Your company is facing a sudden negative social media campaign. How will you effectively manage the crisis?

To effectively manage a sudden negative social media campaign, respond promptly and professionally, acknowledging the issue without being defensive. Gather facts and assess the situation to understand the root cause. Communicate transparently with your audience, providing clear, factual information and outlining steps being taken to address the concerns. Engage with affected users directly to show empathy and a commitment to resolution. Monitor social media channels continuously, adjusting your strategy based on evolving feedback, and leverage positive content to rebuild trust and restore your brand's reputation.

The first step is not to overreact, or react without knowing what's going on. You need data and information to inform what kind of crisis this is, pending the structure of your crisis communications plan. This means you need to know what's being said, who is saying it, how many people are seeing it, how quickly it's growing, what the sentiment around the news is with your stakeholders, and a variety of other factors. This is the time to gather information and start to establish what kind of situation (or crisis) you're in.

Justement, premièrement je dois, évaluer la situation : comprendre l'ampleur de la campagne négative et identifier les principaux acteurs. Tout ce qui viendra par la suite dépendra de cette évaluation succinte.

Ensuite, Répondre rapidement : publier un communiqué de presse ou un message sur les réseaux sociaux pour exprimer notre point de vue et montrer que nous prenons la situation en main et très au sérieux.

Your response plan (note: this is different than the response itself) needs to be informed by data and the information you collected in the first step. You need to not only consider the audiences across your social media channels, but all audiences who may have been impacted. Are employees seeing this unfold? How about shareholders, partners, customers, or others? What will the impact be on those audiences, or will they care at all. As you formulate your response plan, you need to consider all of these, as well as how you will roll out your response to these various audiences. Then you need to consider what you're going to say. The messaging should be tailored to each audience, but it should be informed by a clear set of core messaging.

écouter les préoccupations : répondre aux commentaires et messages des internautes pour comprendre leurs préoccupations et montrer que nous sommes à l'écoute. Fournir des informations précises : corriger les informations fausses ou trompeuses et fournir des informations précises pour contrer les accusations.

I agree that direct engagement with your audiences is critical, but it is not about "reaching as many people as possible." This is about reaching the right people with the right message. There may be audiences that haven't seen or don't care about what's happening. Engaging with them will do more harm than good. But find your target audiences and ensure you are communicating directly with them, and keeping the lines of communication open so they can communicate with you. Surviving a social media crisis is about a dialogue, not talking AT your audiences.

Third-party endorsements can be HUGE during a crisis. Having audiences talk about your brand favorably will always be better than talking about how great you are. However, this is about engaging them in an authentic and meaningful way to help deliver key messages on the right platforms. Most importantly, do not forget your employees. These are your biggest advocates (or can be), so communicate with them, and give them the tools they need to support the brand. But give them guidance as well. There need to be guardrails so ensure they know what's appropriate in terms of representing the brand.

Things can and do change, so staying on top of the situation is critical. This means knowing what's happening in real time as things develop across your channels. This also means adaptive your plan and response accordingly. Regroup internally as needed to make adjustments. Also, monitor ALL channels to ensure this isn't carrying over to channels that weren't initially implicated. We operate in a connected world, so ensure all relevant teams are informed and prepared to be a part of the solution.

Es siempre útil evaluar el impacto tanto de la campa?a negativa como de la respuesta dada pasadas unas semanas. Este tipo de análisis ayudan a tener una perspectiva más sosegada, alejada de las tensiones emocionales que provocan este tipo de crisis. Las conclusiones servirán para calibrar próximas respuestas a situaciones similares.