Lolo Siderman, Founder and CEO of Gypsywing Media (http://www.gypsywing.com/) helps you manage your PR disasters. When things go awry, these tips will help you preserve your public image.
- Familiarize yourself with social media conventions & trends
- Never delete a negative comment in haste
- Listen FIRST, then engage
- Be cautious & aware of misinterpretation
- Bring in a heavy-hitter to handle the situation
- Engage & appeal to social media influencers
- Capitalize on the buzz
Social media can be a double-edge sword. We’ve seen a number of situations where there have been PR disasters in social media. And I certainly hope that you never have to deal with any of that. But, if you do, there are few things that you can do to help manage the situation. And one is to go ahead and be active in social media to start with.
So have the social media profiles in place. Have Facebook, have your Twitter, have your LinkedIn and use them regularly. So that if something comes up you are not trying to understand the space while dealing with it. It’s not going to work. You need to already be there and already be engaged.
Another thing is don’t just erase a comment. As tempting as it is, you see this comment and someone is unhappy. The worst thing you can do is erase it because they will become irate, and if they are involved in social media they are already posting this out there they may then engage others who will all oppose as well. And it can be – that’s a way that it can really you know, light a fire under them to just erase what they have to say. So listen to what’s being said, and then engage. Don’t just erase it. Acknowledge and then engage.
And another thing to consider is that when you are writing, I think we probably all experience you’ve received an e-mail where you know, you mistook the way that someone wrote something because you can’t necessarily portray emotion in your words when you’re just writing. So consider that when you are responding online. You may feel like you are writing something considerate, but it could come off condescending or patronizing. So be aware of that and pacify a few other people before you just put the response out there, and make sure that you are coming across as a real person and very caring.
Another thing is don’t let the social media intern handle this kind of a situation. Bring in the CEO or you bring in someone high in the company to handle it. The last thing you want is for it to be brushed off or you know, handled in a way that doesn’t really represent you and your company. So bring in someone that matters you know, within the brand.
Another thing that you can do is reach out to influencers. So these are people that are already connected in the social media space, and you can appeal to them as a person. So whatever the situation maybe you’ve handled it in the space where it’s come up. But then, reaching out to influencers in that area and expressing what happened and your true regret for this situation and how you plan to make it better can really humanize you to these bloggers or influencers. And then they can be the ones passing this message on. So sometimes the message coming from you may not come off as well. But, when it’s coming from a blogger who says, “you know what, This person reached out to me. I really felt like I was a legitimate”—you know, this and that. It can have a completely different effect on the way that your messages heard by people.
And then embrace the buzz. I mean it may be negative, but go ahead and take advantage of it. People are talking about your brand, and you can use this as a chance to get in front of people, humanize yourself, you know, maybe get in an article, maybe talk about what happened. Just be real. Being real in social media is the most important thing.
And so these are a few ways that you can take the negative of a social media disaster, and turn it into something more positive and handle that.