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Previously, communications leaders were concerned with fairly common scenarios involving the brand's image, activities, leadership, or employees. However, as we've recently discovered, when the crisis is a global pandemic, there is no established social media crisis management template.

It's important to prepare for the worst case scenario and be able to react quickly no matter what you're up against; hence, social media plays a vital role in your crisis management efforts. In reality, companies that respond well to a brand crisis see a 20% increase in value on average, while companies that respond poorly see a 30% decrease in value (Source: Pentland Analytics).

Guide To Managing Social Media Crises

This detailed guide to managing social media crises will provide you with actionable best practices:

1. Create a social media communications strategy.

2. During a crisis, create content that responds directly to your customers' needs.

3. Prepare an evergreen crisis communication strategy so you'll be prepared if the situation occurs.

4. Set up your social media operations to support the team in the event of a crisis.

5. Allow actionable decisions on company next steps using social media and many more!

Communicate Internally

Internal communication is an essential aspect of the crisis management strategy. This helps to keep everyone on the same page and prevents confusion and rumors from spreading.

Ensure that everyone in the company understands what they should (and shouldn't) say about the social media crisis. Services like Hootsuite Amplify makes it simple to send pre-approved company messaging to all staff, who can then post it on their personal social media pages.

Learn From The Experience

Take the time to debrief and discuss what happened after you've survived a social media crisis. Keep meticulous records of everything you do and how far it goes.

This is a good time to gather the whole organization to discuss the experience you've all had and share ideas and insights from various teams. Perhaps the customer service department had some crucial details. Perhaps public relations has issued some new guidelines that need to be included in your social media strategy.

Take a look at your social media strategy. Consider if there is anything you might add to avoid a similar crisis in the future. Also, look over the crisis communication strategy for ways to implement what you've learned.

Inspire Your Team

While crisis management is a challenge, as a social media professional, you already possess the empathy, communication skills, and adaptability that are needed in such circumstances.

You can get the industry best practices; you need to create a strategy that will inspire your team, cultivate audience engagement, and help your brand survive any storm.