Be prepared for PR problems!

If the PR disaster that plagued Applebee’s just a few short weeks ago did anything for other companies, it reminded them that social media is not all likes and messages of praise. (In case you missed it, check out http://rlstollar.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/applebees-overnight-social-media-meltdown-a-photo-essay/ for a pretty comprehensive summary of the events and how everything unfolded.) It was a very real reminder that social media can exacerbate PR problems and sometimes social media actually helps to create the problem.

Obviously, social media risks are real. Social media is putting your company out there for consumers and customers to interact with and you cannot control what they do or say. However, you can control how you handle it.

You don’t want to risk a fire destroying your entire inventory and severely hurting your business, so you install smoke detectors and sprinklers to try and prevent this and buy insurance in case this unfortunate event takes place. Do the same thing with your social media.

Make a plan for putting out small fires. Did someone tweet about their negative experience? Did someone complain to you on Facebook? Establish a way to handle those complaints. Customers do this because they want to feel heard. By establishing a way for you to respond to these customers, you won’t freak out the first time you see a negative comment.

For problems like these and bigger problems like the one Applebee’s faced, you need to determine the tone you want to respond with (This is a big one to consider, because you don’t want customers to think you’re not taking them seriously.), who you want to be responsible for responding, the content you want to respond with, and how quickly you want someone to respond. Go ahead and brainstorm all the possible crises your company can face and determine what you would do in each situation. You might not want to, but it will help you in the long run if you already have a plan in place. Test out your plan internally and make sure that it works for you. If you notice that you’re not getting the response you want, go back to the drawing board and adjust your plan.

Social media PR problems are not a reason to stay away from social media. They are just another risk to include in your crisis management plan. So go ahead and create your plan. If a crisis ever hits, you’ll be glad you did.