Simple strategies to protect your brand image and prevent a crisis on social media

Social media is a powerful tool for brands to engage with their audiences and is often the first impression for potential customers. Research shows 33% of customers identify social media as their primary source for finding new brands, products, and services. Your social channels can be a strong asset for your brand to creatively communicate with customers while sharing information about your business including brand values or corporate social responsibility initiatives.

By the same token, one social post or negative message about your brand can snowball (explode? go viral?).  In the era of internet trolls and cancel culture, it’s vital to know how to carefully protect your brand image on social media and what steps to follow in case of a crisis. 

What is a social media crisis?

A social media crisis is more than one bad review or negative comment – it’s any online activity that significantly, and negatively affects both online and offline brand reputation.

A crisis can start on a social media post in the form of a comment war, or it can ignite from a negative brand encounter that was shared online. In an age fueled by the internet, social media usage is at an all-time high for consumers and brands. In fact, 80% of consumers use social to engage with brands. while 35% of Americans have used social media to complain about a company.

Offense is the best social media defense

Following these tips will help you navigate a world of critics and online trolls, protecting your brand’s reputation and proactively reducing the risk of a PR crisis.

1. Create a social media policy

One of the first steps to protect your brand on social media is to create a policy that outlines social media use for your organization and employees.

Providing clear guidelines helps mitigate negative consequences. However, many companies don’t create a plan until after a PR crisis happens. According to a recent study, 63% of employees say their employers have no social media policy in place.

Your social channels, along with your employees, are a representation of your brand. So, creating a social media policy is a crucial step in helping safeguard your brand’s reputation. Your team will know how to engage with your audiences in ways that reflect your brand’s values. Here are a few guidelines to consider including in your social media policy:

• Use of official accounts – Describe how each social channel should be used. Is it to provide customer service or share company news? Additionally, your policy should include who has access to these channels and who is responsible for communications via brand accounts.
• Engagement – Outline when and how employees should engage with your audience. Be clear that all engagement should come from company channels through the appropriate people and not employees’ personal accounts.
• Brand Tone and Voice – Illustrate your brand’s online persona. Be descriptive with how messages from this channel should be communicated. These guidelines help your audience perceive your company as one cohesive brand.
• Rules and Regulations – While it’s paramount to create rules for brand channels, it’s also important to have social media guidelines for how employees should interact online from their own accounts – especially in relation to the brand. What type of company news can employees share? How should employees talk about the brand on social media? The way employees engage online can impact how your brand’s reputation is protected on social media.

2. Develop an approval process and wear multiple hats

Many online mistakes happen simply from oversight. Plan your messaging and content ahead of time so your team can discuss, review and approve social posts that align with your brand’s vision and purpose. Take advantage of multiple perspectives your colleagues can provide. Sharing different viewpoints and experiences can often lead to great messaging and out-of-the-box ideas and can minimize biases that may otherwise have been missed.

3. Monitor your community

Monitor your channels at least daily so you can address issues in a timely manner. Social listening can help you get ahead of a potential crisis and minimize negative press coverage. Additionally, observing your audience’s sentiment will allow you to understand how they feel about your brand and make adjustments to improve engagements.  Most importantly, if you come across someone who disagrees with your brand, always keep your responses professional and informed. Even if someone leaves an unfair review or makes an off-base statement, remember not to get defensive and fight back – stay calm, collected, and professional.

4. Stay Connected

There are plenty of instances of brands called out for being tone-deaf to current trending topics or news. Keep up to date with what’s happening in your industry, communities, and online and offline culture. If a pressing conversation related to a current event is taking over social media or a horrible tragedy occurs, press pause on your scheduled promotional content. Additionally, find ways for your company and employees to get involved in corporate social responsibility initiatives to provide support and make a positive impact on the greater community. These practices will help you stay relevant in the conversation, avoid online mistakes and better equip you to react to critics with informed responses.

How to respond to a crisis on social media

You created a social media policy and followed the tips above, yet your company still experienced a negative response from someone online. Don’t panic! Follow these steps to analyze and respond to the situation in a brand-appropriate, professional manner.

1. Assess the situation

The first step in any social media crisis is to assess the situation, quickly, but thoroughly. You need to understand what happened and how it was caused before you can develop a plan of action to properly address the crisis. This is also when your social media policy comes into play. While you can’t predict every crisis, your policy will be a starting point on how to respond.

2. Halt scheduled content and ads

Ensure your content is paused until the crisis is sufficiently handled. Stopping your scheduled content shows your audience that your brand is addressing the issue and is taking the time to focus on an appropriate solution.

3. Be timely, calm and professional

With any crisis, you’ll want to acknowledge the problem and provide an initial response as soon as possible. And while timeliness is important, it’s also critical to stay calm. Based on the subject matter, determine the appropriate people to handle communications and keep all responses as professional as possible. Now more than ever, many eyes will be on your brand – so don’t argue, use defensive language or delete negative comments – this will hurt your image in the long run.

4. Show compassion and a commitment to improvement

While social media crises are unfortunate, they provide an opportunity for engagement.  If a misstep, show the public the steps your brand intends to take to resolve the current crisis and prevent another one from happening. Whether it’s company training, a shift in management or new corporate social responsibility initiatives, it’s important to show what your brand has learned and how you’re committed to making positive changes.

Social media gives brands the opportunity to show your audience the personality behind your products or services and create meaningful relationships. Being proactive at protecting your brand from PR disasters on social media is a critical step to increasing those connections and maintaining business. Our team comes with decades of experience in crisis communications and social media strategy. Reach out to us to begin building your crisis prevention plan before you need to implement it.