No Bullshit Social Media (Frank Feng's Library) by Jason Falls & Erik Deckers

Author:Jason Falls & Erik Deckers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Que Publishing
Published: 2012-06-12T16:00:00+00:00

Crisis Communication Starts Months Before You Have a Crisis

Although we like to joke that crisis communication is just public relations speeded up, it’s more than that. Given people’s expectations of the quickness of a response during non-crisis times, it’s hard to get much faster than that and still be effective.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) mantra to crisis communications is “Be First. Be Right. Be Credible.” The best way for you to be credible is by being seen as the authority right now, so people know who to turn to when there really is a crisis. The best way to be first is to start right now. And being right? Just make sure you have the experts in your company talking about their areas so they’re the ones the media calls when there’s really a crisis, and you can get the right information out immediately.

Crisis communication starts now, while you’re still talking about public relations. It means you’re laying the groundwork by building relationships with your local and trade media, industry bloggers, and superbloggers. It also means you’re building those journalist relationships with your customers who are the ones most likely to alert everyone else to the problems with your company.

In a lot of cases, your fans can leap to your defense and help alleviate the drama of the crisis you’re mired in at the moment. If your company is dealing with a serious problem and you’ve been laying the groundwork for a solid relationship with a lot of your customers, they’ll be in the same spaces as your detractors. If someone complains, a lot of times, your customers will respond on your behalf, before you ever even hear about the complaint.

The best way to build this kind of loyalty is to work with your marketing department and determine who your best customers are on social media. Give those customers additional access and information that your average customers don’t get. Include them in announcements before they hit your website, invite them to VIP-only events, give them a sneak peek at a new product rollout or service offering, make them beta testers on your new product, and publicly thank them whenever they sing your praises or recommend you to a friend. By encouraging this loyalty, you’ll not only keep them as returning customers (your sales department will thank you for this), but they’ll also be on your side when something bad finally does happen.

On a smaller scale, you need to consider who is going to respond to people who are saying something negative or nasty about your company, especially when they’re a small fry and won’t do much damage. They can’t be ignored, but they don’t call for a full-scale response either.

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