3 Effective Strategies for Managing Social Media Crises
Whether it’s an unhappy customer, a controversial post, or a mistake from your business, social media crises can unfold fast and out of the blue. A global PwC survey found that 69% of business leaders reported experiencing an average of three crises over five years. How a business responds to a social media crisis can make or break its reputation, so it’s crucial to have a well-thought-out crisis strategy.
This post explores practical, effective strategies for handling social media crises, from preparation to recovery. By following these best practices, businesses can limit damage, maintain customer loyalty and trust, and even turn crises into opportunities for growth.
What Classifies as a Social Media Crisis?
Any situation where negative attention on social media can harm a business’s reputation, operations, or customer trust can be classified as a social media crisis. These crises can arise from public backlash, viral negative customer reviews, product or service issues, data breaches, etc.
Although negativity can spread quickly on social media, these platforms remain a powerful tool for businesses to use to their advantage. Social media allows businesses to control the narrative, directly communicate with their audiences, and respond in real time. However, without thoughtful and transparent social media crisis strategies, businesses risk turning minor issues into major reputation-threatening events.
Strategies to Manage Social Media Crises
The first step to managing a crisis on social media is prior preparation. You can start by using social media monitoring tools (i.e., HubSpot) to track mentions of your business and get alerts when potential crises begin to form. Ultimately, there isn’t much time to think in times of crisis. This makes it crucial to implement a plan immediately when a crisis arises. As Asana reinforces, some key components to consider in crisis planning include:
- Risk Analysis: Outlining potential risks and ordering them by probability
- Response Procedures: Who is responsible for what during the event of a crisis
- Activation Protocol: When action should be taken
- Communication Strategy: Who handles feedback and delivers information to the public
- Emergency Contacts: Contacts that can help speed up the response process
- Post-Crisis Assessment: Following up and assessing what worked and didn’t work.
The most important thing to remember is that businesses must regularly review and update their social media crisis plan. This way, they can adapt their strategies to new social media platforms, evolving risks, and lessons learned from previous crises.
Other strategies businesses must consider in the event of a social media crisis include:
- Responding Quickly and Calmly
The longer a business waits to respond, the more the situation can spiral out of control. However, you should never prioritize fast responses over thoughtful responses. A rushed or poorly thought-out response could make the situation worse.
Steps to take:
- Acknowledging the Issue: As a business facing a social media crisis, you must let the public know you are aware of the situation. Ignoring the crisis could make people think you are trying to cover something up or simply don’t care.
- Remaining Calm and Professional: Stay calm, avoid getting defensive, and keep your tone professional. Rude or unprofessional tones will only escalate the situation.
- Expressing Empathy: Not only does a social media crisis affect businesses, but also their customers. Respond to customer comments and express your empathy for their concern. This practice lets them know they are seen and heard.
- Communicating Honestly and Transparently
Honesty and transparency are key to maintaining trust with your audience in a social media crisis. According to Sprout Social, 89% of people say a business can regain its trust if it admits to its mistakes and offers transparency about resolving the issue.
Steps to take:
- Being Honest About What Happened: If your business made a mistake, admit it. Being open and honest about the situation shows integrity and earns respect from the public.
- Explaining Resolution Steps: Outline the steps your business is taking to resolve the crisis. Whether it’s retraining staff or issuing a refund or discount, showing that you’re taking action demonstrates accountability.
- Providing Timely Updates: Keep your audience informed throughout the situation so they know what’s happening. If the crisis gets worse, be sure to update your messaging accordingly. When the crisis calms down, monitor the situation for a few weeks.
- Turning Crises Into Opportunities
After the event of a social media crisis, take the time to reflect on how your business handled the situation. This can also be a great time to reevaluate your business’s values, mission, and communication guidelines to better align with audience expectations. These insights can help you effectively adjust your social media crisis plan.
Steps to take:
- Conducting a Crisis Review: Gather your team and evaluate how your business handled the crisis. Consider what worked and what didn’t. Were the right people involved? Was the situation handled timely and honestly?
- Educating Your Team: Share the lessons learned from the crisis with other team members. This can help them grow from the experience and be better prepared for future social media crises.
- Evolving: Regularly adjust your social media strategy and crisis management protocols to keep up with the evolving digital space.
Social Media Management Resources
If you’re a small business owner, you may not have the time or resources to manage social media accounts in the event of a crisis. This is where professional social media marketing agencies like DaBrian Marketing Group can step in! At DaBrian Marketing Group, we are dedicated to every aspect of your social media channels. Our team will manage your social media accounts with solid strategies and data-driven decision-making.
Whether managing a social media crisis, reinforcing customer service, or engaging with your customers personally, we’re here to help grow and strengthen your business. Let’s talk about our social media plans! Contact us today or schedule a meeting to learn more about our services.
