Social Media Crisis Management
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This document provides guidance on crisis communications and reputation management on social media. It outlines a three stage process: readiness, response, and review. The readiness stage involves tools for social listening, stakeholder contact information, and pre-drafted response templates. The response stage details seven steps: stay calm, acknowledge the issue, apologize, respond to the source, listen, inform, and provide damage control. The review stage emphasizes learning from the crisis to improve processes. The document also analyzes case studies of when a crisis was handled poorly, with no communication and escalation, and when handled well, with timely updates and CEO visibility.
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Social Media Crisis Management
- 2. Who here has experienced a ‘crisis’? Who here is involved in their agency’s social media or online presence? Are you ready?
- 3. Self-inflicted wounds Unexpected events what (is a) crisis?_
- 5. a crisis_
- 6. a crisis_
- 7. a crisis_
- 8. ‘information asymmetry’ a change from the norm scope and scale you know it’s a social media crisis when_
- 9. ok…it’s hitting the fan_ WHAT NOW?
- 10. There are three stages to managing your online reputation in the event of a crisis_ READINESS RESPONSE REVIEW
- 12. 1. tooling up_ - Invest in / subscribe to Social Listening Tools - Collate stakeholder contact information and centralise - Roles and responsibilities - Pre-drafted statements / posts - Rehearsal
- 13. 2. crisis flowchart_ It’s all cool Hot under the collar Customer Service Staff respond Customer Service Staff respond with Manager Guidance Manager takes lead Bespoke content if necessary, ongoing monitoring Manager leading, Exec Team informedBespoke content, ongoing monitoring Exec Team leads, Manager support Multiple pieces of content, heavy and proactive monitoring
- 15. 1. stop and stay calm_ - Act in haste, repent at leisure.
- 16. 2. acknowledge_ - Speed matters, but not at the expense of accuracy - In a rapidly unfolding event, you’ll be forgiven for not knowing everything, but you won’t be forgiven for pretending you do.
- 17. 3. apologise_ - ‘Sorry’ only means something if you’re sincere - Real responsibility can be apportioned in the post-mortem.
- 18. 4. respond to the source_ - Comms won’t be limited to a single channel, but you need to start by addressing the issue where it first came to your attention.
- 19. 5. listen_ - Customers need to know they have somewhere they’ll be heard. - You need to contain the conversation on your turf, or the pressure will find a release elsewhere.
- 20. 6. inform_ - You need to show you’re in control of the narrative. - Critical for both internal and external customers during and – vitally – after the crisis.
- 21. 7. damage control_- As the crisis continues to unfold, it is beholden on you to continue to converse and inform. - Social media abhors a vacuum, and will quickly fill a silence with speculation and accusation.
- 23. 1. learn_ - Every crisis is different, but every crisis gives you the opportunity to improve processes and structure. - Just as important as how you deal with the crisis is how you learn from it.
- 25. when it’s done poorly_ - Information asymmetry, that pointed to a change from the norm, and which quickly grew in scope and scale - rapid escalation in a vacuum from the brand - Highly shareable - Social triggers – gender and race - Celebrity and influencer pile-on - No communications from the brand or its management - Tipped over in to offline - Pulled all the latent resentments about the brand in to its vortex
- 26. when it’s done well_ - Timely and regular updates - Visible escalation to Senior Leadership - Time stamped posts - Social distribution of press release - Addressed + quashed rumour - Communicated locations of resources for further info - CEO visibility - Thank you’s at the end
- 27. thank you_ E: phil.Bloomfield@sirencomms.com W: sirencomms.com T: @sirencomms sc_
Editor's Notes
- Thank you very much, I’m very happy to be here today sharing what I have learnt over 20 years of handling communications crises. Thanks for having me.
- So let’s start with a show of hands. Without getting hung up on definitions, who here would say they’ve been caught up in a crisis of some sort? And, forgetting the extent, or the number of platforms, etc, who here is involved – to some extent – in their agency’s social media activity? OK, putting those two together, would you say you’re ready to handle a crisis when it plays out on your agency’s social media?
