Sysomos Offers Tips on Preventing a Social Media Crisis

A public relations crisis is no longer limited to a negative story spread by journalists through traditional media outlets. Today, a negative story moves around the world at the speed of social media -- in real time on channels like Twitter and YouTube. While this dynamic can wreak havoc on a brand more quickly than ever before, social media also presents opportunities that weren't available a decade ago. In its latest example-filled tip sheet, "Turn Social Intelligence into Smart Crisis Prevention," Sysomos offers practical suggestions for preventing a social media crisis from occurring as well as controlling an impending crisis.

Report Highlights

• Every company should have an updated, readily accessible social media crisis plan that represents each of its departments, because a crisis can range from an executive faux pas to poor customer service to a product malfunction.
• Word clouds are great bellwethers for predicting a crisis. Monday's word cloud could reveal business as usual while Tuesday's could predict trouble in the making.
• Organizations can avert or more easily control a crisis once it occurs by developing positive relationships with their major influencers, fans and clients ahead of time.
• Overreacting to a crisis can hurt a brand as much as can underreacting. Monitoring tools reveal spikes in social sentiment during crisis response; the goal is to bring sentiment volume to pre-crisis levels.
• Pre-prepared messages help speed response, but the tone and content must be modified for each unique situation. It's critical for a brand's voice to be authentic and genuine when it explains how it's fixing the issue.

Background
"Turn Social Intelligence into Smart Crisis Prevention" is the seventh in a series of Sysomos Tip Sheets to help marketers leverage social media monitoring to advance their businesses.

Download a free copy of "Turn Social Intelligence into Smart Crisis Prevention."