How to Deal With Every Kind of Person on Social Media

Kimberly Grimms

February 25, 2015

Adults who go online increased from 67% in late 2012 to 74% in January 2014 according to the Pew Internet Project’s research on social networking. Businesses are persistent on seizing every opportunity available; they don’t just merely rely on traditional media anymore but rather extend their marketing efforts by going online.

Photo Courtesy of UK Ministry of Defence via Flickr

With the growing numbers of adults online, brands and businesses make use of social media as an avenue to send their message and to reach out to existing and potential customers. It sounds like an easy task, yes, but what if your company got into a social media crisis? Is your business ready to deal with different kinds of people who have populated the Internet? 

Have A Foolproof Plan

Crises don’t give notices; it might hit you right before your very eye. That’s why it is very much important to plan ahead even if it hasn’t even occurred yet. Make sure to have a pre-crisis planning with your team. Be on guard for events that might result to a crisis. Of course you can’t just look around and wait for a crisis to happen, you’ve got to have your tools ready such as social media listening tools and you should have a team to watch it 24/7. Crisis unfolds real time in the social web so you have to be on the lookout for sudden spikes in the conversation.

A Problem Or A Crisis?

It’s not hard to distinguish a problem from a crisis. You just need to have a mutual understanding within your organization to tell problem and crisis apart. A tweet from a customer giving your restaurant a bad review isn’t really a crisis. Convince and Convert defines a crisis as a highly undesirable outcome wherein an issue affects a huge portion of customers and has a potential to give lasting brand damage. 

Talk Their Language

Your social media content can be misread especially when you don’t establish the right tone of voice. Hire someone like a social media specialist who understands his or her way around and can talk their language. You can tell that he knows how to play the field when he has the skills that are particularly important during a crisis.

Locate The Fire Alarm Buttons

Before you fight the fire, you should acknowledge the fire first. Even if you have little information about it, your response should always be, “We recognize the problem.” You need to have your fire alarms and extinguishers ready and that’s where the pre-crisis plan will take in place. You can use this as a 411 to your team especially when everyone is anxious and don’t know what to do.

Let Everyone Know – Internally

Gather everyone in your company and let them know what’s happening. Don’t keep them blinded as this might cause a bigger problem. Brief them on what to and what not to say to people, give them a statement that they can use when someone asks them so they will know what to relay and won’t end up hurting your company’s reputation.

Know When To Fight The Fire

Social media strategist Whitney Zatzkin says, “People expect an immediate response and the longer you wait to take a stance, the worse it looks for your company.” Take actions immediately to keep a fire from spreading. The first 24 hours of a crisis is the most crucial and it is best to respond within this timeframe.

Deal With The Facts

Let the people know the truth and what’s really happening. Don’t attempt to conceal it by dressing up the reality. Sure negative comments would likely pile up your feed but handling these negative comments poorly by deleting or hiding them and blocking and arguing with the people who posted those negative comments is just a bad move. It just proves more that you are incapable of handling a crisis. Be calm and respond to them appropriately. You are fighting a fire, not fueling it.

Don’t Repeat The Same Mistake

Once the crisis has subsided, make sure to document every stage, make copies of every conversation, actions made, and learn from each of it. Create a playbook out of it that you hope you’ll never use.

Build Relationships That Will Last

Your relationship with your customers can either make or break your business. Creating a strong connection and bringing an exceptional customer service should always be your top priority as they are the company’s lifeblood. When you have established a strong relationship, handling a crisis can be much easier and you can also be easily forgiven especially when you admit your mistakes and apologize to them truthfully. It’s easy to make people hate you but it’s hard to get people on your side so make sure to make this as your foundation.

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