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How to managea social media crisis.

Heather HealyMarketing Communications DirectorStickyeyes

Michael HewittContent Marketing ManagerStickyeyes

A social media crisis can overwhelm your brand.

You need to act quickly, and restore normality.

Because if you don’t, it can cost your brand dearly.

of global consumers have stopped doing business with a brand due to poor customer service on social media.

66%

Source: Accenture

of consumers expect a response on social media in less than two hours.

50%

Source: Hubspot

So you need to have a plan in place...

To make sure that you know what a social media crisis is...

To identify who is responsible for taking control of it...

To ensure that you know how to respond to it...

And to prevent one happening again (or in the first place).

But “crisis” is a strong word, so how do you define a social media crisis?

!*$@

£%*#

It will usually meet three conditions...

One: It will be a change from the norm.

Two: There will be alack of control.

Three: It will have a material impact on the business.

When you experience a social media crisis, you need to go through four stages...

Prevention: Identify the risks, solve the ones you can, manage the ones you can’t.

Preparation: Have a plan in place, ensure people are aware, spell out the procedure.

Response: Understand the issue, respond quickly, be human, don’t make the problem worse.

Recovery: Monitor reaction, return the brand to normality, learn the lessons.

So why do so many brands get it so wrong?

1: They don’t assessthe risk of their campaign.

MasterCard tried to force journalists to tweet their promotion, but the journalists didn’t play ball. It was all very embarrassing. #PricelessSurprises

2: They turn up when they’re not welcome.

DHL tried to send well-wishes to Jules Bianchi, but soliciting likes and shares is not the way to do it.#ForzaJules

3: They don’t always understand the context of their post.

American Apparel wanted to celebrate thanksgiving with fireworks. They mistakenly used a photo of the Challenger disaster.#BlameditOnTheIntern

4: They don’t acknowledge and address the problem.

When a lewd image was posted to US Airways’ Twitter account, they silenced their account. Customer tweets went unanswered for more than 24 hours. #silence

5: They don’t take control of the situation

HMV was making huge redundancies in its marketing team. That same marketing team was in charge of the Twitter account.#ChangeThePassword

6: They don’t recognise and embrace their brand’s flaws 10 10 9

When a complaint about crisp packets was aimed at Ruffles, they acknowledged it and responded brilliantly. They defused the complaint and turned it into a positive. #HotAir

7: They aren’t human

When a negative image about Greggs appeared on Google, it wasn’t a press release and angry lawyers that saved the day. It was humour, honesty and free donuts. #FixGreggs

8: They don’t respond quickly enough

When an Applebeeswaitress was fired, it caused a Twitter furore. The brand took too long to respond, and even took to replying to Facebook posts at 3:00am. #NoPlanning

9: They don’t know when to shut up

When McDonalds was caught up in a meat sourcing scandal in China, their response was swift, effective to the point. Nothing more needed to be said. #Effective

So how should yourespond if a social crisis unfolds?

Have your plan, and make sure that everybody, from the boardroom to the call centre, knows what it is.

Be aware of the threats to your brand. Monitor discussion across the web, not just your own channels.

Assess the severity of the problem. Over-reacting can be just as dangerous as under-reacting.

Be human. Humans can be humorous, empathetic, attentive, insightful and above all, forgiven. A carefully scripted statement is rarely any of these things.

Download the full guide: stickyeyes.com/intelligence

Want to learn more about social media crisis management?

Download the full whitepaper at www.stickyeyes.com/intelligence

Our expert digital and social media consultants can help your brand to appraise, develop and deploy your social media crisis management plan.

We can assess the risks to your brand, create a crisis management strategy and develop procedures to respond effectively and minimise damage to your brand.

Get in touch at: hello@stickyeyes.com +44 (0)113 391 2929

www.stickyeyes.com