Looking at a social media managers’ day-to-day operation, many may think that its spur of the moment with no plan to what they are responding to. However, as described in the “How to Use Social Media for Crisis Communications and Emergency Management” article, many small communications help build that long-term relationship with customers, making them feel valued, and obligated to support their end of the relationship. If we were to compare this relationship communication to that of a friendship, our society considers two individuals’ friends on the basis of communication and quality time spent together. I know of the President of the United States; he doesn’t know me. If I tweeted him, I’m keeping my end of the communication “deal,” but unless he were to respond, we aren’t considered friends, I’m just a follower. This comes back to the strategy that businesses should be personifying their brand, to connect with their audience better, ultimately turning relationships into sales conversions, or awareness trends, per the case.
When posting an apology, companies should be conscious of who is getting the credit. I recently was writing thank you cards, and deferred from saying, ”Thank you for your dedication and expertise to the success of our program.” and replaced the program with students. This shows that it is not us benefitting from professionals’ time to make our program look good, but the students, and those who will benefit from the knowledge shared. With the COVID misinformation example, they used the clever verbiage of “We would like to thank our amazing community for letting us know of our mistake right away.” This reflects the negative mistake on the company and the positive impact on the community.
The key is communication. Make sure all employees are aware of the situation, especially those involved in posting. Group chats and using a messaging app I feel are more effective than email, it encourages employees to send a quick text rather than a formal email. Maybe even creating a Press Release to blast to all employees involved and guidelines of what and what not to say to the public could be helpful ensuring everyone is on the same page, literally. Be sure to include the main point of contact for any questions or gray area clarifications. When the HR department of a company knows they are to fire an individual, they should have a list of people to contact about this change before notifying the individual. One of the essential people should be the Social Media Manager, being proactive to not cause sabotage against the company. When employees put their 2 weeks in to quit, it should be the next day that Managers remove the employee from social media accounts, also preventing potential sabotage and grand scheme demolition, depending on the severity of the case. Not only can employees be your most loyal retweets and engaging audience, but on the reverse side, are the biggest threat to your brand. In addition to the brand tracking extensions Hootsuite mentioned, I have found using Google Alerts at my internship to track the newspaper and third-party mentions we get and then featuring those on our social media is helpful, but at times finding the mention can be confusing. Another helpful tool may be updating or releasing a FAQ sheet if a crisis or confusion among the audience seems to be the same questions. Many corporate companies ignore their bottom-line employees and give them the dirt of benefits when, in reality, these are the individuals making them the most money with their personable attitude and kindness towards customers. The bottom-line can also break the company brand, with an incident and their response to individual customers with a voice in the community. Responding to all haters will not solve the problem, so in the famous words of Taylor Swift, “Haters gonna hate, hate, hate.”
The Scenario:
Canva has started a campaign to help those affected by the war in Ukraine. After all, the I’s are dotted and t’s are crossed, they release a campaign advertising new templates with a theme of yellow and blue, symbolizing the Ukrainian flag. After releasing these templates, the social media team receives comments stating “How dare you take advantage of the war for your personal benefit.” “Do you not understand there are innocent civilians dying from the attacks?”
Marketing calls an immediate meeting to evaluate what to do. Canva removes the posts and releases the above picture to all social media platforms (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest) with the caption “We understand there may have been some confusion with the release of some new templates on our site. Please watch this video for an explanation.” On the video release date, the video is compiled of the staff at Canva saying we’re sorry, including the president. “We realize that we did not take into consideration the misunderstanding that was conveyed to our valued customers. All subscription dues for the month of March and April will be going to XX Foundation to support Ukrainian refugees during these troublesome times. We appreciate your edits and will also be donating XX to XX Foundation. Join us in helping by donating here.” Creating a video may take longer, but I believe with a simple “teaser” letting viewers know that the staff is tirelessly working on the issue is reassuring to know that Canva Cares, which could even be their hashtag #CanvaCares.
Bushels of Fun 