Most companies lack social media crisis management plans. It is highly important to have a crisis plan in place so there is a faster path to a solution. If you have two separate crisis plans, it is a good idea to merge your social media crisis management plan in with your overall business crisis plan. It takes time to formulate a good crisis management plan so make sure you pay attention to your A/B tests. It is important to know that social media crisis management is not the same as traditional media crisis management. When a social media crisis hits, consumers demand increases overall transparency.
Social Media Crisis Communication Plan
As you begin thinking about a social media crisis management plan, look at your PR crisis communication plan. For example, take a look at BP — they had no social media crisis plan in place when the oil spill happened. Head the warning — get a plan in social media crisis management plan in place as soon as you can. Your company should devise a Social Media Crisis Action Plan. When we do strategic planning, we will always bring up the social media crisis plan.
Social Media Crisis Management: Industry Standards
Industry standards have adapted because of these new social media crisis management processes have emerged. On occasion there are times where you will notice that some have not decided to plan for a crisis. Take a look at past media crisis management events, Mr. Weiner definitely had no plan in place when getting caught sending lewd photos and he would definitely want to avoid Tiger Woods’ and Brett Favre’s social media crisis management mistakes. Part of your social media crisis communications plan should include playing out scenarios.
The large PR firm, Weber Shandwick, recently launched a social media crisis simulator. Its important to stop looking at “general crisis communications” and “social media crisis communications” as two different things, they are still a crisis. How The Red Cross defused a potential Social Media crisis situation . In this post, we discuss the difference between a social media crisis and a problem.
Increase in Social Media Crisis Plans
In the past year, I have seen more and more agencies and companies advocating for a social media crisis management plan. The main purpose of this post is to be prepared for a social media crisis before it happens. The easiest way to mishandle a social media crisis is to not have guidelines in place. The type of role that a lawyer plays in social media crisis management depends on the matter. Mishandling a social media crisis has the potential to destroy a company’s hard-earned reputation as well as effect overall revenue.
