Are you a company or a brand? Are you online using social media to help grow your brand recognition, increase sales or retain customers? If your answer to any of these questions is yes, the next question is: Do you have a social media crisis communications plan?

You should. Don’t wait for a crisis to create a plan. If large companies like Applebee’s, which can afford agencies and advisors galore, can step into a massive social media shit-storm, then you as a small company can too. At SocialNicole, we have our own social media crisis communications plan that we utilize when managing our small business clients who have yet to create a plan of their own. Typically once a business faces a crisis, the company invests in creating a custom plan based on our plan as a model. Because they already invest in a professional management company, the company is safe with our guidance until they are ready to invest in their own plan. What are you doing to ensure your company is safe?

How to start to construct your own social media crisis communications plan:

1. Decide who is in the driver’s seat. 

You need one person who is in charge of all online postings during a crisis. This is the only person who should be posting. Have a process of where the response is coming from and who is actually posting them.

2. Establish the calm.

Create a company attitude that you will manage communications crises and not allow them to manage you. It’s important to balance the risks associated with moving and moving too slow to come up with an approach when a crisis happens.

3. Act quickly.

While creating a balanced approach, you want to move fast with creating your response. However, fast does not always mean that you respond fast, it means as a team you have a process in place to come up with your plan to move forward. You cannot afford to wait three days because of bureaucratic red tape.

4. Address the issue.

It’s impossible to identify every issue ahead of time, but developing a protocol of how you will handle issues is something you can do. Here are some guidelines for addressing negatives:

◦ Address reality — Deal with real facts. Social media makes it easy for people to reveal the truth as they see it. It’s important that you identify the issue behind the scenes and address what is really happening–trying to keep a charade online can collapse.

◦ Engage with critics — Traditional PR would say lay low until it blows over, but with social media and the internet this is rarely the option. We need to be prepared to engage with critics (online and offline). As long as we are facing reality, we will be able to do this effectively. Approach would be decided on a case-by-case basis.

◦ When to delete — Follow online community guidelines as part of decision-making process. If vulgar words are used, names of employees are used or inappropriate discussion is happening, deleting is an option. Remember not all channels allow an ability to “hide” or “delete.”

◦ When to respond — It’s OK to allow a comment to sit and not react immediately. If the person who posted the original comment or complaint does not continue to go on and on, assume you have some breathing room to address the issue.

 ◦ Solve, don’t cover up — You want to look for solutions to problems, not try to cover them up or hide them. It can be incredibly difficult to leave a negative post up on your social channel, especially when there is a nice delete button. But by leaving something negative it shows your company is transparent and you are offering solutions. The solution can be simple such as: “We hear you and will call you within the next xx minutes to discuss what happened and find a solution that works for you. Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention.”

5. Follow up.

Depending on the severity of a crisis will depend on follow up needed on a larger scale. Follow up may include:

◦ Employee notification – As a company do what you need to make your employees aware of the crisis and what do to if they are approached.

◦ Does the crisis or issue need to be addressed in a public forum such as a press release or blog post?

◦ Did you as a company solve the issue and hold true to your word?

These are just a few considerations for crafting a crisis communications plan. Each company’s response will be a little different, but the key is to have a plan in the first place. Do not wait until something goes wrong before you’re prepared for a social media crisis. Follow these steps to get started and let us know if you need help putting together a social media crisis management plan. Need help putting together a social media crisis communications plan? Contact us now!

We’ve all crossed our fingers it would never happen. We’ve watched others battle through it, secretly relieved it wasn’t us and hoping it never would be. You’ve always been so careful, never thinking it could ever happen to your company. But then it hits: a social media crisis. You make a costly mistake on Google+, tweet something you shouldn’t have, or post a brutal typo on Facebook. Customers have the power to react to your mistake instantaneously, and people tend to be harsher than ever when behind a keyboard. Things escalate quickly and soon you’ve got a social media crisis on your hands. So, what do you do?

Process

Just because you think a social media crisis has occurred doesn’t necessarily mean you have you react immediately. If you’re experiencing a true social media crisis, it’s crucial that you get all of the leaders in your company together to discuss an action plan. Don’t waste your first response on a hasty, ill-written apology tweet. Customers don’t want an obligatory apology, they require a genuine one. Take the time to think about how you want to respond so that your first response is up to the standards of angry customers. Most importantly, make sure your entire team has a deep and clear understanding of what actually happened and are fully prepared to answer questions about the situation. It is crucial that every single person involved is on the same page and is dedicated to responding in a genuine, yet uniform manner.

Responsibility

The public knows that everyone makes mistakes, even their favorite brands. Now is the time to stop, think, and take responsibility for your actions. This starts by taking responsible steps to show your company is concerned about the situation. Stop any automated posting until the issue is resolved. Respond to accusations and complaints individually and diversely – never copy and paste messaging. Read each and every message directed toward your company, no matter how painful it may be. Show that your brand is taking the issue seriously and that your motive for apologizing isn’t just because your reputation is in jeopardy, but because you’re legitimately sorry that it happened.

Response

When you’ve taken the time to process and decide your plan for navigating the social media crisis, respond clearly and genuinely. Be transparent. Be honest. And most importantly, be true to your brand. Don’t approach the situation defensively, but admit that a mistake has been made and that you’re both genuinely sorry that it happened and incredibly dedicated to making it right. By taking your time to respond and choosing to respond in the most responsible and dignified manner, customers will see that your company values integrity and that you’ll be dignified even amidst struggles. If your company can handle a social media crisis well, customers will slowly begin to trust you again, remembering that you stood out from the competition even in the worst of times. Photo credit

Social media was originally used by public relations professionals to monitor bad reviews from customers. However, social media has evolved from just monitoring bad reviews into a powerful way to engage and get immediate feedback from people from everywhere. It has become a tool used to moderate conversations between businesses and consumers. Though social media is an effective tool to market and promote your brand, it also allows for an easy and anonymous way for customers to send feedback. And not all customers will be satisfied with the product or service that your business provides, so not all customer feedback is going to be positive. But if you’re expecting some negative social media reviews, you can learn to be prepared to handle them with grace. Many businesses see negative reviews as a bad thing, but, if handled correctly, they can work in your favor. Take them as a form of feedback. The comments aren’t anything personal against you – they’re about your business. Choose not to see negative social media as a personal attack, but rather as a way to strengthen the weaknesses of your business. The worst way to handle this negative social media is to respond harshly to the customer. How you handle negative reviews speaks volumes about your business. Customers often will remember how you responded in stressful situations more than they’ll remember how you responded in your triumphs. For example, the Applebees meltdown in which an employee was fired for posting the receipt of a guest on Facebook received a tremendous amount of social media attention. However, due to an unprofessional response from the business many people now think poorly of Applebees. Applebees should have responded to this situation more appropriately. If Applebees had chosen to take the meltdown and negative social media in stride and respond with a dignified apology, their reputation may have gone unharmed. Whether you’re a business or an individual, the most significant thing to remember is that you are still a brand. Your social media reputation is a crucial component in maintaining a successful business or being recognized in the world of social media. What you say cannot be unsaid. Your response to negative social media can never be deleted. Be prepared to handle the negative attention by having a plan – a plan to accept the negativity, not take it personally, and use the criticism to better your business.