What can we say about Siemens’ social media trouble in this year? Many nitizens already gave their answers and voted this for one of worst PR event in this year.

Let’s take a look back of what happened after National Holiday.

After long-time silence, Siemens finally made their further move on the matter (I’m right, Siemens PR must have been crazy in developing the action plan: conference call with global, internal discussion with high executives and most importantly, key messaging development.)

So, on October 14, Siemens China PR agency – Bluefocus called Luo Yonghao. They discussed about the key points of statement for all consumers. In the phone talk, the agency person talked in good polite and showed his respect for Luo Yonghao. And Luo Yonghao also suggested his viewpoints specifically. Luo Yonghao said, actually, the problem should be a good opportunity for Siemens to further consolidate its branding in China, on the controversy, turned to be a crisis. (He’s right! And I think the PR agency man also knew that)

After the phone talk, the agency developed a statement and texted all contents to Luo Yonghao for his approval. In return, Luo gave his revisions. Then, there was no feedback from the agency.

At 11pm, Luo Yonghao posted the statement which he commands for on his Sina microblog.

At 3am on October 15, Siemens China posted its official statement on Sina microblog. However, there were several wording changes in this version compared with the one agreed with Luo Yonghao previously. Changes including:
1. Change “critics and suggestions” into “suggestions”
2. Change “the product problem in some product type and production assembly” into “not-easy-to-close door problems of some customers’ fridge”
3. Change “free service for on-site maintenance” into “free onsite service”

Now, netizens became furious about Siemens’ statement and criticized its shabby wording trick. With most netizens showed their support of Luo Yonghao, there was also some kind of comments emerging being supportive of Siemens. However, soon, netizens found these comments were manipulated from Siemens PR agency!

How can we know all these in details? ‘Cause Luo Yonghao posted all communication materials from the start. So, we all heard the telephone recording between him and the PR agency, their text messaging, drafted statement, final statement and fake comments…