Telephone. 0116 262 6007 Email. info@seventyninepr.co.uk
We are a PR and marketing firm based in Leicester, Midlands, dedicated to creating demand and managing reputation through a range of communication platforms. We work with household names, SMEs in the UK and across the world. We are specialists in ethnic marketing and help businesses reach a new audience.
Demand is born out of want and necessity. But today, demand requires attention. It needs nurturing. It craves education. Communication is king. The key to feeding demand is to engage in the right communication at the right time to the right audience.
These 3 things are a must; We recognize this. We know your business can do more. We know your brand can be taken to a new audience. We take businesses and brands... (Read more)
“Help!”, read the e-mail.
“We have attracted some criticism on our Facebook page after one of our marketing managers added a comment as a joke.”
“Can you please help us draft some ideas on how to respond?”
Whoops! This was a real scenario which was presented to 79PR recently after an overeager account manager working for a fairly large brand posted a message on Facebook which was meant to be in a light-hearted tone.
However, it wasn’t how one of their Facebook followers took it and started posted negative comments on their wall.
Double whoops! Just the same way in how you can grow your fanbase via social media in an exponential way, the same can be said of criticism. It can snowball out of control unless you
- Deal with it quickly and rapidly
- Have a crisis communication policy ready to whip out when something like this hits.
While Twitter and Facebook are great at attracting potential customers rapidly (potential being the operative word), you can lose them just as rapidly via a silly or careless remark.
Just weeks earlier one of the bosses of a PR firm got annoyed with negative remarks being dished out by journalists (isn’t that their job?) about their client’s video game and tweeted a rather angry response. Something along the lines that he would be reviewing who would be getting the next game release.
Triple whoops! Journalist swooped on him and criticism of the game transferred to criticism of his remark. The result? The video game manufacturer sacking the PR firm, issuing an apology to journalists. The PR boss not only had to apologise to journalists, his staff and his firm but he also had to make quite clear that the tweet was his own work and not the viewpoint of his firm. The fallout and damage to the reputation of the firm could linger for a long-time.
Therefore if you have staff within your firm who have access to tweet or add comments to wall please approach with caution before they commit the proverbial #fail which could see you firefighting a crisis.
According to a new study by Burson Marsteller – a huge 49 percent of business decision-makers across the globe believe digital communications has made their company more vulnerable to a crisis. A whopping 79 per cent actually expect a crisis within a year. Amazingly, despite these fears only half of those surveyed actually had a crisis communication plan in place for their social media marketing.
All this begs the question? WHY NOTTTTTTTTT??
So if you are a business with an online presence, whether you are doing it yourself or outsourcing to an agency, make sure you follow the below steps.
- Create a social media policy ASAP and then spend an afternoon explaining to those responsible for tweets and walling (those who add comments on wall – might catch on). The policy should include a dos and dont’s and should be even be fed back to your client so they know where they are at.
- Those responsible for social media should be gathered and an out of hours crises plan should be gathered. Putting someone on call every weekend or evenings could be an option with an extra budget from the client sought to carry this out.
- Don’t be so hasty in replying to a rogue tweet or post. Be calm, assess in an neutral way and then respond.
- DON’T be angry. Sometimes what you say in your head and write can be lost in translation. Becoming angry to a rogue element could backfire drastically. Remember that everyone is entitled to their opinion. Valuing the complainant means you value their opinion and your brand and business.
- Apologise. Saying sorry is worth a thousand customers. Showing that you are human can work wonders.
- Be humorous. Often a simple, light hearted response or tweet can diffuse any potentially damaging situation.
- Be open. Don’t start direct messaging someone who puts negative comments. Be open and show everyone you are dealing with the situation in an amicable way.
- Do something about it. If the comment was negative because of a service or product issue, then address it and show other followers you are taking the comments on board.
And if you’re wondering how we dealt with the negative comment for one of our clients. Simple – we responded with a fun, light hearted response which addressed his concerns directly. They then responded with a positive comment.
Those who want any further advice can contact us on 0116 212 6809 or info@seventyninepr.co.uk.
79PR
Hello.This post was extremely remarkable, particularly since I was investigating for thoughts on this matter.