IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MANAGING BRAND REPUTATION IN CRISIS
Need help with a related project topic or New topic? Send Us Your Topic
DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE PROJECT MATERIAL
IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MANAGING BRAND REPUTATION IN CRISIS
INTRODUCTION
Social media crises are a reality and a threat that we all confront today. We are all subject to cyber attacks that threaten to have a long-term and negative influence on our brand’s reputation, both online and offline, as well as its bottom line.
Managing your online risk needs more than just watching your brand’s social media activity. It necessitates a strategy against them.A social media crisis is an online event that has the potential to have a negative and long-term impact on your company or organization’s reputation and/or bottom line.Social media disasters often trigger powerful, relatable negative feelings.
· Outweigh common sense.
· Get clients, fans, staff, stakeholders, and others excited.
· Promote viral behaviour.
Social media crises have the potential to go viral quickly, become very unpredictable, and, in many cases, unforeseeable. Social media crises, if not addressed swiftly and properly, may have a catastrophic and long-term negative influence on your brand’s reputation and bottom line. A social media issue is not as serious as a crisis, but it still requires immediate and proper resolution.
Social media issues are unfavourable and possibly viral circumstances regarding your brand that occur online, but they do not have any serious long-term negative consequences for your brand’s reputation or bottom line.
Examples of social media difficulties may include, but are not limited to:
Ø Negative internet remarks or discussions regarding your brand.
Ø Unacceptable comments on your channels.
Ø Negative customer service concerns
Ø Negative pressIf social media concerns are not addressed promptly and properly, they have the potential to escalate into more serious social media disasters.
Social media concerns, on the other hand, define a distinct and good PR potential for your business when addressed promptly and appropriately. To prepare your brand for social media crises and issues, follow these steps:
Assess the risks that social media and the online world pose to your business or organisation. This is usually done through a vulnerability audit or risk assessment.
v Take the required precautions to avoid the preventable risk.
Create a social media crisis management plan to safeguard your firm from unpreventable risks.
Train your staff to efficiently recognise, respond to, and resolve social media crises and issues.
v No business or organisation is immune to a social media crisis, or issue for that matter.
A social media catastrophe can strike at any time and without warning. It might be the debut of a new campaign, a technical failure that irritates customers, an enraged employee who posts an inappropriate video online, or a thousand other possibilities.
v The most a brand can do is be able and prepared to recognise the warning signals of a social media crisis as soon as they appear.
v Communicate efficiently and in real time with your market and personnel during the crisis.
v To handle the situation in the shortest amount of time and with the fewest long-term ramifications to your brand.
CHAPTER 1.
Background of the study
In life, like in business, reputation is crucial. However, reputation is extremely sensitive, and one mistake can inflict permanent damage to your company’s image.
This is especially true in the digital era, where extreme transparency and high customer expectations rule supreme. Ignoring strong public digital voices is no longer an option.
Companies must learn to not only communicate successfully in the social media age, but also to actually listen to social chatter and respond in a way that is consistent with both brand and customer expectations.
In the digital age, it is vital for businesses of all sizes to have a social media crisis management plan – or, better yet, a crisis prevention plan – in place for when things go wrong. And it truly is a matter of “when” vs. “if.”
Some of the strategies to avert social media disasters, prevent them from escalating, or address things if everything goes wrong include
Listen and be present.
Companies such as The Gap have previously been accused of failing to respond to customers’ concerns about faulty merchandise or refund issues, simply because their social media channels were not designed to address customer service issues.
Unfortunately, in the digital age, failing to respond to social chatter or maintain a presence in social groups can reflect negatively on your brand. Even responding with a simple link to the relevant internet page is beneficial and demonstrates to your clients that you value their feedback.
And listen! Sometimes social listening technologies will pick up on talk about an unexpected topic and give you time to address it before it goes viral. Most brand disasters may have been avoided simply by identifying early discussion and being prepared to address it before it escalated.
Set the right expectations.
If you are a small firm or have limited bandwidth to respond to consumer inquiries in real time, set clear expectations for when people can expect a response. Duration: 24, 48, 72 hours. Be specific and make your expectation visible to guarantee it is noticed. But always stick to it.
Be transparent. Certain companies have been accused of eliminating posts they disagreed with, ignoring those posts, or stating that they had been hacked when they clearly had not.
Attempting to cover up or erase reasonable but unpleasant comments can make you appear to be ignoring a problem or, worse, unconcerned about your clients. It is vital to be honest and open about any problems you or your company may be experiencing.
If you’ve made a mistake, confess it, apologise, and do everything you can to fix it. We are all human, and we make mistakes. Your clients do not expect you or your teams to be perfect, only upfront and honest.
They expect you to treat them like family, as a member of your tribe, and that includes not violating their trust through back-peddling and cover-ups.
Warren Buffet once stated, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation, and five minutes to destroy it.” If you think about it, you’ll behave differently.”
Respond thoughtfully.
It’s worth making an effort to write a thoughtful response that addresses your consumers’ issues. Showing that you care about their experience and are prepared to solve problems (or even go above and above) is an excellent method to win over critics and convert them into fans.
