Mitigating Social Media Madness During a Crisis
*Cue dramatic Armageddon theme-song music.* We know it can feel like everything is coming to an end in the wake of a PR crisis, but that doesn’t mean your company’s social media reputation needs to fall apart. Whether it’s a guest complaint or a national headline blasting your company, social media has the power to fuel the flames of a crisis or stifle them altogether. When you have a carefully crafted social media plan in place, it can offer vital information to the public and give a much-needed positive voice to your company.
Here at Largemouth, we know a thing or two when it comes to mitigating the madness on social media for our local, regional and global consumer and B2B clients. Here are some helpful considerations to maintain your “cool” during a crisis:
- You’re only as good as your plan. Long before disaster strikes, you should already have a social media plan in place as part of your greater communications strategy. While you can’t predict when a crisis will happen, you can lessen reputation damage if you’ve already thought through relevant crisis scenarios for your company. How would your company handle these scenarios on social? Should you consider potential holding statements for your social channels?
- Establish crisis managers. Have a crisis management team in place that you trust to manage social media should a crisis come up. These people should know the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of your company and industry, and have quick access to your company’s social media passwords.
- Be transparent. If your company made a mistake, own it. Take responsibility as necessary and your customers will value your brand’s honesty.
- Respond thoughtfully and swiftly. Failure to listen to your social media followers or provide a quick response can reflect poorly on your brand. If possible, direct social follower questions to an email address or “customer feedback” form to help streamline a response and show your customers that you take them seriously.
- Whatever you do, don’t hit delete! Removing followers’ negative posts does not remove the problem, it only adds fuel to the fire. Instead of deleting comments, respond to the disgruntled follower as appropriate to show that you’ve acknowledged their feedback.
- Monitor, monitor, monitor! Whether the crisis happened offline or in the digital space, it’s a good practice to monitor your social channels to stay apprised of any potential negative chatter.
Largemouth has experience and expertise in crisis management, including on social media. Give us a ring if you’d like to chat more about what we can do to help your company manage potential PR and social media madness.
