The five best ways to respond when your brand is caught in a social media firestorm

When your business goes viral for the wrong reasons, what can start out with a simple misunderstanding or isolated poor customer experience can quickly cascade into a crisis for your brand.

That’s why it’s important to react quickly, let your customers feel heard and addressed, and quickly put a statement out in response to the drama.

The most powerful phrase in your arsenal is usually “We’re sorry, we got this wrong”, according to Kristen Zotti, founder of boutique PR agency Zotts and Co.

People see that honesty and openness and will respect your brand the more for it.

Equally, when there’s a difference of opinion, you need to make sure your customers feel heard, and you need to acknowledge where they’re coming from.

There’s also a catch-22 when it comes to being a small business online. People expect a level of personal touch and responsiveness that they don’t have towards larger corporations, which they approach with cynicism online.

That’s despite the fact that small business owners are already juggling many tasks within their business at the same time.

Of course, there are extreme examples where a response isn’t as simple. Food-processing business SPC received thousands upon thousands of abusive messages following its decision to put in place, and publicise, its vaccine mandate for all employees.

When the abuse is coming in like that you might need to log off, turn off your messages, and walk away from the screen. Running a small business is challenging enough without having to filter through abuse.

For most complaints and negative attention on social media, the trick is to get on top of it early, and take advantage of being able to tell your side of the story directly to those who will be searching for your page.

How to be fast: Social media monitoring

There are paid tools you can use which monitor your social media, and give you warnings when the general sentiment of comment tips over to overwhelmingly negative, like Hootsuite, or Sprout Social, explains Zotti.

When you’re a small brand, it’s simpler to keep on track of the few comments that might trickle in on a daily basis, and the notifications directly from the platforms. This gets less practical once your comments become much more frequent.

Free options like Google Alerts give you a heads up when your brand name or personal name are attracting an above-average amount of attention online. 

An automated email will tell you where it’s coming from, and it’s useful for more than just tracking firestorms. You can see where you’re being mentioned positively online and capitalise on it by resharing the content to your socials. 

You can also use Google Alerts to track keywords in your industry or sector, notes Zotti. That can help you stay on top of the market and how your competitors are moving online.

How to set up Google Alerts

1. Go to Google.com/alerts.
2. Put in the terms you want to have be alerted on (your business name and personal name are good places to start).
3. Use the ‘Show Options’ drop down menu to select whether you would like to be alerted either once per day, once per week, or as-it-happens.
4. Make sure your email notifications are set on for whichever account you wish to use, or that you check it once per day. There’s no point in receiving alerts you don’t see.

What to say, and how quickly you need to say it

While it will depend from crisis to crisis, the general rule of thumb in crisis management is to respond as soon as possible, says Zotti.

The research shows that one in two customers expect a response within an hour, and one in three expect a response within 30 minutes.

Having a team, or team member, responsible for that helps streamline the process when you need to move quickly.

Considering the social media employees tend to be younger on average than the rest of the team, you need to equip them with approved responses so crucial time isn’t wasted on internal back and forths when you need to be responsive.

Of course, some things will need to be sent up to a higher level for approval. Make sure these channels and processes are set out in advance.

“If an employee isn’t sure of a question or response, just say ‘we’re not sure but we’ll get back to you’. That lets you keep the messaging correct and stay responsive to your audience,” says Zotti.

Best practice responses

1. Once you’re aware of the issue, be honest about what you do and don’t know. It’s fine to tell your audience you’re investigating, but you need to provide updates if so. Give them a timeline on which you’ll get back to them.

2. As you learn more about the issue, make the decision about what you’re willing to share with your audience. The more you share, the better.

3. Whether you provide a written statement, or consider a press conference/live Q&A with your audience, should be determined by how volatile you think the response is likely to be. Written responses are definitely safer for your brand if you’re expecting volatile response.

4. If you do use a live broadcast or Q&A, make sure to timebox it in advance, so that you can leave after that amount of time.
   

5. Encourage specific concerns to be sent through a private message or company email. This ensures they are not in the public domain to generate more comments.

One comment isn’t the end of the world

It is important for business owners to not be sucked into all of their social media comments.

“It is often the loudest voices that can take up the most attention. That’s not necessarily representative of your customer base,” says Zotti.

“Taking comments with a grain of salt is important, that one comment might be blown out of proportion when you have a great product or service.”

But if things start blowing up, take it on board and rethink if you’re in the wrong. 

“If you’ve made a mistake, it’s important to apologise when you get it wrong. It’s an opportunity for brands to show how they deal with a crisis. It’s often more of an insight into a brand rather than if everything is running smoothly,” Zotti adds.

“You’ll know quickly whether that’s received by your audience or not.”

‘Today’s news is tomorrow’s fish and chip papers’ was a truism when printed papers were the main public sphere. With social media, things are more permanent, even if the level of attention drops with time.” 

Make sure to always respond with empathy and honesty because it will be associated with your brand forever.