3 Foolproof Steps to Manage A Social Media Crisis

What does a brand do when the public turns on you? It’s important to have a calm, calculated response when a negative event leads to a firestorm on social media.

By Jamie Izaks

It’s not ideal, but it happens more than we’d like to admit — a business is in the news, and not for anything good. A crisis can erupt at any given moment, disrupting operations, requiring immediate responses and presenting problems that could potentially draw negative media and public attention. Essentially it is a high-profile situation in which you and your franchise business are faced with a range of bad options.

Perhaps it is the departure of an executive, an accusation of racism, sexism, homophobia or simply an escalated customer interaction that has caught the attention of the media. What’s a brand to do when the public eye turns on you? It’s important to have a calm, calculated approach to crises, especially when they occur on or are gaining traction due to social media.

You don’t need to look too far to see an abundance of social media crises — take Chipotle, for example. Allegations of the beloved burrito joint engaging in questionable food safety practices leading to an outbreak of E. coli caused a huge national PR crisis that picked up steam on social media. The brand attempted to rectify the situation by offering millions of dollars of free food and held highly publicized food safety meetings for all staff.

Public perception is incredibly crucial in various social media crisis situations all across the board. In these moments it’s important to hold true to the tenets of managing potentially damaging social media issues.

Step 1: Have a Plan and Follow It

Without a plan, you will be in the worst position possible when a social media crisis occurs.

To design your plan, consider the following:

• Form an internal social media crisis team — a group dedicated to making decisions quickly and taking action swiftly when a crisis occurs — as well as appointing a third-party consultant who can provide expertise and outside opinions as needed; this group should be certain that the action taken is aligned with company core values and that the appropriate spokespeople have been determined.

• Conduct a full assessment of the potential risks your franchise faces at the brand and franchisee level.

• Test the plan with a roleplaying scenario that includes several stakeholders, i.e., home office executives, franchisees, consultants; this aims to challenge the plan and refine it as needed.

• Create a template plan that includes a checklist of “to-dos” focused on rebuilding trust with your social media fans, customers, etc.

Step 2: The Need for Speed

When a social media crisis occurs, time is off the essence. Given the viral nature of social media, word travels in an instant. Thus, you must move into crisis mode quickly. Your assessment of social media crisis risks should determine the course of action taken. If it is determined that this is a one-off occurrence in which a customer is upset, but it has no possibility of creating negative media or damaging your franchise brand’s reputation with the public, then you can respond to the social postings and safely move on (granted, there are several intricacies here, such as following up publicly, then taking the conversation to e-mail or phone and eventually possibly removing the post once the matter is resolved, or asking the customer to update the post with the resolution).

Within minutes, your social media crisis team should meet, determine the level of concern, break to take action, and then meet again quickly to discuss updates from the team and other departments impacted, i.e., a franchisee field rep and a franchisee, should this occur in the field. If it is a serious matter with high probability of doing damage, moving forward until the crisis cools, this type of meet-break-meet should happen routinely with the social crisis team and impacted parties.

If the full social media crisis plan moves forward, keep in mind what the main point of social media crisis communications is to rebuild trust. In a matter of minutes, you should be issuing a holding statement on your social media pages, and determining if the same holding statement should be shared on your website and to news media. The statement should convey that you’re aware and concerned, and that you’ll provide additional details as more becomes known.

At the same time, plan to respond to each social media post with approved responses, and for social media they should be more conversational in tone than traditional media statements.

In these situations, it’s important to prepare both proactive and reactive responses. A reactive response is what might be used if someone begins a dialogue on social media about a crisis situation.

Whenever possible, it is important to take the conversation offline as soon as possible. Provide a phone number or email address where the upset customer may reach you, and continue the discussion there.

Proactive measures may also be critical to social media crisis planning, but are not always necessary. A proactive response might be used if you’re facing (or anticipate facing) a barrage of social media comments. For instance, post and maintain at the top of social media pages statements that clarify, show compassion and educate or inform.

Both proactive and reactive responses give you, the brand, the opportunity to control message and the reach of the story.

Here are three guidelines that are helpful to crafting social media crisis statements worth sharing — remaining relatively neutral without stirring up further social media discussion is critical.

Be Empathetic

Let your guests and audience know that you understand their frustration and disappointment. Put yourself in their shoes — they want to feel like they’re being heard. However, avoid an outright apology if possible, as it may be implied as an admission of guilt.

Assure that Change is Happening

Tell customers that change is in the works, and your brand is doing anything and everything in its power to fix the problem. Guests are more likely to respond positively if they understand that fixing the situation is your top priority. This means drafting messaging that implies that actual change is occurring, instead of simply “passing along comments to the home office,” which can feel like being brushed off.

Reinforce Your Brand Values

Your customers should know that your franchise brand’s core values will remain in place — you’re still committed to providing great service, a customer experience that parallels what they have come to expect, and an isolated incident does not compromise that.

Step 3: Review the Process

Learning from larger social media crisis scenarios can be significant. Thus, it is important to conduct an immediate review after each one occurs. Determine what went right and wrong. Examine your timeline and checklists to make certain the plan was followed. Finally, revise your plan to determine anything missing or missteps that were taken.

All Points Public Relations utilizes this three-step process on our franchising industry clients large and small. Your reputation is everything — especially in franchising, where individual locations are a reflection of the brand. Protect yourself by thinking ahead.

Jamie Izaks is president and co-founder of All Points Public Relations, a Chicago-based public relations agency focusing on the franchising industry. He also co-founded the Northern Illinois Franchise Association.