Many of us have heard about the mistakes companies, such as Dominos and United Airlines, have made around crisis control. However, there seems to be a dearth of information about how companies can use social media in the right way for damage control during a crisis.

In late January, I am moderating a panel on ’Damage Control in Social Media: Discussing Effective Strategies for Turning Negative into Positive. The discussion will center on how companies can react to and prevent negative outbreaks on social media platforms.

Specifically, I plan to ask the four panelists to share their perspective on the following:

• What are the three or four most important steps a company can take around social media to prepare for a crisis?
• Once a crisis has begun, what can an organization do to effectively respond using social media? What are the best practices around leveraging social media for damage control?
• What strategies can be used to stop the negative news outbreak?
• How can businesses turn negative news into a positive situation?
• After a crisis, what can a company do to evolve its plan to be more adept in the future?

• What are some suggestions for integrated communications (social media with traditional PR activity) to prevent or control negative news?
• What percentage of a social media expense budget should be allocated to online crisis management?

The expert panelists include:

1. Dolf Wittkamper, virtual worlds new business director with Philips Electronics;
2. Ellen Leanse, head of enterprise marketing communications at Google;
3. Robert de Haan, marketing director with Paypal Benelux; and
4. Mike Moran, chief strategist and author on social media marketing

Please let me know if you have other questions that youíd like me to pose to these individuals. In early February, I plan to write a follow-up post on this topic to share what I learn from executives with these companies.

The conference, called Enterprise Social 2.0: RIP or ROI, will take place on January 27 & 28, 2010 at the Dorint Hotel in Amsterdam. I am looking forward to the event and suspect it will be a lively and interesting two days with people in attendance from around the world.