- What’s a crisis? They come in several forms but broadly split in to two categories – 1 – Self-inflicted wounds Well meaning, but poorly judged, co-option of causes and hashtags Ignoring complaints Account ownership mix ups 2 – Unexpected events Wild weather, terrorism, natural disasters etc What they have in common is the capacity to disrupt your operations and cause long term damage to your internal and external brand. As I say, crises either happen to you, or are caused – or made much, much worse – by you. In the past, handling a crisis was a far easier exercise, as it was easier to control the channels of communication – and the pace of the narrative. Those were the days. The advent and growth of social media has changed that. Everyone is a publisher now, everyone has a megaphone. And as much as that is empowering, it also has the power to be incredibly damaging. You aren’t going to argue with a child who’s holding a gun, but you are going to worry about what they’re going to do with it. We’ve become used to watching events unfold in real time on social media. It’s where the ‘mainstream’ press goes for its own news now, and catastrophe is a spectator sport. You may even have piled on to a tweetstorm yourself, or know someone who has. It’s ok, it’s what the medium is there for. It can be exhilarating But if you’re on the receiving end, it is, in equal terms, terrifying. Those of you who raised your hand earlier about being involved in your agency’s social media may know what this feels like, but when you open your feed or page each day, it can feel overwhelming. So, while social media has fundamentally altered the landscape of communication, and the dynamic between a brand and its customers, what hasn’t changed is the need to start by distinguishing between what is and isn’t a crisis. Here’s some examples.
- Not a crisis. A pain in the ass, but not a crisis.
- This was a crisis, and will no doubt bring back some memories for some of you. At the time, it was almost an object lesson in how to not to let a story run away with you – and BA learnt some hard lessons as a result. Although it was an accident by a contractor cutting through an information coaxial cable, BA were held responsible for the mistake, and it’s failure to engage and get ahead of the narrative was never forgotten.
- This is also a crisis – sometimes they can happen TO you and all you can do is react.
- …and sometimes they’re entirely self-inflicted. This was quickly spotted and deleted, but not before it hand been screen captured and shared multiple times. The point is, they come in many forms. But right now, we need to understand how we specifically define what one looks like on social media.
- Information asymmetry means that you’re finding out the information at the same time as, or, worse, after – the public and/or your people A change from the norm – we work in the travel industry, and a steady hum of bitching is normal. Customers have high expectations, and there are a lot of variables – a lot out of our control – where the best intentions can unravel. But when the tone, tenor and content of those complaints changes and increases, that is when you have trouble brewing. This is the second sign of an imminent or actual social media crisis. Scope and scale – this refers to something that threatens your whole company’s reputation.
- So, it’s clear trouble is brewing, or a crisis is upon you? WHAT DO YOU DO NOW?
- I’ll outline the constituent elements of each stage, but you should also think of these as a virtuous circle, because every crisis should be a learning experience.
- Thank you very much, I’m very happy to be here today sharing what I have learnt over 20 years of handling communications crises. Thanks for having me.
- The propagation and proliferation of social media platforms and conversation is unending, and it’s impossible for one person to stay across all of them – especially if you have a day job as well. But tools exist to make your life a bit easier. Social listening tools like Mention, Brandwatch or even Google Alerts will help you track brand mentions, hashtags, CEO mentions, competitors and industry issues. Subscribe to them, and become familiar with them. Other tools, like Hootsuite, pull all those mentions together in to a single dashboard. Who is going to be involved in dealing with the crisis when it breaks? What are their out of hours contact numbers? Gather that all together, save it in a mutually accessible place (Google Drive is great for this) and make sure everyone knows that location. Likewise, roles and responsibilities – who will do what? Who needs to be pulled in when? What is the decision cascade? Now is also the time to draft some pre-prepared statements to use when a crisis breaks. These will change, and will also need to be in your brand’s tone of voice (so I’m not giving examples). And remember – rehearse!!!
