Although a social media crisis is not something anyone wants to encounter, you’re always better off preparing for one than waiting for the hammer to drop to prepare. A crisis can come in any shape or size, but in general, it’s thought of as any event that can negatively impact your brand.
As with most things, the best way to prepare is to have a plan. Thankfully, there are a plethora of steps you can take to ensure that you’re ready to put out a flame before it starts a fire.
Define what a crisis would be for your brand and create a plan.
Take time to discuss with your team what constitutes a crisis for your brand. During this time, decide who the decision-makers will be, how to escalate the issue, and who will be crafting responses.
Pause any scheduled content.
Once a potential crisis has been flagged by your team, you want to ensure your social channels do not continue to push out content without providing a response. Take your time as it’s better to provide a thoughtful response than to appear rushed to get content back on track.
Assess the impact.
Depending on the severity of the crisis, you need to be sure to take into consideration the entire situation. Different scenarios will warrant different responses, and your first message will be remembered by your audience.
Create a response.
Although it might feel like you need to address the crisis immediately, a genuinely crafted response is more important. You still want to respond within 24 hours, however, ensure that you take enough time to write a level-headed and authentic response.
Plan to follow through.
Whether it was an internal issue or a global one, there are always steps you will need to take to ensure changes are made. It’s always best to be transparent and communicate these changes with your community.
These moments can be overwhelming, so it’s always a good idea to have a plan in place so your brand is ready for anything.
This blog post was based on an article written by Later.com. ????