We know how much you liked our 5 social media disasters and as much as our evil half likes to watch businesses suffer severe consequences of their mistakes (kidding), we will also like to know how to salvage situations like these.
Most of the ideas I am going to share with you can be applied anywhere, not only in the social media world.
There are basically 4 points to take note when managing a social media disaster.
Read on!
1. Always listen, especially when you screw up on social media
Listening is a 100% must in managing any crisis and if it’s on social media; you absolutely have no excuse to miss the buzz. With social search and possible Facebook protest groups, you will definitely know what people really hate about you.
Listen to what consumers are talking about you and spot supporters. List down the things people are dissatisfied with so that you can address them appropriately.
As for the supporters, gather them together subtly to let them speak out for you in a stronger voice. Moderate them lest they end up angering more dissatisfied consumers.
Look at what wholefoods did during its whole social media backlash. By having a forum up for health care discussion, unhappy consumers are able to voice their opinions, enabling Wholefoods to monitor the buzz right under its nose. Plus, supporters are able to come together to defend Wholefoods better, cushioning the impact of the backlash.
2. Admit to your mistakes the social media way?
Always admit to your mistakes even if it hurts your ego and brand image. If consumers want to hear excuses, they can get it from someone else. Be sincere and apologize at the right time and place.
Since the disaster probably got blown out of proportions on social media, why not address the issues on the very same platform? If your consumers were making noise on Facebook, they probably couldn’t care less about what you say on the newspapers.
3. Quick response is not always wise
While many people will advise you to be responsive and quick to clear up the mess, there is always wisdom behind the advice, “think twice before you act.” You should always listen carefully before making any decisions. You cannot afford another mistake on a platform so viral.
Sometimes, remaining silent about a certain issue is better than trying to address anything at all. This brings us to the next point.
4. Thicken the right nodes
Remember the period when McDonalds suffered a strong backlash because of stories about its beef patty being entirely made of red worms? I mean please, who would have believed such a story? So what happened? How did this ridiculous story cost McDonalds a huge sales drop?
McDonalds can’t blame anyone but itself for thickening the wrong nodes.
Look at McDonalds associative map. We have some possible associations consumers have of it. During this period, a new node was formed – Red Worms.
On hindsight, McDonalds should have thickened its existing positive nodes or created new ones (Corporate Social Responsibility?) that were not related to red worms at all. After some time, the negative node would have faded as they focused on the new.
New Positive Node “CSR”
Instead, McDonalds held several press releases to tell everyone that their beef patties were not made of red worms.
Throughout the whole time, consumers were hearing about McDonalds and its red worm story. This mental node was thickened with every press release and more people started associating it with red worms – the story became more believable than before!
Thickened “Red Worms” Node
Worse, McDonalds revealed that the cost of red worms were more expensive than the beef used in making its patties, explaining that it would be stupid for McDonalds to use red worms instead of real beef.
So what now, were we eating something even cheaper than red worms? What would consumers think about your food quality?
Same for a social media crisis, you don’t want to go around thickening the wrong nodes. Listen and think before acting. Should you apologize, deny or just ignore? Should you focus on thickening and forming positive nodes instead?
If you really did something wrong, it is important to apologize, but after that move on and focus on something else. Don’t dwell on that negative node, making it even harder to erase.
