SOCIAL MEDIA CRISIS IN YOUR COMPANY

There’s a lot more to social media marketing than liking & putting up pictures once or twice a week. Having a social media presence for your company is crucial to business and brand in this decade, whether it’s selling products or services to friends, strangers or businesses. But one obnoxious insert, picture or comment can make for disaster.

Social media crisis management is a crucial competence in a company that is present online.

access to information creates limitless opportunities for brands to develop their marketing strategies, it increases potential negative outcomes of corporate wrongdoings and social outrage. Information, especially negative one, spreads in the Internet so swiftly and broadly, that it is sometimes extremely hard to control. 

Negative Comments On The Internet

There are few reasons why it comes much easier to social media users to remark negatively on distinct topics online, even if they do not concern them directly.

First of all, the Internet gives its users a sort of anonymity. Although they publish most of data about themselves on their social media profiles (name, workplace, friends, etc.), they feel more confident in expressing their opinion. The truth is that most of hating comments would not have place in the offline world.

Secondly, people in social media feel bound to blow a whistle on a company that acts fraudulently or cause harm to a third party. This obligation is related to people’s natural honesty and the need for truth-telling. They do want to report and warn other consumers about worrying issues as they would expect the same in a situation when they lack information.

Thirdly, negative news spreads much faster. Need an example? Watch news broadcast or read a newspaper. The vast majority of news is about unfortunate accidents and scare stories.

Crisis on the Horizon

The easiest and most obvious way to do this is to track mentions about your brand online. You should be up-to-date with information that people share about you. And it is not only about posts or tweets in which someone tags you. When you run a business and your brand is present online, you should think about social media monitoring tools. Why is it so important? Thanks to monitoring solutions, chances that you miss a critical situation decreases to minimum. 

What to do next?

Once you find a negative opinion, you should be prepared properly to fix brand image and reduce negative outcomes. The best solution usually is to react immediately to avoid spreading outrage in social media. The most often, one simple response will help you to prevent a storm and reduce costs of brand image repair. Especially when the reach of such comment is not very wide.

Crisis Escalation

Corporate wrongdoings do not restrict to consumer dissatisfaction only. Sometimes the problems grow much bigger that simple explanation would not be enough to defuse crisis.

Social Media Crisis Management

When social media users are indignant at something you cannot stop them from speaking. If they want to express emotions online, they will. Deleting their comments will not do any good. When the outrage is on a grand scale don’t try to pretend that nothing has happened. Firstly, let your audience wreak their anger, you cannot hold them off. Give them the time and space to speak and cool off. It is the time for you to consider your strategy and prepare explanation. When the largest wave of outrage comes, you should not write volubly about the situation. Let your audience know that you are aware of the problem, take the responsibility and apologize, but do not make on-the-spot decisions. There will be a time for the whys and wherefores later, after the storm blows itself out.

Compensation

How can you compensate for an inconvenience to the aggrieved? It all depends on who is the aggrieved. When a crisis concerns a harm to the environment, compensation should include some added value for the natural environment, for example by donating some organizations. When you want to make it up to a dissatisfied customer, you should give him or her a free product.

To sum up, there are no problems that cannot be solved, you just need a proper tools and resources. Brand reputation is a fragile element of your brand image. It can be harmed in a matter of minutes, but rebuilding it might takes days, months or even years. Therefore, keep in mind the tips and be reasonable and alert when fighting a social media crisis.