One thing that you don’t hear enough about are the impacts that a well-run social media campaign can have on turning bad situations into good ones. In this case, we’re talking about the ability to perform damage control. Damage control is what you do to turn public sentiment around if a single angry customer decides to tell the world about their awful experience, and is something that every company should have at the ready as a part of their overall social media plan.
Here are the top 3 ways that you can make your social media campaign damage control ready.
1. Stay socially engaged. Having a social media presence goes far beyond just setting up a Facebook page and creating a Twitter feed. Participation in social media and engaging your followers in conversation is a great way to find out what your customers think about you, and a great way to address issues before they erupt into full-blown PR nightmares.
2. Brand monitoring. This involves trolling public message boards and reading blogs that mention your company name in them. But you don’t have to do this manually – you can use social networking software programs to accomplish this. If the information found is negative, move fast to rectify the situation, but never get defensive. A solid social media plan requires that you resolve all issues and rectify all bad experiences your customers may have had.
3. Be prepared to take action. The success of your social media campaign relies on your willingness and ability to spring into action whenever a public relations issue arises. Think of it as putting out a fire. You have to get to it before it can spread.