You've encountered a social media crisis. How can you transform it into a brand-building triumph?

Honestly, it entirely depends on the nature of the crisis. The timing is the key here. Acknowledging about something too early is as dangerous as talking about it too late. However, its easier said than done. Therefore, setting up a monitoring or a social hearing system is critical for any brand at all the times.

Monitoring social media, internet forums, and media communication are a proactive ways to monitor the brand engagements and communication. Acknowledging a social media crisis is a good way to let the audience be aware that you know what's going on and you're aware. False news, fake news and misinformation can be intentional or accidental, when the brand tells it's side of the story, strong brand advocates will be highly motivated to stand by the brand's side of the story.

Before acknowledging anything, it is always wise to investigate the matter first. The digital age has sadly made it easy for individuals with negative intent to besmirch businesses with fictitious and slanderous allegations, especially when there is economic turmoil and some companies looking to utilize on 'dirt' against competing and rival companies. Once the authenticity of allegations and dirt is proven, then it is wise to either acknowledge or deny the accusations. Working together with authorities is a plus point

Reading the room is critical in your response. Taking accountability is key to rebuilding. An immediate defensive stance only fuels the fire. Timing of the response is critical before the narrative is hijacked. Take the time to identify a resolution to the issue, so when you do respond, you are also tabling the resolve. Control the narrative.

Before taking any action, it’s crucial to thoroughly investigate the situation. In today’s digital landscape, it’s all too common for businesses to be targeted by baseless or malicious claims, particularly during times of economic uncertainty when some competitors might attempt to capitalize on negative press. Once the validity of these allegations has been confirmed, it’s important to respond appropriately—either by addressing the issues head-on or refuting them if they’re unfounded. Collaborating with authorities during this process can further strengthen the brand’s credibility and public trust.

Assessment would start with identifying the root cause of the crisis by determining what happened, why it happened and what can be done to prevent a repeat occurrence. Root cause analysis traces a crisis to it's origin with a view to finding a permanent solution to the crisis. Root Cause analysis is based on the assessment that systems and events are interrelated, in the sense that one action triggers another action and another one. A robust interrogation will reveal how the problem started which could be due to physical causes, human causes or organizational causes. With a well articulated analysis, it will allow for a more robust response.

Implementing social listening tools like Mention has been pivotal in understanding the scope of crises. These platforms offer real-time insights into public sentiment and conversations, allowing us to grasp the full extent of the impact quickly. During a product backlash, this tool illuminated the concerns we had overlooked, enabling us to address the issue comprehensively in our response strategy, which fostered a more positive dialogue with our community. Incorporating feedback mechanisms directly on our platforms during a crisis has also proven invaluable. Following a service outage, we implemented a simple feedback widget that allowed users to report their experiences and concerns directly.

Assess the situation of the crisis. This crisis should be analysed throughly by the SWOT analysis and evaluation and the impact on all the external stakeholders

Transparency in Communication is important because it emphasis on building credibility by disclosing all the important and Relevant information that directly impacts the stakeholders

Address the crisis head-on by being open and honest with your audience. Share what happened, why it happened, and what steps you're taking to fix it. Transparency builds trust and shows that your brand takes responsibility. Use this opportunity to engage with your audience, listen to their concerns, and show that you're committed to making things right. By being transparent, you can turn a crisis into a chance to strengthen your brand's credibility and relationship with customers.

Effective communication is very key to achieving successful outcomes in a crisis management debacle. There must be detailed and we'll constructed responses that would change the crisis narrative and change the perception of the audience. There must realtime online updates as well as offline updates that would focus on what's going right, how crisis is being managed and how the crisis is being resolved. The brand engagement must carry the audience along the whole process. Brand advocates and brand ambassadors can be used to make statements on behalf of the brand, however they must communicate exactly what the brand is communicating, they must align in communication.

Personal engagement through visuals also matters. This helps in maintaining a deep and personal relationship with all the external stakeholders.

A lot of emotional intelligence is needed to engage with the audience during a crisis management. Press conferences and one on one meetings can be designed to give the audience a perception that the company is having a sense of urgency.in addressing the crisis. Human contact in communication is effective for reading perceptions and non verbal languages that online communication cannot read. In online communication, emotional intelligence EI should be used to respond and engage with the audience.

Implementation of changes to address the brand crisis should be seen to be in the interest and ultimate benefit of the brand customers and audience. Feedback obtained through research, survey, discussions, offline and online methods should be used to create information needed to ensure the likelihood the crisis won't happen again. The implementation stage is a big opportunity to show the audience that the brand is customer centric and has a total commitment to customer problem resolution. This helps to build brand loyalty.

The changes and strategies decided should be implement to eradicate the social media crisis and to rebuild the image of the organization