- Evaluate the crisis – as you know it at that point – using a Crisis Flowchart that I’d recommend all of you go away a draw up – and then save and share with all of your internal stakeholders. An example is on the screen now, but really, all it is a scale that’ll help you segment the different crises that will impact your organisation, and how they will be dealt with. In simple terms, the more acute the crisis, the more senior the responders (sh*t rises to the top). In travel agency terms, this five stage protocol may look like: Customer service question, maybe a confirmation hasn’t arrived. Your customer support team should be empower and equipped with the tools to respond to these as BAU An actively angry customer – more than just a question, this person is upset over either service or experience. Customer service still reply, but the Manager or PR is involved and sign off. This might be a broken link, or a spat with a customer on the phone, or a hotel room not being ready. An inconvenience, and undesirable, yes, but fixable with a bit of charm and humility. Several angry customers – more than 10 or more all complaining about the same issue? Perhaps a major service failure in resort, a flight cancellation or onboard sickness outbreak on a cruise ship. This is now a ‘thing’ and it’s time for the Manager or PR specialist to step in and respond on the appropriate channel – and begin to put other internal resources on standby. A bespoke blog post may need to be written to which incoming traffic can be directed. Something bad is kicking off – You’re now getting multiple posts every hour from customers, across several channels at once, the press might be on the phone, and bystanders are wading in asking what you’re going to do about it (the ‘Twitchfork mob’). At this level, the Exec Team would be briefed, bespoke and detailed content published and you may have to consider shutting down all scheduled social activity. Other functions involved would include Marketing (what activity needs to be cancelled?), Operations, and Web. Serious brand jeopardy – The CEO now needs to be front and centre, as this incident is threatening your brand in a big way. Think a major and public data breach, a significant product failure causing injuries or fatalities, a financial crisis impacting operations, lawsuits, illegal employee conduct, etc. Anything below the line is not a crisis. Anything above it can be considered as such – and needs to be escalated beyond customer service and on to the Exec Team and PR.
- Thank you very much, I’m very happy to be here today sharing what I have learnt over 20 years of handling communications crises. Thanks for having me.
- When your phone begins to light up with notifications, when your Customer Service manager sidles over to you with a worried look on their face, don’t panic. Yes, the clock is ticking, and people are beginning to clamour for action or a response. But jumping at the first alert will create problems for you later. Take a deep breath and….
- Putting it briefly, if you at least acknowledge something is wrong – even if you don’t know all of the details let alone have a solution – then that will be respected. Responding promptly buys you sympathy – and time. SPEED MATTERS General rule is 30 minutes is the maximum time it should take to reply to a social post as the crisis is unfolding. The challenge here is that not all organisations think they can monitor social media 24/7…but I’ll talk about that shortly.
- That’s it. We’re a forgiving society…even now. The value of a genuine and authentic apology still has considerable power. So say sorry, and keep saying it. And mean it. You’ll be forgiven, eventually.
- If the complaints start flooding in via Facebook, don’t reply via Twitter. Respond where the issue is arising, and then follow the thread.
- It may be hard, and it may seem counter intuitive to your CEO, but it’s up to you to provide a space where people can vent and ask questions – and where they can see you’re listening. For one, how else are you going to hear what their concerns are, so you can address them? But also, you want the fight to be on your turf – makes it easier to keep track, by monitoring the conversation you’ll get an early warning of new developments, and it also increases the likelihood that advocates will come to your defence if they can see you’re trying to do something about the problem. You need to supply a pressure valve. If you don’t, it’ll build up and find a crack somewhere else.
- Having created a place where people can pile in on you, you also need a place where you can direct them out of the brawl. This might be a standalone site, a blog post or a microsite where the public, media, customers etc can go. In it – and it has to be something which can quickly and easily be updated – include: An acknowledgement What’s happened as you know it Details How you found out Who in the organisation has been alerted / mobilised What you’re doing about it Potential effects (although keep to the facts, no speculation) Contact information for further questions Worth also stressing here that as much as this is important for external audiences, narrowly ahead of them are your internal stakeholders. Your people need to be at least as well informed as their family, friends, etc. Especially as they will be at the sharp end of resolving the core issue. Working closely with your internal comms function (or, even, being it!) is a critical consideration. They’ll be vital in turning around your reputation once the dust settles.
