• PRODUCTS
    • Listen: Social and Digital Intelligence
    • Respond: Social Media Response
    • Analyze: Page Analytics
    • Publish: Social Media Publishing
    • Social Studio Alternative
    • Command Center
    • Sentiment API
  • PRICING
  • RESOURCES
    • Reports & Whitepapers
    • Premium Reports
    • Webinars
    • Radarr Academy
    • System Status
  • BLOG
  • COMPANY
    • About Us
    • Careers
    • Media Coverage
    • Contact Us
  • FREE 7-DAY TRIAL
  • BOOK A DEMO

Handling a Social Media Crisis

  February 2, 2017
  radarradmin
  Consumer & Audience Insights | Crisis Management | ORM / Online Reputation Management | Sentiment Analysis | Social Listening | Social Media Tracking
20/Twenty l Radarr

Crisis is a word that all businesses fear. In the good old days – a crisis has to be managed by engaging traditional media and publications from an early onset to minimize the impact on the business’s brand and reputation. However, in today’s digital age – most crisis situations often rear their heads through social media. With the potential to go viral within minutes and attacks coming from sources worldwide, managers should rethink their crisis management strategies and whether their tools are adequate in dealing with them.

Monitoring and tracking social media crises can be a tricky business. Speed is key. By the time it takes to establish a plan and formulate a response, it would often have been too late; social media would have already blown the situation out of proportion. Crisis really tests the management of an organization and co-ordination within the company. While many companies turn to communication and PR experts to offer insights, why not do it yourself? Circus Social has several tips to share on the 4 phases of managing a crisis.

Pre-Empting a Crisis

Businesses can proactively prepare for a crisis by monitoring specific keywords and discussions online. Particularly on social media, certain keywords would raise alarm bells. For a manufacturing firm, it could be ‘defect’, for a courier delivery service it would be ‘delay’. Regardless, being able to track and monitor the usage of such keywords in relation to your business is vital to stay a step ahead and give you sufficient time to react. This does not mean you have to get your staff to crawl the web 24/7. A smarter way would be to set up alerts that go straight to your inbox when thresholds on certain keyword usage have been reached.

Identify Sources & Channels

So a crisis has occurred, what next? Quick identification of the bearer of bad news is essential to decide the right course of action. While companies develop crisis roadmaps in handling crises, no two crises are the same and require tact in handling. For example, if the majority of your ‘bad press’ is being shared quickly on Twitter amongst influential users with large follower bases – you know you need to spread your holding messages and responses quickly and effectively through the same medium as well. Try and identify influential users (those with high Klout scores) so you can focus your efforts efficiently.

Find your top influencers with Radarr and turn around a crisis!
Identify top topics and get to the root of whats being discussed. Take control of the crisis with Radarr!

The social sphere is extremely vast with a wide variety of posts. To get through the clutter, there are useful filters to find impactful and viral posts. Impact score of the post indicates the reach of the post (in terms of likes, shares, comments) and the traction score, indicates the virality. Filtering by impact helps you identify the posts that matter the most, both to the public and for your brand. Another useful tool would be an associative word cloud to help spot other related topics that might have been overlooked.

Taking Action

While some experts advocate not taking action and letting the social media storm die down as rapidly as it came, more often than not, it would be wise to acknowledge the issue. If an employee is accused of wrongdoing, or there has been any form of lapses in procedures, some form of accountability and acknowledgement of the issue will pacify the public. Better yet, inform them that investigations are ongoing. You could even win over new fans by providing timely and relevant information, turning a crisis into an opportunity.

Post-crisis remedy

Once traction of the negative post dies down, (hopefully) the worst is over. However, it is still important to be accountable to the public and your customers. At this stage, do release the results of your investigations and be sure to implement measures to prevent a repeat crisis. Also, analyze the traction of past posts and identify and thank fans who have been supportive. It would also be a good time to adjust alerts and thresholds based on what has been learned.

Hopefully, these tips will help any manager take charge of future crises on social media. Get in touch with Radarr to know how Social listening tool can be part of your crisis management solution.

Recent Posts

View All Posts

Trusted by 1000+ brands

  • Book A Demo with Radarr

Book A Demo

Name

Company Name

Work Email

Job Title

Phone Number

Thank you for contacting us!
We will be in touch with you shortly.
linkedin live guide for marketers
A Complete Guide To LinkedIn Live And Why Your Brand Should Consider It
| Social Media Marketing

Learn how to use LinkedIn Live for marketing and branding. If you’re a digital marketer, you’ve definitely heard of

marketing strategies that are not discounts
Three Effective Marketing Strategies That Are Not Giveaways
| Social Media Marketing

Discounts and giveaways have been known to generate engagements – who doesn’t want a chance to win prizes? Of

blackpink jakarta concert
Blackpink Jakarta Concert: Insights For Concert/Event Organizers
| Media Monitoring

As part of their world tour, the South Korean girl group Blackpink greeted their fans in Indonesia with the

Key Learnings from the Brand Safety Summit 2023 in Singapore
| Media Monitoring

And how Social Listening can help brands ensure brand safety. Last 15th of March 2023, top global marketers, ad

youtube shorts guide for marketers
Complete Guide To YouTube Shorts To Reach Your Brand Audience
| Social Media Marketing

Learn all about using YouTube Shorts for branding and marketing. Videos are a great way to reach out to

digital nomads and what to do with them
The Digital Nomads and What to Do With Them
| Behind The Scenes

A digital nomad works online from different locations, adopting a nomadic lifestyle as they travel from one place to

movie reviews by marketers - pathaan
Movie Reviews by Marketers: What the Internet is Saying (and We Think) About Pathaan
| Media Monitoring

Pathaan is an action-thriller movie released on January 25th, 2023, starring Shah Rukh Khan, John Abraham, and Deepika Padukone.

Movie Reviews by Marketers: Island – A Global Masterpiece, Domestic Flop
| Media Monitoring

“Island” is a Korean fantasy-hero drama set on Jeju Island about three individuals – Won Min-Ho (Lee Da Hee),

complete guide to tiktok live for brands
TikTok LIVE for Brands: Everything You Know to Make It a Success
| Social Media Marketing

Learn why we think brands should experiment with TikTok Live. TikTok officially has over 1 billion monthly active users

social listening mistakes your brand needs to avoid
8 Common Social Listening Mistakes Your Brand Needs to Avoid
| Social Listening

Learn how to derive the most insights from social by avoiding these social listening mistakes.  Social listening can be

Radarr Newsletter

Become part of our list for updates and get first dibs on free industry reports. Sign up today!

Radarr

Radarr Command Center

Radarr Sentiment API

Copyright Radarr 2021

Privacy Policy

Terms of Use