Social media has become ground zero for interactions that can quickly transform from light-hearted and positive to damaging conversations. Unfortunately, a business does not have to do anything wrong to experience this. If a user posts offensive, degrading and otherwise unsavory comments on an account randomly, it could hurt the brand image.
This is why social media response plans are so important. Companies can avoid the more dangerous threats associated with such activity when they have an intelligent plan in place to combat negative feedback on social media. Digital Vidya, a marketing certification and training company, notes that one study from Burson Marstellar found roughly 70% of organizations have no social media response plan.
What to consider in planning
A social media response plan can be thought of as a policy that dictates how the business will interact with audiences and commenters on websites. A plan can include components related to both positive and negative commentary. It can guide you on when to respond or when not to respond, the type of message used to respond, and any other internal communication that can help strengthen your brand identity.
Companies with a social media response plan in place protect themselves from the fallouts with customers and prospects that can occur from a disastrous comment posted on the corporate page on a social networking site.
Here are a few helpful resources to get you started:
This is why social media response plans are so important. Companies can avoid the more dangerous threats associated with such activity when they have an intelligent plan in place to combat negative feedback on social media. Digital Vidya, a marketing certification and training company, notes that one study from Burson Marstellar found roughly 70% of organizations have no social media response plan.
What to consider in planning
A social media response plan can be thought of as a policy that dictates how the business will interact with audiences and commenters on websites. A plan can include components related to both positive and negative commentary. It can guide you on when to respond or when not to respond, the type of message used to respond, and any other internal communication that can help strengthen your brand identity.
Companies with a social media response plan in place protect themselves from the fallouts with customers and prospects that can occur from a disastrous comment posted on the corporate page on a social networking site.
Here are a few helpful resources to get you started:
- The University of California, Los Angeles offers a flow chart that is widely viewed among social media experts as a powerful guide to social media interactions. This flow chart includes general and specific planning points along with best practices.
- HubSpot, a provider of inbound marketing solutions, suggests leveraging its free template when getting into crisis-specific elements of the social media response plan. This resource can be effective for planning purposes and educating employees who are tasked with carrying out the strategy.
- Hootsuite, a social media management platform, provides guidance on benchmarking to help create social media responses in crisis and non-crisis scenarios, along with measuring the performance of such plans over time.
