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A social media crisis is an unexpected event that results in an extraordinarily high volume of negative conversation about the brand in a short time period. There are different types of crises. Some of them can be prepared for or addressed early. Others will spring up out of the blue with little or no warning.
So, what are the indicators of a social media crisis?
A crisis flowchart is essential in providing a systematic approach as to how different crisis situations should be dealt with. It specifies which person in the organization should be contacted in different crisis scenarios. This can help to provide consistency among customer service teams.
It is important to implement clear guidelines explaining which types of messages agents can respond to and which require crisis escalation procedures. Furthermore, it is important to conduct quarterly simulations and drills as part of crisis preparation. You need to be ready to act if and when you face a crisis. As Benjamin Franklin famously said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
An effective crisis management plan can be developed by following these tips:
Social media can act as an early warning system of a crisis for the organization, when properly monitored.
To reduce the risk of a social media crisis:
To deal with a crisis effectively, you first need to determine the type of crisis you are dealing with. Then use the following techniques:
A post-crisis review is important to evaluate the performance of your crisis management plan and make refinements where necessary.
A formal analysis of what was done right, what was done wrong, what could be done better next time, and how to improve various elements of crisis preparedness is another must-do activity for any crisis communications team.
Furthermore, it is important to retain a record of all communications surrounding the crisis, external and internal, in order to perform analysis toward improving crisis management procedures, as well as to facilitate any subsequent legal activity or audit.
Back to TopChristian Polman is a General Manager at Eone, Europe. He has driven digital marketing strategy through analytics and research to solve strategic and operating challenges and develop business plans for Fortune 100 brands.
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ABOUT THIS DIGITAL MARKETING MODULE
This module introduces the concept of social customer service and highlights the social channels that are most often leveraged for this activity. It provides you with best practices you can follow to create and implement a robust social customer service strategy – and to manage it effectively. It also provides best practices for measuring customer satisfaction with the social customer service they receive, and for training social customer service agents. Finally, you learn how to build, grow, and maintain online support communities.