It can happen at any time. One day, everything is running smooth, and the next, you find yourself elbow deep in controversy.
Someone posted something offensive or false to one of your social media accounts.
It happens, and it’s not fun. You hope it doesn’t happen to you, and you should employ all available efforts to prevention. But sometimes, things fall through the cracks. So what do you do in those situations?
Just follow the Four A’s.
1. Acknowledge
They say the best way to take a hit is to lean into it.
As soon as you get the news that something bad happened, jump on it immediately. One of the absolute worst things you can do is ignore a crisis. It will not blow over, and once you finally acknowledge the situation, you’ll be criticized further for waiting too long to respond. Dig in, and go public as soon as you can.
A fantastic example comes from Kitchen Aid USA. In 2012, a member of the staff accidently sent a very offensive tweet aimed at President Obama from the Kitchen Aid Twitter account. It was deleted immediately, and within 15 minutes, the head of branding, Cynthia Soledad, logged onto the account to acknowledge the accident and apologize.
It wasn’t pretty, but they jumped in immediately. Don’t let a situation drag on without your acknowledgement. Take responsibility ASAP.
The Benefit: Acknowledgment of a problem displays your honesty and shows that you’re observant and in control.
2. Apologize
Once you’ve acknowledged that a situation has taken place, apologize, and mean it.
An honest, sincere apology will not fix everything, and you probably won’t feel the effects of it immediately, but it will go a long way with the public, and they will forgive you. Not apologizing can and will have devastating consequences.
When you do apologize, do so through the social media platform where the crisis took place. If it’s an ill-timed tweet, then you should be tweeting your apology. You can expand to your other profiles if necessary, but always start where the problem originated.
The Benefit: An apology is a showing of humility and contrition. It demonstrates your care for your business and its audience.
3. Act
Even after you’ve acknowledged the problem and apologized for it, there’s still going to be a backlash to deal with. You’ll get emails, comments, tweets, etc all expressing disdain, contempt, and general unhappiness. Plus, people are going to demand answers and solutions.
You have to act.
It’s one thing to express your remorse, but your actions will ultimately determine whether you come out of the situation for better or worse.
Put forth a plan of action to clean up the mess AND prevent it from ever happening again. There should be obvious, recognizable movement to make the situation right.
You should also prepare yourself to have to make some tough decisions. Going back to the Kitchen Aid example above, Cynthia Soledad made it clear in her Twitter apology that the staff member responsible for the offensive tweet had already been removed from their position. Some of your actions may involve a hard call.
At the same time, you need someone on social media running damage control. Social media is a communication tool. Use it. Keep the public privy to your actions as you fix the situation. Respond to your commenters (professionally; do not argue), and don’t delete negative commentary unless it’s vulgar.
The Benefit: Puts truth and meaning behind your apology. Proves you truly care about the problem and shows responsibility.
4. Absorb
Take it all in. Every bit.
As you work to resolve the crisis, take note, not just of the issue itself, but everything it affects. Log the damage from beginning to end and keep a record of it.
Why memorialize such a terrible issue? Because a crisis situation is also a learning experience. When you absorb the problem, consequences and all, it’ll help and motivate you to avoid the issue in the future.
The Benefit: Better preparedness for prevention.
Though you should always be prepared for a crisis, the best plan of action is prevention. Follow the links for some tips on the best Facebook and Twitter practices. And if you found this blog helpful, leave us a comment or tweet us at @widenet.
