How To Avoid a Social Media Crisis in 5 Steps

How to avoid a social media crisis? Today, we’re not here to help you out of that one. Instead, we want to help you avoid that situation in the first place.

It can happen in the blink of an eye. One moment your social media communications are being tweeted, pinned and ‘grammed without a hitch, and the next, your feed is exploding with insults, upset and uproar. 

You are in a Social Media Crisis. *Cue ominous and dramatic movie music!*

To that end, here are our top five tips to avoid a social media crisis.

1. Use that brain of yours

You’ve got a brain knocking around in that head of yours. Use it for good! Think through your strategies, wording and messages before posting. Sometimes five seconds is all you need to realize the GIANT MISTAKE you almost just made. If you follow none of our other advice, please, please, follow this piece.

2. Be aware of audience and context

Your brand will dictate the level of tolerance your audience has towards controversial posts. For example, if you are Red Bull and you’re posting about the thrill of speed to your audience, you’re all good. Posting those same communications as Mothers Against Drunk Driving? Not so good. Same message, difference audience.

3. Listen

Monitor your channels for mentions of your brand. Staying on top of owned and earned media will allow you to be a part of those conversations and nip potential crisis in the bud, before they occur.

4. Have a social policy for employees

This means actually writing it out and distributing it. It also means limiting the number of people within your company who have access to your social media channels so you can retain control of your message. Too many cooks in the kitchen inevitably ends with a disaster, or at best, a fragmented message.

5. Be prepared

If you are on social media, the likelihood is that you’ll encounter at least one social media crisis in your lifetime. Discussing what you’ll do if that happens beforehand can help you build out a clear crisis escalation procedure and put it in place so you can react at the first sign of an issue.

So use your noggin, know your audience, listen, and have both a clear social media directive and a crisis escalation procedure. Implementing these five tips will mitigate your risk of a social media disaster.