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Guest Blog Post by Valeria Maltoni, Director of Strategy, Powered, Inc.
Who’s afraid of a crisis in social media? We live in a world where news is discussed and disseminated with increased speed — reporters are embedded in the stream with companies, customers, and employees, and there are limitless potential news outlets. In an environment where a 13-year old can hold an established organization’s feet to the fire, companies face slippery slopes, and boards make fast calls, how can you avoid a PR disaster when a crisis strikes? Your crisis may look like one of these live scenarios.
Whether the crisis lives online or off line, a company still needs to plan for all possible contingencies and scenarios, do a situation analysis to respond — and recover.
Are you rushing to deal with perceptions without knowing the facts? Are you integrating social media into your crisis planning? Are community managers trained, do they have crisis escalation paths? Or have you just addressed responding to detractors? In other words, are you ready?
Navigating a digital crisis successfully often means that you have applied risk communication principles to social media. One of the most productive aspects of communication planning and response focuses on identifying the perspectives of main stakeholders in a crisis. Think about, for example:
- an employee anxious to explain and defend why they work at your company
- a pundit eager to showcase what they know and possibly gain publicity in the process, while underestimating their own influence and potential reputational damage they are inflicting
- a respected member of a community of concerned citizens
A community of customers and fans is an asset — they influence the conversation about a brand and its competitors with customers off line, where the opinions that form have a more direct impact on purchasing decisions.
Crisis often develop because customers expect that someone is listening. They expect that someone respond especially when you’re active in social media. And when the response time lags, they question all their previous interactions with the system, be it a brand community or a social feed.
Join our conversation on Tuesday, September 7, and learn how to protect your online investment and the social capital accumulated with it by addressing the concern and participating in the communication loop with the community in real time.
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by Valeria Maltoni, Director of Strategy, Powered, Inc. In addition to having built one of the first online communities associated with Fast Company magazine, Valeria has 20-year real world corporate experience from Fortune 500 companies to small start ups in technology, chemical manufacturing, risk management consulting, financial services, and health care. During her career, she has been on the front lines of crisis potentially devastating to companies’ reputation and bottom line.
