and organizations. And they had a rocking Photo Booth. Big thanks to @michellekostya and @keithmcarthur.

Next up was the Elon Musk keynote and the lines were around the convention centre. Luckily through some fancy talking we found ourselves in the exhibit hall and seated waiting for Elon Musk to come on. Great interview, he spoke primarily about SpaceX (since the dragon is currently docked to the ISS), and discussed the snappy interchange with the New York post over the new Tesla sedan.

Al Gore had an interview next to talk about his new book, so we hung out in our seats for that to start. It’s always awesome to see Al Gore speak.
The Omni was our next destination after that to catch a panel moderated by Bruce Mau’s Hunter Tura. The panel discussed design for the aging world, as the aging population is going to start to to be a driving force behind design and innovation. After such an awesome panel by Bruce Mau it was a given that we would head to their party and continue the Canadian theme. Hush studios co-hosted the event, and there is an amazing amount of experience between these two agencies. I certainly did my best to absorb it all.
After that event, Danielle from Food Tech Connect was hosting an innovators’ dinner with some of the brightest minds in technology and food. We had the most amazing dinner and talked open data, education, and food with the likes of Tim O’Reilly, Danielle Gould, and Will Turnage. I’m honoured to have been invited and to have been a part of such great conversation.

Finally we crossed paths with the HootSuite team after missing the Hoot Bus many many times.

So it’s been a busy two days (understatement!) I can’t wait to see what today, tomorrow and next week throws our way.

Categories: bv02 office

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27 Feb

All About Sitecore Mobile Development

by: Scott Mulligan 2 Comments

Almost every major organization now has a significant online mobile presence in order to better interact with their audience. To Sitecore’s credit they have been very forward thinking within the mobile space since they have anticipated this trend and added core functionality to Sitecore in order to help with mobile development. This post takes a look at some of Sitecore’s built in mobile development features and compares them with responsive web design (RWD) which is a design methodology that is gaining momentum within the web community.

I want to be clear that I am not advocating the use of responsive web design over traditional Sitecore mobile development, but rather identifying the advantages and drawbacks to each approach so that we will all be in a better position to choose the correct approach for a particular client or project. It is a very good position to be in when you are able to look at mobile development from multiple angles instead of always applying the same approach regardless of the overall business objectives for a project. I don’t mean to spoil any of the upcoming surprises but there are certainly cases when a hybrid approach that combines responsive web design with Sitecore’s built in features may lead to the optimal solution.

This post also takes a look at how bv02 is improving the responsive design experience within Sitecore by using some of Sitecore’s built in features to mitigate the pitfalls that are present in any responsive design project.

Traditional Sitecore Mobile Development

Sitecore has built the concept of devices into their core product. The idea is that different layouts can be applied to different devices. So you can create a “desktop” device, a “tablet” device, a “mobile” device, a “RSS” device, etc, and then apply different layouts to each device. In order for this concept to be effective, most implementations rely on some sort of device detection. This can be done through the implementation of a 3rd party device detection library or the Mobile Device Detector module available in the Sitecore marketplace.

While device detection has its drawbacks it does allow for some things that responsive web design cannot. For example, device detection can target specific mobile devices and can detect the presence (or absence) of particular features such as touch enabled devices.

Pros:

Result is an adaptive design (some prefer this over responsive design).
If just mobile and desktop devices are implemented then it could be more time/cost effective than RWD.
Will deliver just the markup and images you need per device. No unnecessary JS, images, HTML as with RWD.
Can customize layouts per device. Ex: Different layouts for iPhone, old Blackberries, Touch enabled devices.
Can deliver a very tailored design for each device contrary to RWD which does not allow for exact designs since they are fluid.

Cons:

Multiple layouts/renderings per page means not all one codebase
Relies on device detection (likely through 3rd party libraries) and may not be 100% effective
Cannot be certain layouts will provide the best experience for a specific device depending on device’s screen resolution

Responsive Design with Sitecore

In general, responsive design is independent of the CMS that it is implemented on but there are always subtle differences and quirks to figure out. The challenge for a Sitecore developer is to figure out how to best leverage Sitecore’s built in features in order to create a better responsive design.

Pros:

Designed to fit any device
Does not rely on device detection
Only one layout per page means one codebase

Cons:

Will deliver all markup and images to page regardless of device. Could result in longer wait times on mobile devices
RWD can mean A LOT of extra front end development time
Can’t target specific devices. Only differentiation is browser/screen width

Mix and Match RWD with Sitecore Devices

One exciting prospect is that the use of responsive design and Sitecore devices are not mutually exclusive. There are situations where responsive design can be used effectively in conjunction with Sitecore devices (and/or device detection). A good example would be a very large site where RWD would be used on the majority of pages in order to delivery a mobile solution, but specific and important pages (like the home page, sales pages, ecommerce checkout pages) would use device detection and Sitecore layouts to create a very tailored mobile experience for users.

