The 5 points to focus for your crisis management!

So what do you think of Social Media as? Is it the culprit which lands you in crisis or the best platform to help you at the time of crisis? Communications traditionalists, used to creating and managing messages, see the current environment as a polluted one in which a single blog post, tweet or update from a nobody can snowball into a full-blown catastrophe. Why not? We have the recent examples of Safaricom, Zain, Kenol Kobil for them to prove their point. People who don’t have a say in their own personal life suddenly got this tremendous power to say whatever they want about any brand- small or big, and make an impact. The Mr. and Miss. Losers in the normal mundane lives suddenly got super powers.
There’s no doubt things have changed — and we can argue until we’re blue in the face over whether what we’re seeing is better or worse. But this is just one side of the picture. While social media has become the weapon of choice for angry masses to fuel the fire of negativity, it is also the very best asset for crisis management and most importantly, the platform to interact and engage your audiences.
Corporations and brands need to realize two things, 1. Social Media is a platform for the people, by the people and to the people and there is nothing much you can do to control what people have to say, however 2. You can always use this platform to ‘seed’ in good but true things about your brand and pacify the whole negativity and at times, make the whole conversation positive. All in all, if brands follow the below 5 point crisis management program, Social Media can be really beneficial for them.

1.      The principles remain the same. Handle issues quickly, accurately, professionally and with care—or pay the consequences.  The principles of Crisis Management have not changed but the conditions have. With the Web 2.0, you have all the tools to have your say as soon as you want and as effectively as you want. You can post an official letter on your company site/blog, post videos supporting your facts, send one liners as tweets and update your loyalists on Facebook who in turn become your brand-advocates and spread the word of mouth.

2.      Don’t focus on Return on Investment, focus on ‘Return on saving your ass’! Most of the companies/brands commit this huge mistake of expecting returns from their online investment in terms of increased sales and pure analytics, what they often ignore is social media’s crisis management benefits until it’s too late. Dell unfortunately had to wait until ‘Dell Hell’ came in and gave them a pain in the arse neck.

3.      Use Social Media as an ally. Its high that we use Social Media as an Ally or the online PR network to spread our message. There is no need to be scared of Social media. Remember one thing, the conversations around your brand are going on whether you are there or not, so its better to be there and take part in them.

4.      Be ready on all fronts. Where are the groups that are looking to take your company down? Are you equipped to fight them on multiple fronts? A recent study shows that 33 out of 34 political advocacy groups use at least one social media platform to engage their stakeholders. What’s more impressive, is 32 of those 33 are on every major platform. Are you ready to compete across the wide spectrum of social media?

5.      Oh you have an official twitter profile or a Facebook Fanpage? Good but not good enough. I have seen many brands commit this horrendous mistake that just because they are present on Twitter or Facebook, they are doing just the right thing. Twitter or Facebook is not a complaint box or a platform to wash your dirty linen. Just creating a profile and posting updates using a bot or a software does no good to your brand, infact it ruins your presence. People are looking for human beings to talk to on social media not robots. When people complain, accuse or curse you on twitter then respond to them. Don’t just blabber about your brand and events but just remember one thing before you ever make any update, What good would it do for your fans or followers?

Hope this helps you in your online reputation management programme!!