How to Avoid a

Social Media

Disaster

Soci

al M

edia

G

aff

e

When it comes to Consumer PR there is little

more damaging to a consumer brand then a

social media gaffe. 2013 has already seen a number of social

media disasters with consumer brands

succumbing to issues including hacked

accounts, rogue employees, privacy

problems and general poor etiquette in the

social world. The intentions may have been good and the

company may have done nothing wrong

themselves but they ultimately pay the price

for underestimating the potential power of

the social media world. Ensure your public relations online are fool

proof by following a couple of simple

guidelines on how to avoid any potential

social disasters.

Sta

ff T

rain

ing

You need to treat social media with the same level of

importance as any other communication channel out

of your organisation. Those entrusted with the social media tool need to be

just as professional and knowledgeable as those

writing press releases or in customer services.

To this end it is essential that your staff are trained in

the nuances of social media, understanding fully how

to control and operate the sites in line with the

organisations social media strategy.

Making sure staff are fully educated on issues such as

appropriate and inappropriate content and what is

expected of the brand in terms of style, image and

tone will go a long way to avoiding some of the most

avoidable social media problems.

Establish a clear social media strategy with set goals

and a structured timetable of content and make sure

you stick to it. Nothing spells newbie more than a barren twitter feed

with an egg profile picture.

Set

up

Conti

ngenci

es

No matter how knowledgeable and

meticulous you are in your planning, the

dynamic nature of the social world can mean

that things can change very quickly, and

often in ways you did not expect.

Establish clear contingency plans in place for

a variety of scenarios which can occur if your

social media strategy deviates from its

intended path. Some problems may be as simple as negative

feedback from a consumer. This can be dealt

with in a variety of ways and if done

effectively could lead to a positive PR

outcome. Having actionable contingency plans in place

for any of these situations will give you the

chance to defuse any situation before it

becomes significantly damaging to your

brand.

Have C

lear

and

Separa

te A

ccounts

Social media tools like Hootsuite and

Tweetdeck have made managing multiple

twitter accounts a simple and easy process.

The problem comes when people confuse

their personal twitter accounts with

professional corporate accounts and the

inevitable wrong tweet to wrong account is

sent and before you know it has spread

across the Twittersphere. Don’t mix personal and private accounts.

Keep them entirely separate and if you

must use an app or tool use different ones

for each account (there are enough choices

out there). It’s amazing that something as simple and

easy as this can avoid such damaging PR

problems for the brand.

Thin

k B

efo

re Y

ou

Act

With such instant real-time communications,

it can be easy to get caught up in the rapid

exchange of information online and react to

events in a manner you may regret later on.

Whenever you are involved in social media,

particularly when interacting directly with a

customer, take time to pause and think about

what you are doing. When faced with a potential social media

crisis it is imperative that you keep a cool

head and approach the situation rationally,

sticking to any contingencies plans or

strategies you have in place for such an

event.

This crucial stop and analysis could be the

crucial difference in how the public perceives

the organisation, avoiding any sort of major

scandal as we have seen in recent months.