How is bv02 Improving Responsive Design in Sitecore?

In order to improve responsive design within Sitecore we started out by identifying the most problematic issues. It is worth noting that the issues we took into consideration were not solely Sitecore problems as they are problems that plague any responsive design, regardless of the platform.

The two most important issues that we decided needed to be addressed in order to provide a better RWD experience were:

Responsive design dictates that images may be rescaled through the magic of CSS to fit on smaller devices, but the images are always loaded at their full file size.
All markup and images are delivered to the browser on each page request regardless of the device. That means all HTML, JS, Images, etc are going to be loaded whether the user is on a desktop or mobile phone, even if some of the page elements are being hidden with CSS.

These two issues really make me angry. From my point of view, if we build a responsive site and don’t take care of these issues then we are not really delivering a very good mobile solution. These types of problems are not usually fully understood by clients, so they can easily be overlooked, even though they can have a significant impact on mobile solutions.

The good news is that both of these problems can be solved (or mitigated) by using some of Sitecore’s built in features.

How do we start? The first thing we need to do is detect the users screen resolution. That may not seem like a big deal but it opens up a world of possibilities once we have this information. Screen resolution can be detected either through JavaScript or by using device detection (and likely a 3rd party library that stores resolution information). I chose to implement a solution that detects screen resolution with JavaScript. The benefit of the JS solution is that it will work on any Sitecore solution as it can be dropped in without any dependencies (and hence better suited for release as a shared source module). The downside to the JS solution is that the resolution information will not be available on the first page request since JS is a client side language. However, the cookie can be stored for a period of time so that the resolution information will be available on follow up visits.

Once the device resolution is detected on the first page request, it is stored as a cookie and can be referenced on subsequent requests. The device’s screen resolution can be used as a guide to serve images at appropriate widths (and smaller file sizes). This helps ensure that users are not wasting precious bandwidth. The best part is that we can accomplish this by leveraging Sitecore’s image manipulation and image caching features to resize images as needed and cache them for later use. This adaptive images approach can be used as a good first step to mitigate the problems encountered with images within a responsive design framework.

We have packaged the adaptive images concept into a shared source module named Sitecore Adaptive Images which is available in the Sitecore Marketplace.

Now on to the second issue we wanted to solve. The problem is that all content is loaded on each page request regardless of the device. Even though some of the content in responsive design may be visually hidden through CSS, it is still being loaded on page requests and increasing the data that a user needs to download.

How do we solve our second problem? Detecting a device’s screen resolution can be used in conjunction with the Digital Marketing System (DMS) and the Sitecore rules engine to hide or show page elements with personalization and conditional renderings. The rules engine is a very powerful feature in Sitecore that we can leverage. By creating some simple rules we can detect, with a fair degree of accuracy, if a user is on a mobile or tablet device based on screen resolution. The final step is to use the DMS to apply personalization to the layout details of data templates. Note that this is only possible with the installation of the DMS, which is a separate product.

While this will probably never be able to entirely solve the problem of all markup being delivered to browsers, it will allow Sitecore developers to ensure specific markup/JS/Images are not delivered on every device. This means that especially troublesome page elements with large file sizes can be omitted on certain devices.

Different Content to Different Devices

While it may not always be a good idea to serve different content to different devices, there can be certain situations where it is useful to have this capability. This can be achieved fairly easily by following a similar approach as above. The DMS and rules engine can be leveraged to either show/hide conditional renderings or dynamically set the datasource for a rendering if the user is detected to be on a mobile or tablet device.

One thing to keep in mind is that the JavaScript method of detecting screen resolution might not be available on the first page request so it is not 100% reliable. If it is critical that every request (including the first) has access to screen resolution then you should consider using a 3rd party device library to implement a device detection strategy.

Future Work with the DMS

The next step we would like to address is extending the DMS to distinguish users in real time, based on their device’s screen resolution, so that they can be identified as mobile or tablet users. This will allow marketers to create engagement workflows based on devices, which is not usually possible when using a responsive design approach.

What About Native Mobile Applications?

Anyone involved with mobile development will quickly realize that traditional web-based solutions are not best suited to solve every business objective. We live in a world that is now largely driven by native mobile applications like iOS and Android apps and new mobile platforms are emerging at breakneck pace. Since Sitecore sees itself as an online hub that can be used to drive everything digital, they have recently released a mobile software developer’s kit (SDK) to help facilitate the development of native mobile applications. The idea is that content managed in Sitecore can be used in native mobile applications. Very cool.

