NSA Communications

Trolls, negative comments, a bad wrap online. It’s all part and parcel of being active online; particularly on social media. Here’s how to handle it like a pro.

They say there is no such thing as bad press. However, negative comments or reviews on your social media accounts are a different beast. Social media is always on (literally), and there are generally no barriers to users taking to the keyboard to express themselves. Publicly. About your business.

Social media crises refer to complaints, threats and general bad mouthing of your business or employees online. This can occur in the following places:

• Public posts to your social media page where enabled
• Comments on your native posts or other users’ posts on your pages
• Comments on your blogs if enabled
• Private messages
• Reviews of your page or Google Business listing

“timely and accurate messaging is crucial when managing a social media crisis”

Crisis management should be a fundamental part of your social media community management strategy and policy, especially if other factions of the business need to review public responses before they are published.

In my experience, timely and accurate messaging is crucial when managing a social media crisis. This can be even more challenging to deliver if your business operates in a highly regulated industry and therefore a lengthy approvals process internally. Believe me, I’ve been there.

Never fear, here are my top 4 tips for managing social media crises effectively:

1. Respond within 24 hours: to close the conversation in public and buy some time if you need to obtain an official response approved by management. Acknowledge the user’s concerns and feelings. Avoid denying wrongdoing and any defensive responses. This is because your response will be viewed by other users (and potential customers) and could aggravate the user even more. Be clear that the issue is being investigated and if you can contact them directly via direct message, email or a phone call (if they are known to the business and appear in your CRM system) do so and let them know on the public post that you have contacted them privately. If the user is a client or prospect, make sure you keep the account manager in the loop of proposed responses.
2. Take the conversation offline: this point cannot be emphasised enough. Your company’s issues management process does not need to be viewed publicly. Keeping the conversation public also gives the user an opportunity to keep throwing barbs. Once you have closed the public conversation, you can then manage and resolve the issue privately with the user.
3. Develop a social media crisis management policy: this is a task worth doing in a period once an issue is resolved (or pre-emptively). Collaborate with the relevant leaders that need to approve any public responses to develop a policy which clearly outlines the steps that will be taken if an issue occurs, who owns which step and an expected time frame. Relevant stakeholders are more likely to follow your lead if the procedure is ratified by leadership through a policy.
4. Train staff on what to do if a crisis occurs: employee loyalty and advocacy is a beautiful thing, but it’s best to encourage staff to take a screenshot of anything they see and sending it to your team instead of trying to resolve it themselves. This is because the complainant may feel backed into a corner and make further complaints publicly. Once your crisis management policy is ready and approved, share this with staff during a town hall meeting and provide examples of how crises are handled.

“keeping the conversation public also gives the user an opportunity to keep throwing barbs.”

Does your business need some guidance on handling crises online?

NSA Communications can help develop a specific social media crisis management policy with your leadership team, so you can take the stress out of crisis management.