How to avoid SM crisis

No one can expect what can happen with social media these days.

As it hasn't become just a way to interact with our friends and family only, but it also offered us a way to engage with our favorite brands and business, online 

And on the other hand, allowed brands to interact with its beloved fans and gather data about them.

But social media is not all about love, sometimes the relation between customer and brand social media presence turns into crisis like we discussed in Taco Bell

And the only solution lies within

1. Before the crisis happen.
2. After the crisis happen.

1) Before the crisis happen, you need to:

1- Listen

And pay close attention to what your customers say about your brand and to your brand.

- Use monitoring tools to know what your customers say about your brand online like, 

Topsy, Radian6, Sysomos, Vocus, RowFeeder and etc..

2- Answer your customers

Answer your customer questions and appreciate their feedback and opinions on your social media platforms.

3- Set your business social media guidelines “House rules”

Set your customer expectations, when they should expect your answer, what they shouldn't post on your wall and what is allowed, when you are open and what is your weekends and your terms and conditions.

4- Choose your social media team carefully

A lot of social media crisis happened because the agency or the employee responsible wasn`t care enough to put some thought in his post, which led to misunderstanding by fans and finally a crisis, so you need to choose your social media team with cautious.

2) After the crisis happen.

This is it, no matter what you did, the crisis happened, now what are you going to do to keep the peace on your social media presence.

1- Acknowledge the crisis

The first thing you need to do after your crisis post went viral, even if you deleted it, is to not ignore it or saying that your account was hacked and you are not responsible for the crisis,

Acknowledge the crisis, step up to it and say you were wrong.

2- It`s okay to say I'm sorry.

Now that you have acknowledged the crisis it`s time to say that you are sorry for the harm it did to your fans.

At least if you're not going to say you’re sorry make an announcement that indicate that you appreciate your customers feedback and this crisis won't go easy, with some actions that will be done.

3- Respond thoughtfully.

The usual from your fans, is to be divided some will appreciate your apology and others will not, your role here is choose the words you will use to respond to them carefully, Don`t...

• Attack them
• Overreact in your reply
• Make your replies long ones, complex and misleading

Now you should have managed to get through your crisis with least damages to your brand as you can.

What you will do in your social media crisis?.