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Written By: Kylie Elliot Twitter: @kylieelliot143 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylie-elliot-3a407b100
In this day and age, social media is used on an everyday basis for most people. People go online to get all of their information whether it be world news, information from companies they follow or just updates from friends. So how can a company or brand use social media to their advantage when a crisis happens? Most likely the people who check social media every day will find out about the crisis almost immediately so it is important to respond quickly and properly on social media to a crisis to make sure it is resolved. A company’s reputation on social media is important because social media allows consumer opinion on a company or action to spread quickly and efficiently. Without monitoring reputation on social media, a company can be at huge risk (find out more here). Social media allows any person with an account to be a major influencer in their community so one bad experience could be told to hundreds of thousands of people. Users on social media can also like or reshare posts that they agree with, which makes any issue spread even faster. When they like or reshare these posts these people become a part of the invisible audience, which is the hardest thing for a company to combat because they do not know what audience they are dealing with.
The first step in managing a crisis is to always be monitoring your company’s name on any social media site that your company may have. Here is a List of the Eight Things that you should be monitoring at all times on social media. You can use a site like Hootsuite to monitor all of your accounts and mentions and even certain hashtags that are relevant to your company.
Once a crisis actually occurs it is important to act fast. Anger and frustration escalate very quickly through social media and can very quickly turn into mass outrage. Social media gives companies the ability to not only acknowledge the problem but to do it quickly, which is something that companies must do in a crisis situation. A company in this situation does not have time to prepare a press release right away, so the best thing they can do is get out a post as quickly as possible that recognizes that there is a problem and tell their customers that there is more information on the issue coming soon.
The most important part of crisis communication is to make sure that your customers feel heard and not ignored. If you decide to reply directly to people keep it short and avoid going back and forth with the person. After an original response offer a phone number or some other form of communication outside social media where the customers can lodge a complaint. After the crisis has passed hold a meeting with your team or company and talk about what strategies worked and didn’t work and how you can improve if another crisis occurs.
