Social media offers boundless marketing and PR opportunities.
However, social media platforms can also be quite a dangerous arena for
brands. It can get ugly—fast. Today, one negative comment can snowball into
a full-blown PR crisis. Your marketing and branding strategy can unravel in
just a few hours.
When a PR crisis hits, confusion, chaos and negativity can quickly disrupt
your business and harm your image. However, a bit of strategic preparation
can help you extinguish the fire before it spreads. It’s often possible to
turn a crisis into a PR success—if you act swiftly and smartly.
Here are three tips to survive a social media flare-up:
1. Address the issue clearly and quickly.
The first step is to identify exactly where and how the crisis originated.
One easy way to spot a brewing social media firestorm is to set keyword
alerts to look for conversations with negative context or intent. Try
adding different keywords that frequently appear in negative comments.
[FREE GUIDE: 13 tips to prepare for a crisis]
Once you have identified the issue and verified the authenticity of the
complaint, take steps to address it directly and clearly.
United Airlines rightfully came under fire this year after a passenger was
dragged off an overbooked flight. After a disturbing video of the incident
went viral, Oscar Munoz, United’s CEO, apologized on Twitter.
Unfortunately, his apology came too late, and his message just made matters
worse.
Instead of apologizing for humiliating the passenger, Munoz apologized for
the inconvenience caused to other passengers. Munoz had to apologize again,
and United ended up suffering perhaps the worst PR debacle of 2017.
The situation spiraled out of control because United failed to grasp the
gravity of the situation. The company did not initially address the issue
quickly or clearly, which prolonged the blowback and extended the negative
coverage.
2. Jump into the conversation.
Instead of trying to make negative conversations disappear, enter the fray.
Try to turn the narrative in your favor.
GitLab, a startup hosting service, stumbled into a major PR embarrassment
when an employee accidentally deleted client data from its server. All
attempts to restore the data failed. As a result, the company lost six
hours’ worth of client work.
Fortunately, the GitLab team had a smart crisis management plan in place.
The company quickly informed clients of the crisis—before social media
started flooding with negative tweets and complaints. GitLab communicators
provided a detailed account of what happened and how they planned to fix
the problem.
There was no sign of getting the issue fixed in a timely manner, so GitLab
staff roped in the coding and tech community for help. GitLab shared a
Google Doc with live notes and live YouTube video streams, which garnered
widespread participation and engagement. This strategy turned GitLab’s
crisis into an enticing challenge for fellow community members to solve.
GitLab even published a blog post explaining what happened to the developer
responsible for the crisis, who became known as “team-member-1” on social
media.
By taking control of the conversation from the get-go—and tapping into the
power of community-based teamwork—GitLab defused what could have been
ruinous situation.
3. Communicate with internal stakeholders.
Of course, you must communicate with external stakeholders when a PR crisis
hits, but don’t forget about your colleagues. Making sure all employees,
partners and influencers are apprised and informed will give you crucial
messaging momentum when you need it most. Provide approved messaging to
ensure consistency and prevent the spread of misinformation.
A crisis will probably affect your entire company, which may require
adjustments to your marketing strategy, work policies, communication
channels and even management activities. That’s why it’s essential to make
sure all internal stakeholders are aware of the crisis management plan and
prepared for communication battle.
Share your side of the story with each stakeholder, but make sure your
internal dialogue is consistent with external communications. Stick to an
honest, detailed account of all developments. If you fail to communicate,
workers will assume the worst. Transparent communication builds trust and
encourages people to soldier on.
Just about every organization will face some sort of social media crisis.
Do you have a plan to respond? Your company’s survival hangs in the
balance, so make sure your team is ready.
A version of this post first appeared on the
Cision blog.