If there’s anything Covid-19 has taught us, it’s to expect the unexpected and prepare for a crisis before it happens. As many companies have overcome the initial shock of it all, they are now looking to the future and how to protect themselves from being caught off guard again. Whether it be a global pandemic or a more localized issue, a PR disaster could be lurking around the next corner. It’s the stuff that a social media manager’s nightmares are made of. And, contrary to common belief, this can impact every size of business; from start up to enterprise. How a business weathers the storm at the worst of times can make the difference between a quick recovery and a slow (and very public) death by a thousand Tweets or Instagram posts. Mitigate the damage ahead of time by having a social media crisis plan in place to avoid being caught off guard next time. Social media is equally a public relations frontier as it is a marketing playground, and so we can rest assured that many PR crisis best practices are still relevant in today’s digital world – with a few modifications. Here are the top questions you need to answer to build an effective social media crisis plan: 1.Do you have existing social media response guidelines? Every company should have a foundation of social media response guidelines that tackle how we respond to day-to-day questions. This can be invaluable in crafting a crisis response strategy as it allows the business to remain consistent in voice, tone and approach during the chaos. To build your guidelines, align on your brand voice, then build a decision tree for who, how and when you would respond to customers. Finally, build a bank of FAQ assets and responses to make day-to-day online customer service quick and effective. As a PR crisis unfolds, you can update the FAQ to ensure messaging is up-to-date and in line with what people are talking about. 2.Does your business have social listening procedures and tools in place? At its core, social listening is literally listening to what customers are saying in social media channels to help inform your messaging and business decisions. For small businesses, that might be something as simple as searching out hashtags, comments and @mentions on the crisis topic to glean important insights around sentiment and FAQ. For a larger organization, a social listening tool could be brought in to provide powerful insights into conversation volume (how many people are posting about the topic), engagement and reach of your content. During a crisis, reporting and analyzing incoming social data is critical to identifying simmering crisis issues, managing operations during the issue, and assessing results after the fact. For enterprise-level businesses, there are many social listening tools on the market, ranging drastically in terms of budget and functionality. To ensure your tool can be activated for a crisis, ensure that it checks the following boxes: 3.What is the chain of command for messaging? One of the most common hang ups when dealing with issues is miscommunication about who approves messaging. Companies can spend precious hours – or even days – chasing their tails as they wait for sign off and alignment. Does the buck stop with your CEO or does the PR prime have final say? Before you go down the sign-off wormhole, identify which stakeholders need to be looped into the messaging. The leaner the team, the more effective and efficient. It may help to create a sliding scale of severity from 1-5 with examples for each, then establish a RACI model: 4.Does the rest of your team know what their role is during a crisis? Finalizing a crisis and issues management plan is a major win for any organization, but an even greater (and more important) feat is making sure your team is in the loop too. Socializing with your business stakeholders will be critical to the successful execution of the plan, should you ever need to activate it. Do the front-line folks know the plan – and the specific do’s and don’ts during an issue? Has the CEO, PR prime and manager seen and signed off? Are your company’s third-party representatives looped into the plan (i.e. contractors, agencies, or sales representatives)? 5.What’s your target (and realistic) reaction time? What is the realistic amount of time it will take to craft and execute on your first messaging response during a crisis? Time is of the essence when an issue is unfolding in the online space. This means we’re talking hours, not days. All it takes is a few Facebook shares to add gasoline onto already burning embers and you’ll have a sweeping wildfire on your hands. That said, it’s important that you move forward with accurate, consistent messaging that the whole company is on board with. Remember, the tighter the plan, the faster you can begin to remedy the situation. 6.Is your Customer Service game on point? The best defence is a good offence, as they say. When you have winning social media response approach during the good times, you will have a much easier time rebounding when things go sideways. Invest in your front-line superstars to ensure they are well-trained and have the resources they need to deliver online service excellence to your customers. Do this now, and you’ll find a ready army of customer advocates willing to come to your defence if tumultuous times ensue. 7.Do you have the ability to pivot quickly? One of the common denominators about Covid-19 is that regardless of size, businesses are having to pivot at lightning speed. Whether it’s a mom and pop shop struggling to remain open for business or a multi-national corporation shifting its workforce to remote technology; the struggles are different, but united in their need for agility. Companies that have a lean and agile approach and see challenges as an opportunity are weathering the storm and standing out from the pack. A pivot is only as good as the communications that support it, so ensuring that you can get the word out to your customers through social media and marketing tools is critical. Here are two recent examples good pivots and supporting social media communications during Covid 19: EXAMPLES Guinness Pivots On Saint Patrick’s Day What happened: Just days before St. Patrick’s Day, Covid-19 began to grip the Western world. Ireland cancelled celebrations and Guinness, which has been an integral part of St Patrick’s Day celebrations for generations, had to make a giant shift into the unknown. How they dealt with it: Rather than go silent, they pivoted—quickly and drastically. On March 13, the company launched a “We are all human” campaign, which promised $500,000 to communities in need during this difficult time through their Guinness Gives Back Fund. They paid tribute to their resilience over the company’s 260-year history and infused a sense of calm during the impending storm. We know that St. Patrick’s Day feels different this year, so however you choose to celebrate, stay safe and be good to one another. Guinness is committing $500,000 through our Guinness Gives Back Fund to help communities where we live, work & celebrate. #Guinness pic.twitter.com/EZpYpzAGE0 — Guinness US (@GuinnessUS) March 13, 2020 Later.com shifts their content strategy to address Covid-19 What happened: Instagram scheduling and management platform, Later.com is well regarded in the social media industry for their thought leadership; not only on the Instagram platform, but also in digital marketing overall. The company plans their content weeks out, but with the impending crisis of Covid-19 affecting every sector and global market, they had to scrap all planned content and shift focus rapidly. How they dealt with it: Later.com viewed this as an opportunity to shepherd marketers through this storm. The content team held a brainstorm to adjust their focus, anticipating the needs of their customers and creating content that would address growing concerns around how to continue marketing on Instagram during the emerging crisis. They provided an arsenal of content to give current and prospective clients ideas about how to move forward in this challenging business landscape. Also, most importantly, they met customers where they were at: working from home during quarantine. These are just some of the many examples of how pivoting, rapid ideation and customer insights drove an evolved communications approach. Looking to protect your business from a social media firestorm? Connect with us!
