Do You Know How To Prepare For A Social Media Crisis?

Being ready for a social media crisis is quite essential as one can strike at any given moment. The digital world will never stand still, which means that if disaster hits, and is not properly handled, it will soon be like a wildfire — quite difficult to contain.

Having the ability to identify what could possibly lead to a crisis is important if you would like to keep your brand‘s reputation safe. This also ensures that you maintain a positive and ongoing relationship with your consumers.

When a user heads to social media and posts a complaint or asks for assistance, your brand has a short space of time to respond. The beauty of having a tool such as a reaction list enables a brand to be notified of these types of comments immediately, prompting you to respond within seconds. Impressive! Thus, your brand will always be on top of the ball.

On Social Media Things Can Move Very Fast

Occasionally, it’s an Instagram post of an egg which is going inexplicably viral. However sometimes, it’s a PR crisis that seems to come out of nowhere.  Your best opportunity to make it through a social media crisis is to prepare ahead of time. Have a solid plan, a comprehensive list of key stakeholders and responsibilities, in addition to a clear chain of command. Of course, it’s even better if you are able to prevent a crisis before it begins.

Put Together A Social Media Policy

Make sure that you have a documented social media policy. When you have crystal clear guidelines for your employees on what they should be posting – and what to never even contemplate posting – you lower the risk of someone going rogue and then sending your social media profiles into a tailspin.

Make Use Of A Strategic Social Media Insights System

Having access to a service which keeps its eyes and ears on the ground at all times means you don’t have to. This is essential for any brand – whether they are active on social media or not.

Not all brands have a social media presence however that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t make use of a tool that helps monitoring online mentions. Having a tool that will still notify your brand when being mentioned online will help you to keep track of any mentions that could potentially lead to a crisis.

Having a strategic social media insights system will allow you to be notified whenever a certain keyword was used or if an author or influencer mentioned your brand. The same goes for when a person posts a comment on your social media posts that has negative sentiment. You will then gain a notification informing you to jump on the situation ASAP.

Secure Your Social Media Accounts

Weak passwords – and other social media security risks – could very quickly expose your brand to a social media crisis. In fact, employees are far more likely to cause a cyber security crisis than hackers are.

The more individuals who know your social media account passwords, the more chances that there are for a security breach. Don’t share passwords among the different members of your team who require access to your social accounts.

Centralizing access allows you to revoke access for employees who leave the organisation or move to a role which no longer requires them to post on social.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

If you would like to discover additional information about social media marketing then you need to do our Social Media Marketing Course. Follow this link to find out more.