How to Use Social Media Before, During and After a Company Crisis
You’re probably using social media as part of your ongoing marketing strategy. It’s an effective way to increase awareness, strengthen your brand, and to connect with prospects. It’s also an essential part of a crisis management plan.
Before a Crisis
Social media is an important tool to build relationships with both prospects and customers. It’s a great way to answer questions, respond to complaints, and to provide valuable information to your audience. Social media is an integral part of the marketing and lead generation strategy for many businesses.
It integrates nicely with blogs and press release distribution, and it provides you with a way to instantly connect and respond to your prospects and customers. Before a crisis happens, it’s important to establish your organization as one that is trustworthy and an authority in your niche.
During a Crisis
During a crisis social media gives you the opportunity to respond in real time. A statement can be made. A press release can be issued and distributed within minutes of the crisis. Complaints and issues can be resolved instantly. Social media provides business with the ability to tweet links to statements and releases. You’ll be able to share the content in its entirety on Facebook and your blog and to offer resolutions and apologies.
If your organization should have a crisis, before you issue any statements or a response it’s important to make sure that all messages communicate the same information. Work as a team to craft a response. You can then begin to roll out your response on social media. Leveraging technology can help streamline the process. A press release distribution service, along with a social media management tool like HootSuite, can ensure that all messages and information are released at the same time.
After A Crisis
After a crisis you can use social media analytics to monitor your brand. It gives you an opportunity to listen in on conversations about your organization. You can evaluate how your brand is recovering after the crisis. You can also begin a campaign to win back their trust. After a crisis is a good time to create a new promotion or offer. You may be able to recoup sales lost during the crisis.
Additionally, a positive experience can help erase any lasting bad memories. Social media can be part of the launch process. It’s an effective tool for holding sweepstakes and contests. You can use it to share information about your new promotion. Social media press releases can also increase awareness and drive traffic to your sales page.
Bad things happen to good companies. Social media can be a tool that helps you build relationships with your prospects, manage crisis, and evaluate your brand and the long term impact of a crisis. It supports a wide variety of content, including video and press releases. While it’s never fun to endure a crisis, a social media strategy can reduce the impact.
