How to manage a social media crisis

iframe>

The worst times to start planning for a social media crisis are when you're in the middle of a crisis. Click to Tweet

The worst time to start planning for a crisis is when you are in the middle of a crisis. Pre-crisis planning is key to successful social media crisis mitigation. This is rescue mode, and has three elements.

1. Buy some binoculars – Set up a listening program

It's hard to deal with a social media crisis that you can't find. You can best monitor conversations and prevent crises with a listening tool on social media but you can also track the talk by setting up keyword searches and Google Alerts.

Technology is only as good as its operators. You must have a listening protocol in place in your organization. Who is listening to society? When are they listening? What are they listening for? Who is in charge of evenings and weekends?

2. Know What Is And What Is A Crisis

Someone sending a malicious tweet or two about your company is not a crisis. When the mass of public outcry begins to accelerate like a rock falling down a mountain before your company has a chance to rally the people who lost their jobs, it's time to trigger crisis mode. .

When defining a crisis, here are three things to watch for:

A social media crisis is a decisive shift from the norm.

Nike and Chick -Fil-A are frequently criticized for their corporate ethics; however, the social media talk about it is still ongoing and to be expected. It is not a crisis. When a markedly different stream of criticism occurs, it's the first sign of a social media crisis.

A social media crisis has the potential to severely affect an entire company.

Someone tweeting about Subway putting mustard in his or her sandwich isn't a crisis. The consistent reports of food poisoning from Subway are. Scope and scale are the second markers of the social media crisis.

A social media crisis can affect many companies indirectly.

When weather events occur or breaking news occurs, companies are forced to respond to a crisis situation in which they were not present. Having a plan in place allows them to be ready to respond when the moments really matter. When companies don't know much more than the public about what's going on, that's information asymmetry — the third sign of a social media crisis.

3. Use Internal Alerts and Response Flowcharts

Not all crises have the same response teams. The more serious the problem, the more senior the respondent.

Create a crisis map that specifies who in your organization should be contacted in different situations.

Make sure your social media and customer service staff stay detailed, up-to-date, with contact information (including home phone) for all executives.

This is also where – depending on the size and complexity of your organization – you may want to work with legislation to map out some pre-approved processes and notices. Crisis and firefighting role-playing drills are also particularly helpful.

You have completed your lifeguard training. Now, what happens when a crisis hits?

Here are 9 steps to successfully managing a social media crisis.

1. Pause all outgoing messages

If there is even a sign of a public crisis or storm, immediately pause all scheduled content queued for posting to your social media channels. Notify any social care representative to switch to supervision-only mode. This can thwart their attempts to bluff before the company is ready to issue a statement.

2. Admit a problem

Your first answer should always be “yes, we noticed something happened” even if you have NO answers. This will stop the wave of “hello company, did you know?” and give the response team a chance to trigger and gather information.

Respond where the crisis first occurred. If it started on Facebook, post your first response on Facebook, then locate the next.

3. Create a Crisis FAQ Page

Locate the focal point for all crisis communications.

Create a landing page or mini-page on the website, or designate a single social media channel and put all the crisis information in one place. This allows you to answer questions with a link instead of an answer. This saves time and avoids misinterpreting your answers (especially on Twitter).

Updated all biolinks to point to the Crisis FAQ.

This Frequently asked questions about the crisis should include:

Crisis announcement

Details of the event

Photo and/or video, if available

How did the company find out?

Who was alerted when and how?

Specific actions taken in response

Actual or potential effect

Steps to take to prevent future problems

Contact information for real people at the company

It's proba bly needless to say, but speed is what matters.

What we ask our customers here at Convince & Convert simple but difficult. “Can you get live video from your CEO within 4 hours, any time of day or night, from anywhere in the world?” If the answer is no, you are not fully prepared.

4. Start responding on social media

Once the information is gathered and a FAQ center in the designated hub, it's time to roll up your sleeves and let everyone know you're a long way off. Publish to all active social media accounts a defined post:

Situation Summary

An immediate call to action

Link to FAQ hub for more updates

Relevant hashtags to help spread the word

Safety tips or checklists, if applicable

Estimated time of interruption or event

Use premium posts or amplification if necessary to reach specific audiences as soon as possible. Choose either limited duration or enhanced ads to reach the maximum number of people in the shortest time possible.

As the crisis continues, update the posts together on social media.

Use Twitter threads to connect new posts with old ones, and use hashtags consistently to spread the message widely. Update existing posts (top-down) rather than creating new ones on Facebook. Use Instagram Stories instead of the main feed to show progress over time.

5. Use Notification Visuals

Use pictures and graphics along with words to signal a change in standard operating procedures. These images can be deployed on social media accounts as a secondary way to inform the audience. The display name on Twitter and Instagram is easy to change. The same goes for avatars and cover photos.

When tragedy struck a Southwest Airlines flight after an engine explosion, @ SouthwestAir updated all social media profile pictures to simple white or gray icons. It was a strong suggestion; a job done in relative silence.

6. Build a pressure relief valve

This might be counter-intuitive, but you WANT people to blow off steam on a venue you control.

Whether it's a Facebook page, blog, forum, or the comments section of the Crisis Microsie website, you want to build your account. There are four benefits to this approach:

It allows you to keep more of your crisis conversations in a single location, making them easier to track.

It is an early warning detection system for new aspects of the crisis.

It gives your customers an official place to protect you (sometimes).

When your field is the ring of conversational boxing, you set the rules.

If you don't proactively provide a pressure relief valve, claimants will create their own, giving you no claim or control over anything.

In recognition of their merits, Penn State University used their Facebook wall as a pressure relief valve during the height of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, allowing hundreds of angry comments to be posted. However, since it's on their Facebook page, they can view, find, moderate (if needed) and reply back. Clever.

7. Remember the Rule of Two

Social media crisis management is not about winning, but about controlling damage. Some people will be so angry that you won't be able to convince them of anything. . Crisis management is a spectator sport.

Hug your Haters The rule of two responses is to only reply twice, publicly. Give the stirrer two reactions, but no more. This proves to anyone watching that you've tried to engage in a productive, constructive way, but also know when to walk away.

Move potentially resolved conversations to an offline channel (direct message, email, phone) after the second response.

8. Arm Your Army

We know where people work because it's listed on their Facebook and Linkedin profiles. If you wanted more information on the Southwest Airlines crisis, would you call their corporate communications department and wait, or you would go to Linkedin and find ANYONE at Southwest with whom you have a connection. Bingo!

Call and wait centers are for the bad guys, and every employee is a potential spokesperson. That is why it is imperative that you notify ALL employees of the crisis.

Whether it's email, text message, internal blog, Slack, or similar, you have to keep your employees informed at least to the public.

9. Learn your lesson

After the crisis subsides, and you've dried your tears on your laptop, restructure and restructure the crisis.

Record every aspect:

Make copies of all tweets, status updates, blog comments, etc.

Copy all emails

Analyze website traffic patterns

Analyze search volume patterns

When and where did the crisis break out? Where and how did it spread?

How does your internal notification work?

How does your response protocol work?

Do specific customers object to your protection? (thanks them!)

Are your employees notified?

How does the online crisis interfere with offline coverage (if any)?

You have it. The social media crisis management book I hope you never need. If you want to work together to create a customized crisis plan for your company, let us know. We can help.