5 pieces of advice to deal with a crisis on social media

Crisis on social media may occur for many reasons, sometimes just a misunderstanding, sometimes a big mistake made by the team. And as we all know, they can spiral out of control incredibly fast. As a result, it’s important for brands to create a plan of action, including guidelines on how to act and respond both publicly and internally.

Your response to a social media crisis can make or break how your followers perceive your brand.

This is a situation that no company wants to go through, and in fact no one may say for sure that they feel actually prepared to face. Even though there is no magic formula to go through a crisis, there are a few ways to get prepared and some tricks on trying to predict the consequences.

The biggest secret for you to manage it is to have a kind of pre-crisis plan to deal with the situation. Check some tips that may help you:

1. Assemble a crisis response team.

Depending on the case, involve other areas. See someone who has authority on the subject and who can help you create a clearer answer. Never do anything on your own.

2. If the company made a mistake, apologize.

If there was a problem, the first step is to publicly acknowledge it, even if you do not know how to solve it yet. The company can not simply ignore as this can increase the potential of the claim. Sometimes your client just wants to be heard and feel that his problem can be solved. Show compassion. Be human and transparent so that clients can forgive you.

3. Who should receive your apology?

Understand who should receive your answers: your fans? Officials? Press? Even considering that, on the internet, everyone hears everything. Target your audience and create an appropriate message for each of them.

4. Be fast.

Do not think that the buzz will “expire”. Speed ​​to respond is very important. This is not the time to create text. To say that “recognizes the problem / error and that the measures will be taken” is a way of positioning itself before the market and its client. Set two or three main messages, no more than that. They will be the anchor for all your external communication.

5. Fight the crisis on the same social media where it appeared.

Never take the problem to other social media if there is something going on there. Instead of minimizing the crisis, you can disseminate it.