Keeping abreast of social media: How Wired magazine turned crisis into outreach

What you’re seeing on the left is the cover of Wired’s latest edition. Wired might be glossy, but it’s not that kind of glossy: the magazine’s focus is technology and its effects on culture, economy and politics.

So why breasts on the November cover? That is precisely the question that Cindy Royal, an assistant professor at Texas State University and Wired subscriber, asked herself when she found this month’s issue in her mailbox.

So she decided to write an open letter to Wired in her blog, expressing her disappointment at the lack of photos of accomplished women in the field of technology on the magazine’s covers.

Beautifully written and complemented with thumbnails of the former covers of Wired that included women (albeit most of them in situations completely unrelated to any achievement in technology), her blog generated a whole lot of buzz, including, for example, 224 moderated comments.

The blog also caught the attention of Wired Editor Chris Anderson, who left a very thorough explanation for the cover in the blog’s comment section. But perhaps more importantly, he also asked for suggestions for future covers – in one stroke, both engaging the audience and shifting the conversation.

This example shows how keeping abreast of social media is fundamental for tackling any developing crisis as early as possible. The tech-savvy Anderson managed to turn a potentially damaging situation into outreach that not only placated, but also deepened the relationship with female consumers.