According to The Retail Consumer Report, which was commissioned by Right Now and conducted online by Harris Interactive in January 2011, 33% of customers who received a response to their bad review went on to publish a good evaluation
while 34% removed their original negative review. 85% of consumers said they would be willing to spend 5-25% more than the regular price to ensure a better customer experience.
Caring truly pays off. It fosters trust and enables you to strengthen ties with your existing consumers. Word-of-mouth recommendations from your present delighted consumers are far more powerful than your own brand messages, and they will attract new clients.
Never lose your cool, ever.
There may be moments when you disagree with your clients. But being disrespectful or criticising someone on social media is completely inappropriate. Provide the most accurate information possible and make every effort to satisfy each query.
If nothing else works and a customer keeps on being unpleasant and uncooperative, simply ignore him/her and walk on; in those rare cases, no amount of effort will likely suffice.
Don’t take everything personally. The customer is not furious with you; rather, he or she is dissatisfied with the product or brand as a whole. Do not take these exchanges personally. Just do your best to help them and move on.
Have a Crisis Management Team in Place
Returning to my point #1…When you pick up on digital talk about a certain issue, you have an excellent opportunity to handle it before it explodes in your face. But make sure you have a method to quickly escalate and resolve the problem.
This approach should be part of your entire crisis management strategy. I recommend assembling a team comprised of personnel from PR, HR, legal, marketing, and other relevant areas who can rapidly draft and post a statement that will quiet the conversation and help fix the problem.
Manage Access to Your Social Media Accounts Carefully!
There have been reports of staff putting personal updates to brand accounts without realising they had switched to the incorrect account. To avoid mistakes like these, make sure you limit access to only knowledgeable community managers who have received adequate training.
Then there’s a mechanism for controlling access when people change jobs or leave the organisation entirely. When music retail firm HMV let off a large number of staff in January 2013, executives were unaware that their marketing team
which had been laid off, still had access to the brand’s social media accounts. The team went online to protest how officials handled the situation, tweeting things like “Over 60 of us are being fired at once. “Firing” was a mass execution of dedicated employees who loved the company before they were eventually shut down.
Post Moderation Guidelines
Most websites have their own Terms and Conditions, but you may also put your own moderation standards on your social media accounts to make it clear what behaviour will and will not be accepted in your communities.
Being open about your “house rules” makes it easier to remove inappropriate posts by referencing your rules and pointing out how they were broken.
Hire experienced community managers.
Some organisations still regard social media communities as an afterthought, relying on interns to submit the occasional tweet. Your social media is an integral element of your brand’s image and reputation, therefore hire pros!
A community manager should have experience, know your business inside and out, grasp its voice and personality, and, most importantly, love your customers. Don’t overlook the importance of the community manager job, which serves as a client voice within your organisation.
A seasoned community manager will also understand how to deal with angry customers, how to handle social media takeover attempts, and when to take the topic offline.
Remember, you will never please everyone.
As a leader and a brand, you must be prepared to be misinterpreted at times. If you really believe in what you’re doing or a particular point of view, but some people disagree, you must be willing to stand firm in your decision.
In this instance, you must be prepared to be open and honest about your feelings on the matter, as well as to respond calmly to any inquiries or criticism that may arise. That is where your social networks come into play
this is where your fans and tribe (those who share your viewpoint and believe in the same vision) can weigh in and help support your message/cause. In situations like these, organic brand love and advocacy are effective allies in defending a company’s reputation and spreading its message.
Statement of the Problem
Maintaining brand reputation is critical to the survival and growth of any organisation. However, there are times when business and customer relations are in crisis, resulting in negative customer reactions or comments about the organization’s products or services.
If not handled correctly, the consequences can be severe. It may result in a loss of the organization’s reputation and brand image.
These are the issues that this study is attempting to address in order to identify the role of social media in managing brand reputation during a crisis.
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS.
What is a social media crisis?
What are the consequences of the social media crisis?
What function does social media play in managing brand reputation during a crisis?
1.4 The Objective of the Study
Determine the nature of the social media crisis.
To determine the impact of the social media crises.
To evaluate the impact of social media on managing brand reputation in crisis.
1.5 Significance of the Study
The study will provide a framework for the measures of managing brand reputation in crises.
It will act as a source of information on the social media crises.
1.6 Statement of Hypothesis
1. H0 The severity of the social media problem is minimal.
H1 The severity of the social media situation is tremendous.
2 H0 The impact of social media crisis is modest.
H1 The impact of social media crisis is significant.
3 H0 Social media has a modest impact on managing brand reputation during crises.
H1 Social media has a significant impact on managing brand reputation during crises.
1.7 Scope of the Study
The study focuses on the role of social media on managing brand reputation during crisis.
1.8 Definition of Terms
A social media crisis is an online event that has the potential to have a negative and long-term impact on your company or organization’s reputation and/or bottom line.Social media crises are typically characterised by powerful, negative emotions that are immediately relatable.
· Outweigh common sense.
· Get clients, fans, staff, stakeholders, and others excited.
· Promote viral behaviour.
Social media crises have the potential to spread swiftly and widely. They run the risk of being extremely unpredictable and, in many cases, unforeseeable. Social media crises, if not addressed swiftly and properly, may have a catastrophic and long-term negative influence on your brand’s reputation and bottom line.
Need help with a related project topic or New topic? Send Us Your Topic