In this article, we discussed the social media crises management, meaning of crises, types we also talked about crises management.
Definition
A crisis is a situation in which something or someone is affected by one or more very serious problems.
Crisis is a crucial stage or turning point in the course of something, esp. in a sequence of events or a disease.
Crisis management is the process by which an organization deals with a disorderly and unexpected event that threatens to harm the organization or its stakeholders. The study of crisis management originated with large-scale industrial and environmental disasters in the 1980s.
Crisis management is a situation-based management system that includes clear roles and responsibilities and processes related organizational requirements company-wide. The response shall include action in the following areas: crisis prevention, crisis assessment, crisis handling, and crisis termination. The aim of crisis management is to be well prepared for crisis, ensure a rapid and adequate response to the crisis, maintaining clear lines of reporting and communication in the event of crisis and agreeing rules for crisis termination.
Types of crises
Natural disaster
Technological crisis
Confrontation
Malevolence
Organizational Misdeeds
Workplace Violence
Rumors
Terrorist attacks/man-made disasters
Here are the effective social media crisis management
Assess the crisis and impact
Before committing to any public or inside communication, take a beat to define the origin, scope, and underlying emotion behind the crisis.
Start by documenting the details of the event. This will help you visualize everything that’s happened and give your team a point of reference. Think like a reporter and answer the five W’s:
Who was involved in the initial event? Who has been involved since?
What happened? Work like a detective and give “just the facts.”
Why did the crisis begin? Was it a legitimately upset customer venting on social media? Or did a marketing intern accidentally post a questionable Tweet?
Where did the initial event take place? Was it on a particular social media platform or at a physical location?
When did the event begin? Be as specific as possible since hours and minutes matter.
Create a crisis response team
The last thing you want during any crisis is a misalignment amongst the team tasked with handling it. Establish necessary roles in the response and assign them to team members so everyone knows their function.
The scope and impact document will help dictate who should be involved in your effective social media crisis management plan. These are some of the roles to consider:
Point or lead: This person will sit at the center of the response. They’ll organize communications and collaborate with other team members, like content creators, to produce social media posts.
Approvers: These are the people who will sign off on any public-facing posts. In the case of a low-level crisis, this may be the point person.
Technical or product support: If the crisis is related to a safety issue or product failure, you’ll want a liaison with the product team who can respond quickly and provide updates.
Legal: This person will work closely with the approvers to make sure all communications are legally compliant.
Develop a response strategy
Now that your team is in place, it’s time to craft your response strategy. Kudos if you’ve included crisis management verbiage in your social media guidelines. This will form the foundation of your strategy and speed you along to the next steps.
Here’s what your response strategy should cover:
Triage: Will you delete the offending post? Do you publish an acknowledgment post before your official response?
Key messaging: Your official response, including the context of the crisis, how you’ll address it, and what people can expect moving forward.
Channels: Include the social media platforms you’ll use and other channels like email and press releases.
Training: Educate customer-facing employees (customer service, sales, etc.) who may need to field questions about the crisis.
Incoming messages: How will you deal with emails, direct messages, and comments on social media platforms?
Monitoring: Which platforms and media sources will you continue to monitor during and after the crisis?
Choose the right channels for communication
As a social media manager, your chosen channel affects the message you send. This is exponentially truer when dealing with a crisis. Pick the platforms that will appropriately reach your audience.
Google chose X (formerly Twitter) to let people know its AI image generator “missed the mark” when it depicted people of color as early American colonists.
Pause scheduled posts
Even if you had an amazing post scheduled for World Donut Day, it won’t hit quite right if you’re in the thick of a social media crisis. It’s time to put that great content on the back burner while you deal with the issue.
At best, an ill-timed scheduled post will make you look goofy. At worst, it could completely derail your ability to manage the risk. After all, it’s critical for all communication to be planned, consistent, and appropriate in tone. A post you scheduled in the before times is likely none of those things.
With a social media scheduler like Hootsuite, pausing your scheduled social media content is as simple as clicking the pause symbol on your organization’s profile and entering a reason for the suspension.
Communicate quickly and with empathy
Two things will kill your chances of managing a crisis: an insincere response and no response at all. Your initial response should balance speed with careful consideration for the situation and the people involved.
The CEO of Kite baby learned this lesson after a video went viral saying the company denied an employee’s maternity leave request. The CEO, Ying Liu, posted an apology video which many viewers felt was too scripted and insincere. Liu posted a follow-up video offering a more personalized apology for the incident.
Monitor and respond to audience feedback
Congratulations on promoting a response that was timely, empathetic, and specific! It’s a big step to reclaiming the brand reputation you’ve earned.
But your initial messaging is just the beginning. You’ve also got to work the front lines of this crisis.
Keep your team in the loop
Misinformation and rumors can spread just as easily inside your company as they can outside. And when there’s silence from the top during a real time of crisis, the whispers tend to come fast and furious.
In other words: your crisis communication should include internal communication as well. This keeps everyone on the same page and alleviates tension and uncertainty.
Evaluate and improve
Though social media crises can be stressful, the experience can offer your organization some powerful lessons. Once you’ve made it through the storm, debrief and examine just what happened.
Conclusion: A social media crisis can happen to any brand, big or small. The key to successfully managing a crisis is to be prepared, stay calm, and prioritize communication. To effectively manage a social media crisis, you need to be prepared and don’t panic once a crisis hits.