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Tips to manage crisis on social media

STRATEGY 1: DROWNING

Our expectations in this digital world today are getting higher as days go by. We expect instant response, transparent and truthful news as well as information on the go because social media platforms are in the trend now. Social media is no longer just a platform for the millennials only, but every one of us young and old, regardless of age groups are now using it for various reasons.

When a crisis hits, there’s not a moment to lose. According to Cerebra social media crisis survey, more than half of the businesses had experienced crisis on social media before, and 58% of the respondents rated that the crisis has given critical impact to their businesses. On top of that, Everbridge study finds 58% of organizations lack social media strategy during crisis. Anger is the emotion that spreads easily over social media. Even a small issue will have the potential to go viral.
 
As business owners, reputation means a lot to us. We cannot afford to put our reputation at the edge. Hence, we must always be prepared and learn how to manage a crisis on social media.

 There are three strategies to manage social media's crisis effectively. Let's take a look at the first one. 

Drowning is an act to drown the negative news or information regarding your company, by posting a lot more positive news such as your company’s milestones, contracts won, CSR activities, technological innovation, company’s philosophies, good financial results, features and highlights of your company’s or products’ achievements and etc. In time of crisis where there could possibly be fake news or untruths about your company or your product being circulated, it is extremely crucial to immediately post up a response to notify the public of the fake news and provide evidence and facts to discard the fake news.

Quick action and fast decision making on how to respond within the next 15 minutes to 30 minutes will determine the successful containment of the negative/fake news from being spread to a larger group of people.

By posting a response based on the facts and subsequently conduct a campaign to elevate the company’s positive news into the cyberspace will push the negative post/s from being at the top 3 public posts on FB to perhaps number 10th to 15th spot.

When people do a search on your company and the negative post/s has/have been pushed down, the public will consistently see/view your positive news only or facts about your company. Such action will help rebuild the confidence the public has towards your company because when people search for your company, the good news will pop up first.

As proven by research firm Chitika (2013), the total of average Click-through-rates (CTRs) for top 10 queries is 208%, meaning users click more than twice on the first page result. However, the traffic drops 140% from 10th to 11th posts and 95% from page 1 to page 2 of results. This statistics affirms our drowning strategy as an effective way to push negatives away from the views of the public/audiences. 

 ‘It isn't what they say about you, it's what they whisper’, Errol Flynn once said. While there are listening tools out there to help companies listen to these grouses and negativity, most often than not their whispers to their closest friends and relatives are the most genuine opinion.

According to Nielsen’s research in the year 2015,  84% of consumers say they either completely or somewhat trust recommendations from family, colleagues, and friends when it comes to products and services, making word of mouth the highest ranked source for trustworthy. Another research done by Bright Local (2014) also told us that 88% of the public trust online reviews written by other consumers just as much as they trust recommendations from their personal contacts.

We need to acknowledge that word of mouth is very powerful. Although we are not able to control what they want to say, we can control our actions and plans and manage our content in such a way that the probability of them whispering positive and good news about us will be higher when they whisper to their friends and families. We must act fast and ethically during a social media crisis to stop the negative comments from going viral. With the right strategy and preparation, we can always remain calm during a crisis.

Look out for the 2nd strategy - NEUTRALISATION on my blog tomorrow.

This article is contributed by Ivlynn Yap Cheng Theng, Managing Partner/ Crisis Communications Lead Counsel.








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