IMPACT OF SOCIAL
MEDIA IN MANAGING
BRAND REPUTATION IN CRISIS
ABSTRACT
The
research provides a conceptual and theoretical appraisal of the impact of
social media in managing. Brand reputation in crisis, it analyses social media
crisis and profers the impact of social media in managing brand reputation in
crisis.
INTRODUCTION
Social media crises are a
reality and a risk that we all face today. We’re all vulnerable to online
attacks that threaten having a lasting and damaging impact on our
brand’s reputation, both online and offline, and bottom-line.
Managing your online risk
requires more than just social monitoring of your brand. It requires a plan
against them.A social media crisis is an online situation that has the risks of
having, a negative and long-term impact on your business or organization’s
reputation and/or bottom-line.Social media crises usually involve strong,
negative emotions that are relatable and can
easily:
·
Outweigh common sense
·
Get clients, fans, staff, stakeholders and others riled up
·
Provoke viral behavior
Social media crises risk
going viral very quickly, in a very short period of time, they risk being
highly unpredictable and, often, unforeseeable. When not responded to
promptly and in a proper manner, social media crises risk having a
damaging and lasting negative impact on your brand’s reputation and
bottom-line.A social media issue is a lesser situation than a social media
crisis – though one that
still needs to be addressed and resolved in a prompt and proper fashion.
Social media issues
are negative and potentially viral situations taking place online about your
brand, but they do not threaten any severe long-term negative impacts on
your brand’s reputation or bottom-line.
Some examples of social
media issues include, but are not limited to:
Ø Negative comments or
discussions being posted about your brand online
Ø Unacceptable comments
being posted to your channels
Ø Negative customer
service issues
Ø Negative pressIf not
responded to in a prompt and proper manner, social media issues risk escalating
into more severe social media crises.
However, when responded to
quickly and properly, social media issues define a unique and positive PR
opportunity for your brand. The best way to prepare your brand for both a
social media crisis and a social media
issue is to:
v Assess and understand
the risk that social media and the online world
present to your business or organization. This is typically done with a
vulnerability audit or risk assessment.
v Take the necessary
steps to prevent the preventable risk.
v Develop a social
media crisis management plan to protect and prepare
your company against the unpreventable risk.
v Train your entire
team to be able to efficiently detect, respond and resolve
a social media crisis and a social media issue.
v
No company or organization is immune to a
social media crisis – or issue for that matter.
v
A social media crisis can come from anywhere,
when you least expect it. It could be the launch of a new campaign, a
technical malfunction that leaves clients upset, an angry employee
who posts an unwanted video online, or a thousand other scenarios.
v
The best that any brand can do is to be able
and prepared to detect the warning signs of a social media crisis as soon
as they begin to show themselves.
v
To communicate effectively and in real-time
with your market and your staff through the crisis.
v
To resolve the situation in the least amount
of time and with the least amount of repercussions to your brand for the
long-term
CHAPTER 1
BACKGROUND
OF THE STUDY
In
life, and in business, reputation is everything. That said, reputation is very
fragile and it only takes one mistake to cause irreparable damage to your
company’s image. This is especially true in the digital world where radical
transparency and high customer expectations reign supreme. Ignoring strong
public digital voices isn’t an option any more. Companies have to learn to not
only communicate effectively in the social media age, but to truly listen to
the social chatter and respond in the way that align with both brand and
customer expectations.
In the
online era, it becomes critical for the business of any size to have a social
media crisis management plan – or even better, a crisis prevention plan – in
place for those times when things go wrong. And it is truly the
matter of “when” vs. “if.” some of the ways to avoid social media disasters,
prevent them from escalating, or handle things if everything goes sideways
include
Listen and Be Present
In the
past, companies like The Gap have been accused of not responding to
customers’ concerns about faulty merchandise or refund issues – simply because
they were not set up to handle customer service problems through their social
media channels. Unfortunately, in the digital age, not listening to the social
chatter or having presence on social communities can reflect badly on your
brand. Even responding with a simple link to the correct website page is
helpful – and shows your customers you take them seriously.
And
listen! Sometimes social listening tools will pick up the chatter about a topic
that you may not expect and will give you time to address it before it blows up
within the social stratosphere. Most of the brand disasters could have been
prevented just by picking up the early chatter and being prepared to address it
before it escalates.
Set the Right Expectations
If you
are a small business or have limited bandwidth to respond to customer inquiries
in real-time, then set the right expectations upfront on the timing within
which people should expect your response. 24, 48, 72 hours… Be specific and
make that expectation visible to ensure it is seen. But always stick to it.
Be Transparent Certain companies have
been guilty of removing posts they didn’t agree with, ignoring those posts, or
else claiming that they had been hacked, when they clearly hadn’t. Trying to
cover up or remove justified but negative comments can make you look as if you
are ignoring a problem or, worse off, don’t care about the customers. It is
critical to be honest and upfront about any issues you or your company may be
facing. If you made a mistake, admit it, apologize, and do everything in your
power to correct it. We are all human and humans make mistakes. Your customers
don’t expect you and your teams to be perfect, just transparent and honest.
They expect you treat them like family, a part of your tribe, and that means
not betraying their trust with back-peddling and cover ups.
Warren
Buffet once said: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to
ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
Respond Thoughtfully
It’s
worth putting some effort into writing a thoughtful reply aimed at addressing
your customers’ concerns. Showing that you care about their experience and are
willing to address problems (or even go above and beyond) is a great way of
actually winning around critics and turning them into fans. According
to The Retail Consumer Report,
commissioned by Right Now and conducted online by Harris Interactive in January
2011, of those customers who received a reply in response to their negative
review 33% turned around and posted a positive review, and 34% deleted their
original negative review. 85% of consumers said they would be willing to pay
anywhere between 5-25% over the standard price to ensure a superior customer
experience.