- Managing a crisis on social media is NOT about winning. Its about damage control, managing the narrative. Don’t pick a fight, and never respond a third time. By then it should have come offline / off thread. Depending on the severity of the crisis, you may have had to shut down your scheduled posts. But you can still stay open to conversation with your audiences as much as you can, remain calm and polite, acknowledge it when you don’t have the answer but assure them you’re doing your best to get one, etc.
- Thank you very much, I’m very happy to be here today sharing what I have learnt over 20 years of handling communications crises. Thanks for having me.
- More important really than anything else you do is taking the time to breakdown the circumstances of the crisis and working out how you can learn from it. Analyse every step, reconstruct the process, analyse the traffic behaviour, and, if necessary, make changes. Embrace a culture of continuous improvement.
- Thank you very much, I’m very happy to be here today sharing what I have learnt over 20 years of handling communications crises. Thanks for having me.
- Ryanair crisis over w/e in late October, when a passenger objected to who he was sat next to – and expressed that through a torrent of vile racist epithets. Inevitably, someone on was there to film the incident, which was immediately posted and shared – and picked up by other’s for whom seeking examples of inequality is their purpose. This is information asymmetry – issue one, missed. Now if you work for Ryanair, you’re going to be used to a certain level of social anger and negativity. Indeed, they indulged in being the brand no-one liked. However, this represented a change from the norm – issue two, missed. Their failure to address or acknowledge what was going on, quickly meant it rapidly escalated in scope and scale – issue three. The incident took place on a Friday afternoon, but Ryanair didn’t acknowledge it until Sunday morning (and even then it was a simple one line tweet stating they are ‘aware’ of the issue and had reported it to the police). That’s a good 36 hours or so, by which time the story had long since run out of their control. This allowed plenty of time for the ripples to spread, pulling more and more people in to its vortex, including, as you can see here, celebrities and the mainstream media. In today’s febrile atmosphere, this was an immediate level 5, but Ryanair seemed to treat it as a level 2. Maybe a 3. Perhaps their social team is so battered by years of abuse they’ve stopped caring? Who knows. But what this incident became was a lightening rod for all of the other resentments people have about the brand – the comments thread of every post and every article was groaning with complaints about every aspect of the airline, and it’s management, calls for a boycott, etc. This was all so avoidable.
- Brands are in the main getting better at managing social media in a crisis, and making it work for them. I was hard on BA earlier, but the way they used social media, alongside other channels, more recently – when they had to admit to a major data breach – showed that they’d learnt. It was clear this was something they’d planned for (which helped), but that plan was well executed (which helped even more). The example I like, and which I refer back to when training colleagues, is actually from several years ago, when a Carnival Cruises ship lost power – and water – leaving it adrift for several days. Their response wasn’t perfect (ideally, the CEO could have been more visible earlier – they treated it like a level four, when really it was a level five), but what I like about this example was that they used social as their primary comms channel, with timely and regular updates across both Twitter and Facebook (the primary location of complaints from those onboard, and enquiries from loved ones on land) Open apology from the CEO in his first statement, and empathy. No attempt to direct blame elsewhere. Subsequent posts were time stamped to it was clear which is the most recent (algorithm changes me timelines aren’t chronological now) as the crisis stretched in to days – also made it easier in the ‘wash up’ to follow what happened when Updates were factual Social used as the primary location of media updates Kept comments open so gave a release to the valve – and were also then able to identify and address the main threads of grievance. This was on FB and TW – took control of the narrative. Made it clear that there was a place loved ones could get more info and directed them to it repeatedly. CEO visible throughout, and even there in person when the ship returned to shore. A thank you to mark the end of the crisis – Carnival themselves drawing a line under it: in control.