Social media crisis checklist – 7 things to do

Social media has had a strong impact on communication between business and customer. In turn this influences the brand of an organisation.  An increase in communication channels, amplified velocity and quantity of information, and the immediacy of the content generates circumstances where companies will at some stage have to deal with a social media crisis.

And a social media crisis has the potential to create serious harm to any company, large or small. Having a crisis management plan in place as part of an organisation’s social media policy is the most fundamental part of managing any potential impact and permanent reputational damage.

The following checklist of what to do is simple to implement and can save your company a lot of damaging publicity.

Acknowledge and do it quickly

Once a company has determined that the complaint is genuine, it is important to respond. In the past, some companies have been accused of not responding quickly or not at all.  So it is important to acknowledge and respond even if you don’t have any answers.  Simply saying something like “we realise something has happened and we are following up to provide more information” may eliminate comments such as “are you listening?” or “do you know what has happened?” If the crisis was initiated on Twitter then respond on Twitter first and provide an expectation in terms of time wise when you will follow up with more information. Then stick to the timeline.

Listen

If you have a social media strategy in place, part of this will include a listening post where your company listens to what the audience is saying and responds. Social listening tools pick up chatter about your brand and what is being said. Having these set up can assist with preventing a crisis, however, if one does arise, it can certainly prevent an escalation into a full blown fiasco.

Be transparent

From the beginning of a crisis, it is critical for business to be up front and clear about the situation. Communicate the facts otherwise there is the risk of being seen as trying to cover something up.  If you are unsure of the details, only say what you know for sure.  Also, do not remove any posts or tweets that the company does not like, agree with or cast it in a negative light.  Doing so will leave you worse off and make you look like you have something to hide. Everyone makes mistakes including businesses.  Customers don’t expect perfection; however, they do expect honesty.

Apologise

If you have made a mistake, admit it, apologise, and do everything in your power to correct it. Simply saying the words “we are sorry” can eliminate so much negative anger. Customers are more likely to be sympathetic if you apologise and mean it.  Be genuine and don’t take your customers for granted.  On social media staged apologies come across as PR spin and are not likely to be taken kindly by your audience.  Learn from Fed-Ex and how they responded to a customer’s viral video.

Stay calm

Social media can easily make you lose your cool or respond in unproductive ways. During a crisis there will be many people who will be responding online with not so helpful comments.  Even if you disagree with what your customers are saying, don’t ever be rude, attack the customer or be unhelpful.  Don’t take things personally; customers are likely frustrated particularly if the same thing has happened to them.  Just do your best to support them and not react.

Take it offline

At some stage the conversation with the disgruntled customer needs to be taken offline. Know exactly when this is.  Social media crisis management is not about wining; it is about managing the risks with minimal impact to your brand. Once you believe you have determined the facts and what has happened share this with your community, thank the audience for their patience, apologise again and communicate that you are about to take the conversation offline with the customer.  This is crucial as you don’t want to continue the conversation in public.

Learn your lessons

Once the crisis settles down, it is essential that your company review the crisis – how did it start, what did the online comments say, was your website traffic effected, did your plan work effectively, was the correct procedure in place, do you need to do anything differently next time? Without this review you will be unable to determine the effectiveness of the social media crisis approach.  Your company needs to avoid the same issues coming up again.  Failure to learn and repeat the same mistakes will harm your brand because it will cement a pattern of behaviour for your company in the eyes of the public.

Everyone makes mistakes including companies. And you will never please everyone regardless of how the crisis is handled.  But being prepared, having a strong plan for action to address the negative backlash in a timely and genuine manner will support your business to manage its reputation.  Like most things in life it is not what happens that is important but how you respond – this is what will be remembered.  Make your response clear – that your business cares about their customers and that you go the extra mile.

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Tags: social Media • Social media crisis • social media crisis checklist • social media crisis management plan • Social Media Risks