Caring
really pays off. It builds trust and allows you to further nurture
relationships with your current customers. Word-of-mouth recommendations from
your current satisfied customers are much more influential than your own brand
messages, and they will bring new customers in.
Do Not Lose Your Cool – Ever
There
may be times when you disagree with your customers. But being rude or attacking
them in social forums is absolutely unacceptable. Provide the best information
you can and do your best to satisfy every inquiry. If nothing helps and a
customer insists on being rude and un-cooperative, just ignore him/her and move
on; in those rare times, no matter what you do, nothing will probably be good
enough.
And
don’t take everything personally. The customer isn’t angry with you, (s)he
frustrated with the product or a brand as a whole. Don’t take these
interactions personally. Just do your best to help them out and move on.
Have a Crisis Management Team In Place
Going
back to my point #1…When you pick up a digital chatter around a specific issue,
you have a great opportunity to address it before it blows up in your face. But
be sure you have the way to quickly escalate and resolve the issue. This
process should be a part of your overall crisis management plan. I suggest
forming a team consisting of team members from PR, HR, legal, marketing, and
other relevant teams that can come together to quickly craft and post a
response that would quite down the chatter and will help solve the issue at
hand.
Manage Access To Your Social Media Accounts Carefully
There
have been instances of employees posting personal updates to brand accounts not
realizing that they haven’t switched to the right account. Making sure you are
limiting access to only knowledgeable community managers who have appropriate
training with avoid mistakes such as these.
And
then there is a process for managing access when employees switch jobs or leave
the company altogether. When music retail chain HMV laid off a large number of
its employees in January 2013, bosses didn’t realize their marketing team – who
had been made redundant – still had access to the brand’s social media sites.
The team went
online to protest at
the way the situation had been handled by executives, tweeting statements like
“There are over 60 of us being fired at once. Mass execution of loyal employees
who love the brand, “Firing” before they were finally shut down.
Post Moderation Guidelines
Most
sites have their own Terms and Conditions, but you can also post your own
moderation guidelines on your social media pages to make it obvious what
behavior will or will not be tolerated within your social communities. Being
up-front about your “house rules” makes it simpler to take down offensive posts
by referring to your rules and pointing out how they were violated.
Hire Experienced Community Managers
There
are still some organizations that treat social media communities like an
afterthought and leave it to the interns to post an occasional tweet. Your
social media is every bit a part of your brand image and reputation – so hire
professionals! A community manager should be experienced, know your brand in
and out, understand your brand’s voice and personality, and, most importantly,
love your customers. Community manager is a critical position that serves as a
voice of a customer within your organization, so don’t underestimate it. Plus,
a seasoned community manager will know the right way to deal with disgruntled
customers, be able to deal with socialmedia take-over attempts, and know when
to take the conversation off-line.
And Remember… You Will Never Please Everybody
Sometimes,
as a leader and as a brand, you will have to be willing to be misunderstood. If
you strongly believe in what you are doing or in a specific point of view, but
some people don’t share the same opinion, you will have to be willing to stand
by your decision. In this case you will have to be prepared to be transparent
and honest about it, share the reasons why you feel so strongly about the
subject, and be prepared to calmly address the questions and criticism that
come your way. That is where your social communities become even more important
– this is the opportunity for your fans and your tribe (people who share your
point of view and believe in the same vision) to chime in and help support your
message/cause. In cases such as these organic brand love and advocacy are
powerful allies in defending brand’s reputation and spreading brand’s message.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Maintaining brand reputation is
pivotal for the survival and growth of any organization. However, there are
moments of crisis in business and customer relation leading to customer
negative reaction or comments to the organizations product or services. The
resultant effect can be disastrous if not properly managed. It may lead to lose
of reputation and brand image of the organization .These therefore constitute
the problem confronting this research to
determine the impact of social media in managing brand reputation in crisis.
1.3
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What constitute social media crisis?
What
is effect of social media crisis?
What
is the role of social media in managing brand reputation in crisis?
1.4OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
To
determine the nature of social media crisis
To
determine the effect of social media crisis
To
appraise the impact of social media in managing brand reputation in crisis
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The
study shall provide a study framework for the measures of managing brand
reputation in crisis
It
shall serve as a source of information on social media crisis.
1.6 STATEMENT
OF HYPOTHESIS
1. H0 The level of social media crisis is low
H1 The level of social media crisis is high
2 H0 The effect of social
media crisis is low
H1 The effect of social media
crisis is high
3 H0 The impact of social media
in managing brand reputation in crisis is low
H1 The impact of social media
in managing brand reputation in crisis is high
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study is focused on the impact of
social media in managing brand reputation in crisis
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
A social media crisis is
an online situation that has the risks of having, a negative and long-term
impact on your business or organization’s reputation and/or bottom-line.Social
media crises usually involve strong, negative emotions that are relatable and
can easily:
·
Outweigh common sense
·
Get clients, fans, staff, stakeholders and others riled up
·
Provoke viral behavior
Social media crises risk going viral very quickly, in a
very short period of time. They risk being highly unpredictable and, often,
unforeseeable. When not responded to promptly and in a proper manner,
social media crises risk having a damaging and lasting negative impact on
your brand’s reputation and bottom-line.