Social Media Issues - How to Manage and Prevent Brand Censorship

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1 SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT: SOCIAL MEDIA ISSUES VS SOCIAL MEDIA CRISIS Once you have taken the first steps in developing your social media presence, it is time to create a social media strategy. Similar to any other aspect of campaign marketing, it is always better to have a plan to set a foundation with realistic objectives of what you would like to achieve with social media. In today s social era, a bad reputation can spread quicker than ever. For this reason, an integral part of developing your social media strategy is to create both a social media issue and a crisis management plan. What s the difference? Find out in this whitepaper which will ensure that your brand s reputation will continue to thrive on social media. SOCIAL MEDIA ISSUE MANAGEMENT Socialbakers definition: A social media issue is defined as anything that a user posts with negative sentiment that requires a response or action from your company. Issues can range from customer service complaints, taking brand reputation management actions, to replying to user feedback with negative sentiment. Resolving social media issues should never require resources or human capital other than those the company preallocated when determining their social media strategy. A social media issue management plan serves as a daily method of dealing with issues on social media. As your brand grows and your social reputation and the conversation surrounding your brand increases, it is inevitable that there will be regular issues that need to be dealt with on a near day-to-day basis.

2 The first step in creating your social media issue management plan is to determine the resources that you are willing to allocate to ensure that every issue is resolved in a timely fashion. Once you have determined how much time and human capital you are willing to invest in resolving issues on social media, then you are ready to make a social media issue management plan. DRAFTING AN ISSUE MANAGEMENT PLAN These are the critical components that should be addressed when determining your social media issue management plan: ISSUE RESPONSE Determine a set amount of time that each user issue will be responded to by the company; e.g., 90 minutes. Determine the amount of time that each user issue will be resolved by the company; e.g., 24 hours. If users are commenting on negative sentiment content, make sure to contribute to the conversation. Remember, social media marketing is a two-way conversation, not a monologue. BRAND AMBASSADORS Develop relationships with your brand ambassadors or advocates. If your ambassadors are receiving some sort of compensation for advocating your brand then set up minimum requirements for how often they need to post content about your brand. Social media users are influenced by sentiment types on your wall. If you can leverage brand ambassadors to post positive content then it will diminish the effect of having negative sentiment posts on your wall.

3 BRAND AMBASSADORS - ETHICS When reaching out to social media users it is important to remain honest and show integrity to illustrate that your brand is acting responsibly. Disclosure: Make sure to let the social media users know that you are a representative from your company. Transparency: If a brand ambassador is receiving compensation for advocating your brand (preferably not monetary compensation) then make sure that you are not actively attempting to hide this information. Privacy: Do not collect contact information and subsequently overload social media users with s, newsletters or other content that could be considered SPAM. RESOLUTION OF SENSITIVE TOPICS / NEGATIVE SENTIMENT Determine which topics your brand defines as sensitive and which are considered negative sentiment. Sensitive issue and negative sentiment posts will inevitably occur on a regular basis. Determine required actions for each type of sensitive topic and negative sentiment user posts. Recommendation: If possible move the conversation off your Facebook Page or Twitter Profile. Inquire about the issue, respond amiably and if possible resolve the issue. Recommendation: If the user is irrationally posting negative sentiment then you have the options of reporting the user, burying the negative content, etc. FROM SOCIAL MEDIA ISSUE TO SOCIAL MEDIA CRISIS Empirical evidence shows that many social media crises arise because there is failure to successfully resolve social media issues. Social media crises should be taken seriously. Set guidelines for when a social media issue has evolved into a social media crisis. Spend sufficient time training your social media manager on what constitutes a crisis and inform them of the necessary steps for resolving a social media crises.

4 SOCIAL MEDIA CRISIS MANAGEMENT Drafting a social media crisis management plan is very important for maintaining your brand s reputation. With social media, negative news spreads extremely fast and if not dealt with properly and in a timely manner, the effect could be devastating and long lasting. In regards to social media posts with negative sentiment, companies face the terrifying possibility negative creating a ripple effect with thousands of social media users talking negatively about your brand and possibly receiving negative mainstream publicity. Moreover, if a crisis is not dealt with properly then it is plausible that the crisis will continue to haunt your brand reputation in search engines for months to come. The good news is that these all outcomes are avoidable. If your company has drafted a social media crisis plan and your employees are well informed on the protocol of dealing with a crisis, then the negative results can be ameliorated if not completely avoided. DRAFTING A CRISIS MANAGEMENT PLAN These are the critical components that should be addressed when determining your social media crisis management plan: WHAT CONSTITUTES A CRISIS Draft the guidelines and protocol for what constitutes a crisis; e.g., If your Facebook Page receives 10 negative user posts in 30 minutes. At this point your social media manager should alert other staff members that there is an early stage crisis and resolution action is required. NOT ALL CRISES WERE CREATED EQUAL Not all crises require all hands on deck. There should be a specific protocol for each level of crises. Determine the resources necessary for handling each type of crises. The larger the crises, the more amount of time and human capital necessary.

5 BRAND AMBASSADORS Inform your brand ambassadors that if a crisis does occur, then you will need them to actively act as a brand advocate to help reduce the negative effects of brand detractors. It is very helpful to have a brand advocate that is not directly employed by your company to help lessen the negative effects as a result of a crisis. KEEP YOUR WALL OPEN Although it may be tempting to close your wall to avoid receiving additional negative sentiment posts, there is a high probability that this will exacerbate the crisis. In the social media world, closing your wall can be viewed as censorship. If you close your wall, negative conversation does not stop; it will simply move to another platform. Recommendation: Inform and engage with your users to illustrate that their opinion is of importance and that your company is looking to resolve the issue or crisis as quickly as possible. SOCIAL MEDIA LISTENING If a social media crisis occurs, it is time to monitor brand related keywords via social media listening tools 24 hours a day. Do not only listen to discussions on your own Page, Profile or Channel but also monitor conversations related to your brand on other blogs, Facebook groups, discussion boards, etc. During a crisis you should attempt to respond to these questions on all networks and platforms. LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES If a crisis does occur, it should be closely analyzed to prevent future crises and determine the best methods for resolving crises. Update your crisis management plan based on what you ve learned from your past experience.

6 OVERVIEW Taking the first steps and drafting a social media issue and crisis management plan is a large step in developing your overall social media strategy. However, the work does not end there. The social media world is constantly changing and evolving, which means that your social media strategy, including your issue and crisis management plans, needs to adapt to these changes. Make sure that your social media management team is regularly analyzing key metrics about how they are resolving social media issues and deterring crisis. From these analytical reports, there should be regular meetings to discuss any changes or amendments to optimize the effectiveness of your social media management plans. Have any questions? Contact us at support@socialbakers.com