Social media is fast. It provides its user with the power to have nonstop interaction in any situation. It allows companies to share updates and various information in an almost instant way. However, social media is kind of a double-edged blade that can hurt you if you are careless.
Social media disasters often happen when companies use them inappropriately. Thanks to social media’s inner ability to go viral, the companies’ deterioration will spread like wildfire in a matter of seconds. Having their reputation tarnished, companies need to take a professional approach to clear their name on public perception, while at the same time, try to get back their customers trust.
If you are facing this problem, don’t worry. In today’s post we will share five tips on how to use your social media accounts to fight back any problems that may happen anytime.
1. Consider Your Timing
You should not waste your time to join endless conversational fight during moment of crisis. Yet, silence is not a good way either. If you can address (and solve) the roots of the problem right away, you are indirectly telling your audiences that you are a professional. It would be better if you can give a warning before a ‘disaster’ happens.
When the disaster strikes, a frequent updates is all that you need. A new update every ten minutes in the immediate aftermath is ideal. When the situation becomes normal again, you can loose your frequent updates.
2. Get A Control Over Every Conversations
In the hard times, social media will be the first thing for customers to tell you their problems, even attacking your brand during the process.
Don’t let them out of control. You can start answering their questions and complaints as professional as possible. Also, you can devise a special hashtag for each solution and announce them for the public, so “smart customers” can look for the solution of their answer easily. If you can pull off this stunt successfully, you will get a considerable amount of admiration and respect not just from customers, but from the media and social media analysts too.
3. Stay On The Line
Similar to the third point above, it would be better if brands can limit the number of places that people feel they need to look to find dedicated information regarding a crisis. Make an emergency FAQ. Otherwise, information can become scattered and misinterpreted, making your customers angrier. Choose your most popular channel to write down all of the detailed information regarding the disaster. Use your other platforms to direct the flow of user traffic towards your primary source.
4. Give Them A Call To Action
Being left hanging with no instruction or advice on what to do next is the worst thing you can imagine in the customers’ point of view. Whether you can solve the crisis at that particular moment or not, people don’t like to be kept waiting with time on their hands. Thus, it’s very important to give explicit calls to action among your frequent updates. These can be as simple as directing customers towards external sources of advice, giving practical tips, or just tell them to stay calm.
5. Control Yourself
There will be cases where false information will mix into public’s perception, giving them fake and bad explanations about the crisis. While it’s tempting to yell to these despicable individuals, it’s advisable that you don’t do that. Doing so could diminish your credibility, reputation and integrity of your brand in your audiences’ perception. Stay calm and straighten any bad gossip about your company with reliable facts.