In Closing

Sitecore has made some good decisions which has given them a competitive advantage in the mobile space. While it is great to have an understanding of Sitecore’s built in mobile features, Sitecore developers should not be afraid to expand their knowledge base beyond the walls of Sitecore. Mobile development is moving at such a rapid pace that it is hard for any organization, including Sitecore, to keep up with the changing landscape. By using new mobile techniques like responsive web design in combination with leveraging Sitecore’s already strong mobile offerings, developers can ensure that they are equipped with the right toolset to approach any mobile problem.

Tags: bv02 mobile, mobile, Ottawa development, Sitecore, Web Development
Categories: Sitecore, Web

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21 Feb

Big Brands Learn a Hard Lesson in Twitter Security

by: Jason Faber No Comments

Twitter Hacks: Would You Know How To Handle It?

We’re seeing a new trend in social media. No I’m not talking about Pinterest, or Vine. I’m talking about large corporate Twitter accounts being hacked. While this has been happening for several years now, we are noticing that it is happening much more frequently. In fact, over the past couple of weeks we’ve seen numerous such cases including Jeep and Burger King’s Twitter account being compromised by hackers, HMV’s account being maliciously taken over by disgruntled staff and MTV’s account being comprised by, well, themselves as an apparent hoax. So what does this all mean? Does it even really matter?

The Social Media Free Ride.

For a long time brands were getting a free ride on social media. With low cost to entry and high online visibility, brands were reaping the benefits that social offered, and rarely thought about the “what if”. What if something went wrong? What if our account gets hacked? What would that mean for our brand? Our followers? Our bottom line? They never considered the opposite affect that this powerful toolset could have on their brand if used the wrong way.

When a social media catastrophe strikes, such as a hack, brand and communications managers need to act fast. Whenever a hacked account is reclaimed, we often see a slew of public apologies for the incident and are reassured that the messages sent do not reflect the values of the brand. A crisis can often be rectified if a smart communications manager proactively steps in with honest, transparent and thorough apology. At the end of the day, who can really blame an account for getting hacked?

A look at the flip side.

There is an old adage in the world of marketing that says “Any PR is good PR”. While this is debatable, could it be true in this case? Think about it. Yes, from the brand’s perspective, they are mortified. All of a sudden they do not hold the keys to one of their foremost communications tools. Imagine McDonald’s had a TV commercial hacked? What would the repercussions of that be? Well, trust me, Twitter has much more reach. But is this a PR nightmare, or simply free press? A glowing opportunity to show how great your brand and customer relations really are? Often times consumers look back and say “Wow, Burger King really handled that well. Kudos.”

The Consumer Perspective.

Hacks are often extremely obvious. Most people know when an account has been hacked. If I frequent Burger King on a weekly basis, does the fact that some activists hacked their account skew my perception of their brand? Will I buy any fewer burgers? Probably not. But what about the unengaged consumer, someone who maybe goes to a Burger King restaurant once or twice a year? All of a sudden Burger King is in the news, all over the internet and now top of mind. That previously unengaged user starts following the brand to catch a glimpse of the hack, only to notice that a few hours later it has been reclaimed by the brand who actually handled the situation pretty well, and maybe with a bit of humour. Now this person is engaged. Burger King has taken a potential “catastrophe” and spun it to grow their engaged audience.

The Numbers.

It’s impossible to tell what Burger Kings hack will have on their bottom line. Will they sell fewer burgers as a result of the hack? More burgers? No one knows. But we can however have a look at the social numbers. While the brand scrambled earlier this week to reclaim their brand online, they saw an outstanding increase in their followers, which jumped from around 50,000 to over 112,000 in one day. Talk about growing and audience. The brand even acknowledged this influx of new followers in a tweet sent out later that day.

How to Prepare.

No brand is 100% immune to Twitter hacks. It happens. But there are some precautions you can take to prepare for such an event. Start by developing a social media policy that set clears boundaries and protocols, while still allowing your social media team some freedom to be creative. Having a proactive plan in place will not only help mitigate the risk that your account can be hacked, but will provide your team with clear protocols and guidelines if such an event does happen. Consider including brand guidelines, rules about password protection, account authorization on smartphones, proper listening and reporting tools set up and a crisis management plan that outlines steps to follow in case of a hack.

Final Thoughts.

While Burger King was able to put a somewhat positive spin on the situation, and more than double their following in the process, this is not always the case. We’re not saying that a social media crisis is a good thing or a bad thing. It just happens. What’s essential here is that you do everything you can do to prevent it, and are ready for it if it does happens.

Are big corporations doing enough to keep their online brands safe? What is Twitter’s responsibility in all of this? Let us know what you think, we’d love to hear your comments. Here are a few more great articles you should read on the topic.