…Know when to walk away….
OK…please excuse the tasteless implementation of the Kenny Rogers reference but I think it’s very fitting for this particular post. We should all know the importance and priority of managing bad PR, whether you are a huge publicly traded company, or an up and coming startup, trying to make a good first impression in your respective market. With this comes the responsibility of knowing how to manage and pick your battles through all the noise.
If you are on Twitter/Facebook representing your company, you have a few different responsibilities:
- Syndicate meaningful, relevant and useful content (whether it’s your own or an outside party’s)
- Monitor tone.
- Respond to valid inquiries.
- Research new potential prospects/markets.
- Damage control.
Damage Control
For this post I’ll be focusing on #5 from the above list. One of the most important PR aspects of your job is watching out for bad media coverage, misconstrued news, inaccurate information/statements, manipulation of content for malicious purposes, and the inevitable “brushfire” that can take off like a flaming bullet-train constructed entirely of retweets, moving faster than the speed of Twitter’s API read/write count per second. (Holy run-on sentence Batman.)
As most seasoned PR professionals (which I am not) know, you need to have a damage control strategy and process in place for when the proverbial thorn comes out of nowhere and sticks your company in the ribs until you can find the right tools to extract it. Social media is obviously no exception and needs to be part of that overall process/strategy.
One question I’m asked often is, “How do I know when to respond to a problem tweet, post or person, and to what extent if at all?” While there’s no silver bullet answer because almost every situation is different in it’s subtleties, there are a few things you should think about.
Rules of Engagement
As a father of 3 active boys, I’ve learned to pick my battles almost hourly and am reminded constantly to keep this thought in my arsenal when doing my job online. In SM it’s imperative that you do the same. Not every complaint is worth yours or your company’s time. Some of them are worthless, some are worth noting and others require engagement on some level. Be efficient in your choice of customer entanglement. 
Here are a few types of posters that I’ve seen and how I responded:
- The Strobe – In a flash, this person will usually say something once and with much emotion and superfluous punctuation, yet no detail, and then be done with it. Example: “<yourcompanyname> SUCKS!!!!!!”. No action to be taken here. Because they’ve provided no newsworthy detail in this post and most will see them as whiners anyhow. Chances are they are not an influencer. Nothing to see here folks, keep moving.
- The Heckler – This is an upgraded version of The Strobe. They will post multiple times hoping that their emotional, yet information-less, rant sort of ‘takes off’ and has it’s own snowball effect. Again with this one though, most of their posts are emotional and not often substantiated with any background. You *should* keep an eye on them however because they do have the time and energy to put into it and will probably keep an eye on your company for mistakes.
- The Investigator – This person is as thorough in documenting their issues as they are in their delivery of information to the web for all to see. If there is an issue, they will most likely have the story and the facts to back up their claim. Watch very closely for posts by these types and take them seriously. It is highly recommended that you reach out to these people immediately, opening up some dialog to validate their claims. Many times their content and/or story are capable of unearthing weaknesses in your company and/or it’s products and services.
Be Cool, Go With Your Gut
At the end of the day, you know your company better than anyone else (or at least you should) out there when it comes to public perception and reputation because you observe it all day. Simply continue paying close attention to all the streams of information that are relevant and act accordingly. Just make sure to triple check yourself before reacting to anything, and work very closely with your PR team and management to ensure that you are all on the same page when picking your battles, because there will be many of them for you to choose from, sometimes daily.
Onward.
Social Media Brushfires: Know When to Hold ‘em…
OK…please excuse the tasteless implementation of the Kenny Rogers reference but I think it’s very fitting for this particular post. We should all know the importance and priority of managing bad PR, whether you are a huge publicly traded company, or an up and coming startup, trying to make a good first impression in your respective market. With this comes the responsibility of knowing how to manage and pick your battles through all the noise.
If you are on Twitter/Facebook representing your company, you have a few different responsibilities:
Damage Control
For this post I’ll be focusing on #5 from the above list. One of the most important PR aspects of your job is watching out for bad media coverage, misconstrued news, inaccurate information/statements, manipulation of content for malicious purposes, and the inevitable “brushfire” that can take off like a flaming bullet-train constructed entirely of retweets, moving faster than the speed of Twitter’s API read/write count per second. (Holy run-on sentence Batman.)
As most seasoned PR professionals (which I am not) know, you need to have a damage control strategy and process in place for when the proverbial thorn comes out of nowhere and sticks your company in the ribs until you can find the right tools to extract it. Social media is obviously no exception and needs to be part of that overall process/strategy.
One question I’m asked often is, “How do I know when to respond to a problem tweet, post or person, and to what extent if at all?” While there’s no silver bullet answer because almost every situation is different in it’s subtleties, there are a few things you should think about.
Rules of Engagement
As a father of 3 active boys, I’ve learned to pick my battles almost hourly and am reminded constantly to keep this thought in my arsenal when doing my job online. In SM it’s imperative that you do the same. Not every complaint is worth yours or your company’s time. Some of them are worthless, some are worth noting and others require engagement on some level. Be efficient in your choice of customer entanglement.
Here are a few types of posters that I’ve seen and how I responded:
Be Cool, Go With Your Gut
At the end of the day, you know your company better than anyone else (or at least you should) out there when it comes to public perception and reputation because you observe it all day. Simply continue paying close attention to all the streams of information that are relevant and act accordingly. Just make sure to triple check yourself before reacting to anything, and work very closely with your PR team and management to ensure that you are all on the same page when picking your battles, because there will be many of them for you to choose from, sometimes daily.
Onward.