Don’t be scared, be prepared – Managing Social Media Crisis

Howdy, hope you’ve been well. Personally, I have been good, I can’t complain

Most of us, have social media accounts and use various platforms present to communicate, share, entertain, learn, seek resolution to our queries plus so much more. Over the years, social media has grown from just being a platform for us to connect and engage with friends and family into one that brands can use to connect and engage with its audience.

As we speak, most businesses regardless of size have a presence on social media. While your brand being on social media has its advantages, it can also be the pin the bursts your brand’s bubble. When all hell breaks loose and people are attacking your brand on social media, what are you supposed to do?

Today I would like to share with you the 3 key pillars of managing social media crisis

Halt normalcy

Start by halting all scheduled posts prior to the crisis. This way your brand doesn’t come off to the public as arrogant or playing pretend. Continuing with scheduled post is as good as giving a gun to your enemy to shoot you. This is because trolls will use your posts to leave provocative comments.

Acknowledgement

Acknowledge the issue but don’t commit to responding to questions yet. You can do this in form of a post. Whether you disagree with the allegations or you are not sure of the facts pertaining to the issue, you can always let the general public know that yes you are aware of abc… but the issue is under investigation and you’ll keep them posted once the facts are clear.

Communicate

After you’ve gathered all the facts internally in relation to the issue and have agreed on the response you want to give your audience, you can start responding to questions. Use visuals and graphics along with words to signal a change in standard operating procedure. As you respond to individual comments, give definitive responses, that way you protect yourself from a never-ending tit for tat conversation with one person yet your comment section and DMs are overflowing. Don’t forget to loop in your staff managing other communication outlets so that in case a customer asks, they are in a position to answer with the right information

Once the storm is over, you can now resume business as usual on your social media pages. Just like any other form of crisis, remember to keep calm and try not to panic. Bad press on social media can spread like wildfire but hey, that’s when your crisis communication plan comes in.

These are just but a few red flags indicative of fraud that a merchant should pay attention to. Remember that as you It’s always a pleasure touching base with you, till next time. Adios!