Risk analysts cull social networks and online communication (blogs, forums, etc.) to identify potential crisis situations that could influence a brand’s bottom line and/or reputation. These analysts are crucial during a crisis because they know how to identify risk and how to act when it escalates. The process of using social media during a crisis situation need not be complicated. The ability to leverage social begins long before you have any threat, and it’s best executed with procedures in place. Here are some ways to build an infrastructure that prepares you to use social media during crisis communication.
Create a Culture of Listening: The fastest way to identify and defuse a crisis situation is by having multiple people looking out for it and then advocating on your behalf. Your employees act as a built-in support system. It’s important to provide them with training to understand what the problem areas are, in case they see them. From there, it’s crucial to assign someone as the point person who receives these concerns. That person acts as a funnel to sift through information and knows whom to turn to for whatever type of risk issue is encountered. When people do not know what to do with information, things fall through the cracks. That potentially could hurt your brand, clients or customers.
Positive Brand Amplification: Along the lines of encouraging employees to consume external news and information, it’s equally important for them to stay informed and knowledgeable about what’s happening within the organization.
Your employees are brand ambassadors. What better way to turn the tide against negative public commentary than to activate your team? Employees act as multiple channels of communication, disseminating information to their network at a quick rate. A coordinated effort works in your favor because social networks recognize when multiple people are talking about the same topic simultaneously, making it more visible in social feeds.
Designate a Media Monitor: Most risk situations can be identified long before they turn into crises. It’s important to dedicate a person to listening to various channels to spot potential issues. In the past, this role might have been designated to an entry-level employee. However, as content and social networks grow, it’s vital that this task be taken more seriously.
An entry-level employee can still handle the task, but it’s important that he or she understands that they’re not just collecting online news that mentions the brand. The employee is looking for things that can influence the brand’s bottom line. By having a person actively monitor communication on your brand and key players in your organization, that person will know what normal traffic levels look like and when abnormal spikes occur. Monitoring software is great, but human judgment is better. This is a role that can and should be folded up within another job function on your communication team.
Understand a Social Network’s Community: Knowledge is a major factor in using social media successfully in crisis communication. Pinterest, for example, lacks negative conversations because it’s largely driven by visual content and tends to be a place for inspiration. Yelp, on the other hand, is a platform that welcomes negative community engagement. It’s a waste of resources to monitor networks that do not have a culture of negative interaction. Therefore, it’s crucial to understand your audiences and go to the social networks that they are most likely to frequent. Facebook and Twitter are two of the most popular social networks that also allow for brand engagement. You should always keep a close eye on them.
Analyze Spikes in Conversation: If you see an uncharacteristically high volume of conversation, it’s important for you to understand it. The person dedicated to listening should chase after the origin of the conversation. It’s not enough to acknowledge a growth in volume. You need to assess and determine what is causing the spike. Getting to the root of the problem potentially could save your business.
Assess Risk: Once a potential risk situation is identified, several factors will determine its gravity: velocity, volume and influence. A person with credibility and a large social following—perhaps a reporter from The New York Times—is more likely to have his or her message heard. If the reporter shares a negative experience with his or her social audience, it is likely to travel fast. How fast is crucial, because it shows the severity of the situation.
Set thresholds such as mild, severe and emergency to measure situations. Mild might constitute 20 people or fewer engaging on a certain issue. If that number does not grow within an hour and begins to decay, you know it’s a non-emergency. Should an issue grow by more than 20 people or more within the hour and continue growing, it should be a sign that you need to take action.
Monitoring social media and encouraging employees to stay informed as well as training them to assess risk is the best way to prevent a crisis from beginning. Once you are in crisis communication mode, the same rules apply. Be transparent and provide information, even if that information is to say you do not have more information.
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