Avoid Social Media Nightmares
While social media can provide great benefits for your brand, it can also destroy your brand all the same. Why do they call it a nightmare? A social media error can lead from slight embarrassment to absolute social humiliation in hours. And who has to clean up the mess? The PR departments. Here are a few tips to help you avoid any social media nightmares for your brand in the future.
1. Always be fully updated regarding your company’s ad campaigns, which includes who, what, when, where, how, why, etc.
Imagine your brand has 500,000 fans. Even 10 of them have the ability to begin a riot on your webpage. Make sure you are fully aware of your brand’s social media activities in case any controversial issues pop up along the road. One of the biggest mistakes in these situations is a company’s response to the social media mishap. A company should be able to respond right away with a prepared solution or the PR departments will suffer the wrath of numerous consumers. Control the conversation on your social media pages and be all-knowing about your brand’s activities.
2. Watch out for any cyber mobs rallying against your brand.
Every major brand has some activist organization that constantly bombards your brand page. Sure, oil companies probably have it the worst, but there are plenty of other brands suffering blows at different angles from the public. Be sure that you are prepared to respond to any sort of comments presented by these cyber mobs. Your response statement shouldn’t sound too canned and, no matter how bad the post on your page, thank them for taking the time to post on your page regardless. In addition, watch out for any political connections to your company. This is a significant way to gain cyber mobs for major brands.
3. Put yourself in a reporter’s shoes before you post.
What does that mean? Usually, business reporters love pointing out all the flaws of your company, so don’t make it easy for them. Make sure that anything you post is protected from being twisted by others into the making of some interesting news story. Be careful whom you engage and learn from those who have committed social media mistakes before you. Others mistakes aren’t just their lessons; through the power of observation, they are your lessons as well. By understanding how the social media mishaps happened, you will have a good knowledge of right and wrong in the social media environment.
4. Remove the conversation off your main social media page.
When American Airlines was blamed for misplacing a woman’s cat at JFK Airport, the company’s social media pages, especially Facebook, were blasted with negative comments from pet-lovers. However, the company created a slick response and provided more responses in their Facebook notes section in order to redirect the negative conversation away from their main page. By doing this, they avoided a complete social media nightmare as they noticed the problem before it got out of control.
5. Be prepared with potential responses to negative posts.
No matter how many responses you come up with to counter negative posts, it will not be enough. Sometimes, a situation pops up where you are not prepared and you have to create a response while the negative conversation continues to keep going. Be agile and speedy with your responses and plan for as many scenarios as you can.
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