Social Media Damage Control ㅡ Preventing the viral crisis

   Social media is a fabulous tool to broadcast the positive, but when others start repeating, re-tweeting, and adding to a negative message, the problem can become a crisis. The crisis can quickly spiral out of control leaving a company's reputation damaged and public opinion sinking.

  Many organizations have jumped on the Social Media bandwagon, but woefully unprepared when something goes wrong.

5 main strategies that companies can use to become prepared and prevent a major social media crisis

1. Anticipate

By announcing and addressing a problem beforehand, you appear more honest, pro-active and customer-focused.

2. Ignore

It's one of common methods. Why pour fuel on the fire?

3. Engage

You seek to open a dialog with the troublemaker and the wider social media community. Without the authority to solve the situation, you may be able to demonstrate reasonableness, compassion and understanding. You'll not only diffuse the situation, but also learn something important that can be fed back into your products development or service delivery process.

4. Fight

This strategy is aggressive engagement but should only be used once the troublemaker crossed a line, or other crisis techniques have proven unsatisfactory.

5. Solicit Support

The goal with this is to ask you engaged community to advocate on your behalf such as Twitter or contact directly by picking up the phone or writing on email. Reach out or your supporters!