Faced with a rumor or complaint from a client or an inappropriate publication in a social network or even being able to make use of certain behaviors of employees in networks, which may be a reason that is sufficient for what is known as a online reputation crisis.
It is very important to bear in mind that you must work hard on the communication plans of a company, but no matter how hard you work on it, any small mistake can lead to reputational problems, which can lead to inconveniences. future sales or conversions.
If you have seen yourself in one of these circumstances and suffer from a brand reputation crisis problem, it may be the case that you have decided to act too instinctively and perhaps too negatively. In order to prevent the situation from getting worse, below we are going to explain everything you need to know to learn to manage a reputation crisis.
How to manage a reputation crisis on time
If anyone is dedicated to publishing negative comments on social media against your brand or company, and this is a person who has many followers or simply the criticism has become viral, it can have very serious consequences for a brand, so the first hours after the news appears is essential to respond and deal with the message, trying to prevent it from spreading through the network or make it less loud.
It is important to know how to deal with these reputational crises that you may encounter, and must address them as quickly as possible. Letting the hours go by will only make it that much more negative for your company or brand.
On the other hand, if you act quickly, you may even, a negative comment turns into something positive for you, everything will depend on your ability to correct the error. Of course, depending on each particular case, it will be easier or more complicated to do so.
How to prevent and deal with an internet reputation crisis
As we have mentioned, you may find yourself with a small error that can throw away all the work that you have done for many years, so it is recommended that you have a action plan prior to letting you know how to manage a reputational crisis, so that damage is minimized as much as possible.
The steps to follow before a crisis in social networks, something that is common to happen on some occasion in a person's life, it is recommended, as we mentioned a action plan, through which you can act quickly.
Some points to keep in mind in this regard are the following:
Company monitoring
The first step you must take into account to prevent online reputation crisis is to take into account everything that is said about your brand on the net. For this you can use different tools for social networks, so that it allows you to maintain an active listening through which to identify and monitor the comments of those people who talk about your brand or business, as is the case of the well-known Metricool.
Likewise, a good practice in this regard is to establish a communication policy that allows your customers and users to know where to turn to with any problem or suggestion, trying to find more appropriate means for this than social networks.
The less trace of your complaints or problems there is on the network, the better, so including a chat on your official website or looking for another alternative can be very useful for you and can prevent a bad opinion from spreading through all social networks. At all times you must bet on maintaining a transparent communication policy.
Design of the action plan
Having a personalized action plan It will allow you to have several options to respond to different scenarios and situations, being able to offer different answers. Once you have the user comments monitored, you can create profiles and strategies with which to deal with them as quickly and efficiently as possible.
How to deal with an internet reputation crisis
If you want to know how to act before a internet reputation crisis, we are going to give you a series of indications in this regard:
- Person in charge of responding: It is very important that you have one or more people appointed, depending on the size and magnitude of your business and company, to be in charge of dealing with the crisis immediately. Later, this person will be in charge of transmitting what happened to the rest of the people of the company, in addition to informing the indicated people of what happened for the adoption of measures.
- Identify who has made negative comments: You must be clear about who is behind these negative comments. The responsible person must indicate in order to know what caused the crisis, who and from what means. You will have to analyze the reason for the anger and if it really is an anonymous person or if it really is the competition. Sometimes it is other competitors who try to create a crisis in their rivals.
- Empathy and immediate response: Taking into account the above, you should try to deal with this type of situation as quickly as possible, immediately, but also be empathic with the other person. You should try to seek fluid communication, giving a transparent image and maintaining education at all times. You must also personalize all your messages by referring to the other person and you should not delete any comments. You must take advantage of it to get out of the situation successfully and that the image of your company is not damaged by it.
- Tracking: Once an adequate response has been given and the crisis has been solved, it is important to follow up the case later and modify the action plan so that this problem does not reoccur.