The 5 best ways to respond to a social media attack

Of course, the days of the old “hey-hey ho-ho” chants, signed petitions, and pickets are not over, but there is a definite rise in activist activity on the Internet, and organizations need to be prepared to address these instances when they occur.

Here’s how you should respond to an activist attack on your company’s social media presence.

1. Create a response plan.

Every organization will have a bad day in social media. Irrespective of how well your leaders run your organization or how much people love your brand, there will be a time when you do something that upsets people.

The first step of any social media activism response is to create a plan in advance. Prepare for all potential issues ahead of time and create responses suitable for a variety of social platforms. Create a comment traffic system and escalation procedures across all social media channels so you can quickly send negative comments to the PR and corporate affairs team. These teams can then send the comments to others, if necessary.

2. Engage with the source.