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Marta Sánchez, a reputation crisis that began on Twitter. Until then, Marta Sánchez had high popularity ratings and her reputation was virtually intact. She comes from a family of artists, recognised in the world of opera and with an established career.

A few days ago, the controversy erupted on Twitter with a tweet from Marta: “A crisis is not solved by screwing others over, but by working”… On July 19, 2012, the singer of ‘Soy yo’ was driving along Serrano Street in Madrid when a group of protesters blocked her way, hit her car and broke her wing mirror, forcing her to drive “at about two per hour” and hide in another street. That same afternoon, many users claimed that Marta Sánchez had called the protesters “sons of bitches” while trying to run them over with her vehicle.

In any case, even after explaining the incident in great detail, the story became a trending topic on Twitter. Marta has received threats and has read tweets calling her a fascist, lazy, unintelligent…

It escalated so much that on July 24 Marta apologised in a statement written by herself:

I respect citizens’ right to demonstrate in defence of any just cause, from any sector, whether public or private, and of course that of civil servants, the group to which my father belonged for more than 30 years. I am very sensitive to the current situation. I belong to the world of music, a sector that has been in crisis for years. I apologise if my words were unfortunate and may have caused upset. I hope everything is clarified and that no further controversy is created about it.

At present, the storm is passing and Marta’s profile is returning to normal, but a stain remains on her online professional career, as in the cases of:

• Andreu Buenafuente (also well known and highly regarded until now)
• David Bisbal
• Jordi González and many others who have seen their careers shake for a few agonising days.

Recommendations for online crisis situations (PAS TECHNIQUE)

1. PREVENT
   1. Is it a crisis? Is it an issue? Is it better to respond? Is silence better?
   2. Identify the Crisis 2.0 teams and protocols
2. ALERT
   1. Action protocols in crisis situations
   2. Contacts to identify (legal, communications, heavy users, brand fanatics, journalists, Judases)… identified and in contact
3. ASSIST
   1. Communication texts identified (press releases, social media statements)
   2. Enable specific FAQs (internal and external)
   3. Execution of the strategy set out in the previous protocol and specific to each situation