Crisis management on Facebook and Twitter: What to do?

How do people react to a service, product, humor, or emotion? Everyone reacts differently. In the business world, consumers tend to react more with the emergence of social media. Why?

Marketing, has evolved over time, making consumers contribute to businesses and express their opinions about products and services, publicly. Given this, maintaining your brand's reputation is crucial and it only takes only a tiny mistake to destroying your company image.

Companies today have no choice but to respond effectively. Ignoring public opinions online isn’t an option any more. Companies have to learn to not only communicate effectively in the social media age and to advertise their services, but to truly listen to the social conversation and respond in the way that align with both their brand and customer expectations.

Below are a few tips to manage crisis properly:

Companies in the past were not ready to handle complaints for poor customer service. Not replying was even worst. With the digital boom, companies cannot do so. Being there for your clients when they are unhappy is what it takes to maintain your credibility.

Listen to them. There are several social listening tools that companies can use to grab on the issue before it spreads out. Most brand mishaps can be avoided by simply holding on to the blabber before it spreads out.

2.  Acknowledge the Issue

Addressing the problem is key. We all studied and know that client is king, it’s good to inform them of where you went wrong and then handle the situation. Caring for others can save you big time! Showing empathy and care will in fact give you leverage. You could say something like “Yes, we do see something went wrong here".

3. Fight Crisis Fire with Crisis Water 

If the complain came on Twitter, respond and handle it on Twitter before you circulate it on other channels. Kellogg’s went wrong on this in 2012 when a social media crisis happened on Facebook and Kellogg’s responded with a YouTube video.

4. It’s not Bad to say Sorry

Never underestimate the power of saying, "sorry", when things go wrong. People will appreciate your honestly and humility.

5.  Learn from your mistakes 

After you handled the situation and managed to make the client happy again, it would be good to report this internally and learn from your mistakes! What you can do:

• Make copies of all tweets, status updates, blog comments, etc.
• Make copies of all emails

Address these questions:

• Where did the crisis break, and when?
• Where did it spread, and how?
• How did your internal notification work?
• How did your response protocol work?

 It is also great to try using other management strategies when it comes to handling a social crisis.

There you go! The social media crisis management tips which I hope you never need. If you’d like to put a customized crisis plan together for your company, let us know. We can help!