A social media crisis can happen to any business—big or small—and here are some things that you need to know about how to manage and handle a social media crisis.
It can be about a failed credit card payment, failed delivery, poor customer service, or a bad store experience for your customers.
Because of social media, everybody can easily post their thoughts and feedback about your business, products, services, or brand.
If you don’t pay attention, it can cause a brand scandal on social media.
What’s worst is when you don’t know how to handle it. A crisis mishandled can add more fuel to the ongoing social media fire.
First, you need to know the stages of social media crisis management.
Three Stages Of A Social Media Crisis Management Plan
- Pre-Crisis
- Response
- Post-Crisis
Stage 1: Pre-Crisis Management
This stage is where you should do all the planning.
Assess the crisis and issue at hand and gather the facts.
- What happened during the transaction?
- Why is this upsetting the customer?
- What system failed?
- Who/What is responsible for the failure that caused the issue?
After assessing what happened, ask yourself: “How can I resolve this issue?”
By asking yourself this, you’ll be able to come up with the answer to solve the social media crisis. It’s now time to create your response.
Stage 2: Response
I don’t recommend responding to a social media post by an irate customer right away if you haven’t done stage 1 (planning).
Your response should be well-crafted and should do either of the two:
- If you’re doing your response privately, do some probing.
- Your response should aim to resolve the issue.
Your response should empathetic and compassionate. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and understand why they are frustrated and angry.
Stage 3: Post-Crisis Management
After a series of responses between you and your customers, make sure to keep a record of the conversation.
Debrief your team about the situation from start to finish.
If the issue is a recurring problem—especially if it’s a problem about processing payments or order shipment—you can create a list of frequently asked questions on your website or set up automated responses in your chat system to easily address a customer’s question.
What did you learn from this training?
Share this on social media with your answer so you can always go back to this article to guide you whenever you need some assistance in handling a social media crisis.
P.S. You can also book a FREE Fire Session—1-hour business coaching—with me here so we can talk about your current business challenges.
Related articles:
Facebook Vs Instagram: Which Is Better To Promote And Market Your Business
5 Best Free Social Media Content Creation Tools For Your Business In 2021
5 Tips On How To Effectively Use Social Media In Your Business
How To Plan Social Media Content For Your Online Business In One Hour Or Less
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𝘿𝙄𝙎𝘾𝙇𝘼𝙄𝙈𝙀𝙍: 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙫𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙤 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙥𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙖𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙄 𝙚𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙤𝙧 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙥 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙩𝙤𝙤𝙡𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙢𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙. 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙖𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙨 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙢𝙮 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙡 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙖𝙩 𝙣𝙤 𝙘𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙤𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢. 𝘼𝙥𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙬𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙮 𝙫𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙤.