RESPONDING TO

A CRISIS ON

SOCIAL MEDIA

By Prayukth K V

May 2014

“a crisis is “the perception of an unpredictable event

that threatens important expectancies of stakeholders

and can seriously impact an organization’s

performance and generate negative outcomes”

- Coombs

UNDERSTANDING THE RISKS

Reputational risks: Damage to brand and image, mistakes

visible to all

Misinformation: Propagation of incorrect/false information,

misinterpretation of information, lack of context

Security: Hacking of accounts, gateway for viruses, breach of

privacy, redirection of url/posts

Lack of control: Little control over message and sentiment,

comments and people misrepresenting the company/brand;

inability to retract misinformation; hard to enforce legal &

compliance requirements

Employee issues: Release of sensitive information, loss of

productivity, inappropriate messages, general lack of

understanding of how to use social media

UNDERSTANDING THE FACTORS

Speed of response: In a crisis you have to think quickly, and act quickly

Visibility: The age of being able to hide behind a corporate press statement in response to a crisis is, effectively, gone. The statement plays its part, of course, but a more human and transparent response will come on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and forums. These are highly visible channels, and the effectiveness of a response is judged on them.

Unpredictability: It was hard enough for marketing teams dealing with the press through a crisis, but now we deal directly with the public through social media channels. And members of the public won’t have an objective view; each will bring a personal agenda and emotion to the issue.

Lack of control. It is no more possible to control conversations on social media than it is to control conversations in the home. Corporate control has no place on social pages that are, often, deeply personal.

This is a new industry. That means every action by a company managing a crisis is being watched, scrutinised and analysed. Your peers are learning from your handling of an issue, good and bad.

The boomerang effect. Whatever you do in a crisis could come back to bite you. The temptation is to retreat to a safe place and ignore what’s going on, but the public nature of social media means this isn’t possible any more.

THE RISKS

Internal

Employees/freelancers

Facilities

Vendors/Suppliers/Consultants

Distributors/Resellers/partners

Product

External

Acts of Nature

Market

Government

Legal Restrictions/Law

Customers

Advocacy Groups

PHASES

Anticipation

Recovery

Readiness

Response

Reassurance

Lessons

ANTICIPATION AND REHEARSAL

Crisis mapping (sources plus response points)

Full scale rehearsal

Policies, Crisis Team and Procedures

Crisis Monitoring

Crisis Communication Strategy

Crisis Action Plan

Crisis Standard Communications Template

Build Confidence

PREPARE

Invest in the right tools: Monitoring and social

listening tools will help filter out the information you

need to know about from the background chatter.

Crisis team: to handle episodes; preferably including

members from

PR and reputation management

Customer service

Corp comm

Marketing

Legal

Tech support

Social media and social listening

Community management

PLAN

Define a crisis: what will it look like? “Mayday”

Who all have passwords for your social channels?

Have a social media policy in place for employees and partners

Bank goodwill to buffer your reputation

Severity of crisis should determine the response

Determine channels of engagement during a crisis

Figure out levels of response

Define an escalation path

What do you have to lose – be clear

How long will it take to put this behind you?

Have a situation room

Have clearly defined response roles; with adequate backup

RESPONSE

Avoid cover ups – they don’t work and often backfire

Do not deny or accept any allegation immediately

Avoid procrastination

Acknowledge

Acknowledge impact and ‘victims’

Commit to investigate

Commit to sharing information and cooperation

Share corrective action plan if available

Respond in the format in which the crisis was received

Authorise community managers to act on your behalf

Check your facts

COMMUNICATE

Start with your reputation – initial goodwill level

If you do not necessarily have all of the information at

the given time, then say so. Tell them that you are

working to get more information

Involve senior management, early on

Tone of communication – consistency across channels

Remember you cannot control the spread of stories on

social media

You can only respond

Do not overreact or be extra defensive

Be patient and listen and understand the issue before

responding (every issue is not a crisis)

RECOVERY AND REASSURANCE

Start with a honest acknowledgement of oversight

Reaffirm commitment to all stakeholders and values

Reaffirm commitment to correction

Demonstrate results in line with commitments

If an active Voice of Customer program is on,

leverage it to reach out to customers

MANAGE YOUR REPUTATION

ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Prayukth K V