There’s little doubt the rise of social media has had a huge impact on crisis media management.
Its power means that a small issue or one negative experience, which may have previously gone unnoticed and unreported, can spin out of control and quickly grow into a full grown reputation crisis. And perhaps unsurprisingly, studies have shown that anger travels much faster than any other emotion on social media.
News of bigger incidents now travels much faster than ever before and it is not uncommon for the public to ‘break’ a story through Twitter and Facebook.
Everyone with a smartphone and an internet connection now has the ability to be a citizen journalist and report from the scene of an incident, or air their organisation’s dirty laundry if they are not happy with the service they have received.
It has added an extra complexity to crisis media management, but it does not need to be as daunting as it sounds.
Here are our nine quick and dirty tips to using social media to help manage a crisis:
Monitor
If your organisation monitors social media effectively, then the social media manager is likely to become the first person to become aware of a crisis or an unexpected incident which has the potential to be a crisis.
The quicker an organisation becomes aware of a growing problem, the quicker it will be able to respond, giving it more chance to control the story.
There are of course tools and software out there to help with this monitoring so it’s important that these are utilised and appropriate triggers for keywords are set to help you monitor what is being said about your brand online.
Acknowledge
In the early stages of a crisis you are highly unlikely to know all the details of what has happened and what has gone wrong.
The good news is that your customers do not expect you to have all the answers at this stage. But they do want you to acknowledge something has gone wrong as soon as possible.
All too often corporate accounts opt for radio silence, failing to acknowledge anything has gone wrong until the issue has actually been resolved.
This not only means they have no control of the story, but it is also extremely unhelpful and uncaring to customers impacted by the issue.
Ideally, organisations need to be acknowledging an issue within about 15 minutes.
Turn off promotional posts
When an organisation becomes aware of a crisis, one of the first steps it should take is to cancel any scheduled promotional tweets, which may cause further embarrassment and reputation damage.
During the 2013 horsemeat scandal, Tesco forgot to cancel a tweet which said ‘It’s sleepy time so we’re off to hit the hay'. That post quickly went viral as the store was accused of ‘making light’ of the situation and it was forced to apologise.
Maybe a no on the horse jokes, guys RT @UKTesco It's sleepy time so we're off to hit the hay! See you at 8am for more #TescoTweets
— Sarah Rappaport (@SarahRapp) January 17, 2013
“@UKTesco: It's sleepy time so we're off to hit the hay! See you at 8am for more #TescoTweets” don't think you should be making horse jokes
— ems (@remilycharlotte) January 17, 2013
Timely updates
Organisations need to continue to provide information to customers throughout the duration of a crisis. They can’t just acknowledge the issue and then go quiet until it is resolved.
Regular updates which show what is being done to tackle the issue help add to the impression the matter is being taken seriously.
The best approach is to use your social media accounts to regularly drip feed information to customers (and journalists). One of the best examples of this approach was the way McCarran International Airport used Twitter when a fire broke out on a British Airways flight last year.
Journalists also love routine so if you let them know when and how to expect the next update and stick to your own deadline, then they will cut you some slack and you can reduce the number of incoming enquiries you’ll be receiving.
Create a crisis FAQ
As you gather more confirmed information about the crisis, create a frequently asked questions page on your website.
This will enable you to use a link in your response to some of the more detailed questions (particularly useful when you are responding on Twitter).
Be human
Social media posts you issue during a crisis need to show concern, compassion, honesty and empathy. Say sorry and mean it.
One of the clumsiest recent apologies was that issued by United Airlines when video footage emerged of a bloodied passenger being dragged from one of its flights. The only real concern shown in the unapologetic, jargon-riddled statement was for its reputation and it back fired horribly.
United CEO response to United Express Flight 3411. pic.twitter.com/rF5gNIvVd0
— United (@united) April 10, 2017
Often, organisations feel compelled to respond to everyone who tweets them about the incident. While the intention is admirable, with such large number of responses to post it can often make the organisation sound robotic and appear as if replies are simply being posted from ‘lines to take’.
When loyalty programme Nectar found itself facing an online backlash after announcing a new partnership, it responded with a rigid corporate line which it copied and pasted relentlessly. Continually pressing CTRL + C and Ctrl + V is no way to manage a social media storm.
If organisations do want to respond to as many tweeting customers as possible, they need to have a bigger range of replies and empower the social media team to respond more personally.
Take it offline
You are simply not going to be able to keep everybody happy when something has gone wrong and inevitably some customers will post multiple tweets or Facebook posts.
The key here is not to get involved in a protracted online conversation or argument. Ask them to send their contact details to you through a direct message or your email address so you can arrange for someone to give them a call to discuss the issues they are experiencing.
While I don’t have a specific example to link to here, I can tell you from my own experiences that this action has resulted in a dissenting voice going on to post something positive about the organisation.
But even if they persist, other customers will be able to see the extra effort you have made with that person.
Use the same channels as your customers
This is pretty simple stuff, but it is amazing how often this advice is not followed. If your customers are posting their concerns on Twitter, for example, that is where you need to be keeping them informed.
When WH Smith customers took to social media to complain after they started receiving emails containing the personal information of other customers, the first words from the retailer came in the form of a response to mounting press enquiries.
Of course, you cannot ignore media interest, but communicating with your customers needs to be treated with the same urgency and importance.
Ensure social media training is a key part of your induction and all staff have awareness level training
It is crucial all staff are aware of social media policies and they have an understanding of what they can and can’t post online.
Do they know what the escalation process is if they see a breaking story on social media? Should they state in their profile where they work and that their thoughts and comments are personal?
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