How To Avoid Crisis Using Social Media?
The reach of social media in todays modern world is unparalleled
. The social media can tarnish the image of any organization within seconds if the complaints are not dealt properly by the organization. Interactions between the organization and the customer over social media are equivalently important as the face to face conversations.
An angry person rattled by any service or product of an organization can go fuming on the social media if the complaint or problem is not given due attention by the organization. Such agitated comments if passed on by sharing them on other social media sites can spread a great extent of negativity about the organization in the market. So such repercussions must be avoided and their sources must be stemmed at the origin itself by dealing with the problem as efficiently as problem and giving it the importance it deserves.
Cinnabon company used social media to counter a complaint by Mr. Jordan Paul who had complained on social media site Twitter about finding a sharp piece of plastic inside. The company apologized immediately on twitter and owed up the responsibility. It also provided space for Mr. Paul to give details of the complaint online which was taken up by the company for further steps to be taken. It avoided the matter from turning into worse from bad.
Similarly AAA (American Automobile Association) Tipsy Tow Service for New Years Eve and a phone number to call advertisement on Facebook, claiming to be open for everyone in South Dakota, Nevada, Utah, Georgia, Tennessee, Phoenix and Oklahoma on New years eve eventually turned out to be false as it was not circulated by the AAAs Facebook page. It landed the brand AAA in trouble. A number of calls went to its help line number. It did make a lot of people go angry over the AAA.
An open eye on such false news being published should be curbed and monitored continuously. Organizations and their PR teams must implement steps to tackle such crises. It can be done in a number of ways. Some of them are as follows:
Prepare a social media response flowchart
Prepare a flowchart or a series of sequential steps which should be followed in case of a crisis. An easy to understand, easily accessible response plan can help ensure that when a crisis happens, the company responds as one voice instead of as many voices who are perhaps not communicating the same message to avoid confusion and chaos.
React fast to a problem
Late responses in social media means that the organization does not find social media interactions to hold much importance or they do not listen in social media sites. Fast responses and apologies to problems can reduce the bad publicity upto a great extent as customer feels happy on getting his voice heard.
Review and Plan Ahead
Start with the basics and review all potential issues or crises addressed in PR crisis communications plan and endeavor to create social media responses and content around each one. Plan for crises because they are very likely to happen because of vulnerabilities associated in business. Run fire drills from time to time to be proactive.
Use social media sites
FACEBOOK
Today Facebook is synonymous to having a face to face conversation. So in times of a crisis, create a statement addressing the overall concern(s) and any change of policy that you are going to implement as a result and post this on your home page at regular intervals. Create a landing page on Facebook that contains this statement and direct other online traffic to this landing page. This will help ensure that first views of your Facebook page during a crisis are met with this statement and not a lot of angry wall comments, leaving viewers to draw their own conclusions. Also explain the solution that you are going to use to solve the problem.
Google +
The importance of Google cannot be questioned today. A brand page on Google+ will keep you posted about what is being circulated about the organization and you can put out your employees on google circles to answer the questions that arise.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a very important social communication and networking hub for any business. A number of its own staff may be active on it. A number of people use it to circulate their opinions, grievances about any business. It must be monitored efficiently by your organization to know about any such opinion or complaint being circulated. In times of a crisis, it can be used as efficient tool for solving the problem. If something happens, quickly locate your employees who are the most active on LinkedIn and recruit their help. With large follower bases and probably a fair amount of group participation, those members of your team not only need to know about the crisis, they can help significantly when it comes to dealing with it online. A statement can be prepared by the company and published on such sites where not only the company but also the company staff is active (like HR team groups, business development groups, industry-specific groups, alumni groups etc).
Twitter
Tweet is a very short but a powerful mode of communication in time of adversities. Immediately create Twitter content that speaks to the issues and link it to the Facebook landing page youve created. Dont ignore Twitter users; treat them if you were dealing with people in a face-to-face situation. This channel can be one of the very quickest ways of calming an unruly crowd in the face of a crisis. Apologizing and making people realize that the organization is aware of the situation and is looking to solve the issue can be done by putting up the problem related content.
Youtube
Videos featuring the CEO or other company representative discussing the situation can be posted on the company YouTube channel. You can then also use that video in press releases, blog posts and on social media sites in order to shore up the brand response to the crisis.
Such methods can definitely help a business to avoid crisis and manage one efficiently if it arises.
by: Lara Carter
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