Social media crises are unpredictable and they happen when you lease expect them. The only way to successfully overcome social media crisis are to be in a state of readiness at all times.
Social crisis can happen during weekends when you may be offline. It can happen on a Monday morning when you are frantically beginning the week’s work. Social media crisis can happen when your network is down. In short, social media crisis can happen on any day and at any time.
Here are seven top tips for dealing with a Social Media crisis online:
- Remember a social media crisis is one that is handled well and converted into an advantage instead of messing up and turning it into an even bigger nightmare that it started out as. That’s your goal. Never press a panic button when a social media crisis occurs but maintain your cool.
- You must be constantly watchful and practice the art of listening before jumping to conclusions. Make it a point to listen, both within your team, and towards your existing and prospective customers. Each person is different and unique. Handle each case as befits the occasion bearing in mind the nature of complaint and the complainant.
- Evolve and put in place a plan that your whole team understands, uses, and effectively tackles. Assign separate responsibilities to each of your team members and let it be clear who does what and how and when. Empower your team members to offer discount coupons, money back and do not tolerate any delay in taking action.
- There should be a support tem to check on all follow-up action. If you promise to resolve an issue and hand it to a different team to deal with the specific request, they must unfailingly do it. Your job is not complete till the support team advises you that appropriate action has been taken and the customer/complainant is fully satisfied. A social media crisis can be deftly handled if you involve the right people.
- Different types of people require different types of responses. If you find some disinformation about your company on the social media, contact the person concerned and politely ask him/her to delete the negative remarks. Studies show tat more than 80% of people are willing to admit the mistake and withdraw the remarks. They may even eventually become your cheerleaders.
- Just like any crisis in a real-life relationship, a social media crisis is best handled personally with a human touch. Remember your brand reputation has taken you years of painstaking efforts and you have to therefore defend it zealously. Remember that bad reviews travel faster and further than good reviews. The golden rule is never ever ignore or neglect bad reviews – instead take the problem head on and solve it ten and there.
- There may be some mischief mongers, unscrupulous competitors and some disgruntled elements that may post deliberately defamatory comments to malign your business. If the complaint is not authentic and you become aware that somebody is planning to ruin your brand image, do not hesitate to take legal action. But if a complainant is genuinely angry or upset over an issue, offer an apology publicly.