Reputation is the most important thing in every sphere of life. It takes years to create a good reputation but it only takes a mistake to cause irrevocable damage to it. Talking about the digital world the problem becomes acute, one wrong message and your reputation are tarnished.
Social Media crisis can occur anytime, it could be due to a faulty product, or any provocative comment, or any social post that hurts public sentiments. So, looking at the criticality of the problem, it becomes mandatory for every business to have a Social Media Crisis Management Plan, in order to safeguard their reputation.
Social media Management plan can be divided into two parts:
Preventing Social Media Crisis
As we all know “Prevention is Better than Cure”, so is always advised to take preventive actions before its too late. Social media crisis badly affects the reputation of the organization. Thus, following preventive measures could be taken to avoid crisis:-
Keep a Hawk-eye
You need to be a good listener to be aware of the happenings of the social media. For that social media listening tool is required that gives you real-time updates and helps to draw conclusions by analyzing data. With the help of such a tool you can know about all social media occurrences, and thus you can get a hint if the crisis is about to occur. And thus aids you in taking corrective measures.
Crisis Definition
The crisis is a catastrophic problem that could affect the goodwill of the company. Thus, defining the crisis becomes the most important part of the management plan. Any negative comment about the product on the social media doesn’t count as a crisis. Instead, a crisis can be classified as follows:
- Lack of knowledge – The first sign of social media crisis is that the officials are not completely aware of the problem. They know only as much as the public know, they have no extra information about the issue.
- Destructive criticism – Any negative tweet about your product, or some negative comments are not classified as a crisis. Acute crisis situation occurs when there is an outrage against you on social media. This is the second sign of crisis.
- Company reputation on a stake – The Note 7 blast event, tarnished the reputation of Samsung. A problem like this is described as critical. It has a negative effect on company’s reputation
Managing Social Media Crisis
Once the crisis has occurred, one cannot take preventive measures anymore. Strict action is to be taken to fight the crisis situation. Following are the management strategy:
Confront the people on Social Media
The problem that has started on social media must be dealt with on social media itself. The same social media channel must be used to solve the problem, which at first created it. For example, if the criticism started on Facebook, the solution must also be on Facebook.
Acceptance
Take full responsibility for the problem, and assure that it will be fixed shortly.
Apologize
Never refrain from apologizing. If you say sorry and pledge to fix the damage, people might forgive you.
Creating Crisis Web Page
Instead to answering to each and every query, create a web page containing all the details of the crisis. And whenever someone asks about it just give them the link. This will save your time.
Concentrate the traffic on a single social media channel
It is difficult to answer the people on different channels at the same time. So try to gather the crowd on one particular social media platform and address their problem there. This will help track the crisis situation and also alerts you about any new crisis that could come up.
Restrain oneself
Never indulge in an argument on social media. This will worsen the situation. You must keep your calm and handle the situation wisely.
Keep everyone informed
Every employee of the organization must be informed about the crisis.
Post-crisis evaluation
Perform a detailed review of the crisis and keep the copies of all the social post, tweets, and emails for future references. Create a detailed report of the issue, identify the cause, and form an effective crisis management strategy to deal with any crisis in future.
The Bottom Line
In conclusion, we can say, stay updated and careful while using social media. Follow the social crisis management strategy to deal with any of the crisis situations.