by Oliver Bayani
Prevention is always better than cure – and that includes handling social media blunders that can easily spiral out of control from a hilarious joke to financial ruin.
MANILA – Firemen and those on the police force or military prepare for various crises all the time; even the entire Metro Manila area has been scheduled for a city-wide earthquake drill by end July.
But most corporations don’t, says Jonathan Yabut, Chief of Staff of AirAsia — even as the rise of social networks allows damning news to spread globally at unmatched speeds.
The impact can vary from negative publicity to full-blown financial disasters. One of the worst was in 2013 when a false tweet from a hacked Associated Press Twitter account about explosions at the White House brought the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 144 points. The blue-chip index did recover minutes after but its a frightening example of how social media can spiral out of control.
“How much are Philippine companies prepared when it comes to social media crisis? Especially in a country where a tweet from Vice Ganda alone can set you up burning into flames,” Yabut asks.
Not that much, according to a 2011 study from Altimeter Group, and that includes the rest of the world. Only around half of the 144 companies they surveyed say they have a response plan in place. Equally revealing is that 76% of the 50 high-profile social media crises that happened as far back as 2001 could have been averted.
Bad customer service is among the top reasons why social media crises happen, influencing 15 of the 50 social media crises Altimeter looked into. But Yabut explains that even more companies – 20 in the report – found themselves in trouble by failing to educate employees on how to conduct themselves in social media.
“It’s not rocket science. We do know that If they’re not happy, they will be vocal about it. The problem is that employees of a company are not equipped how to they should do damage control once a crisis hits.”
Educating employees is the base of a 5-step pyramid of social media crisis guidelines that Yabut has been sharing in numerous talks and conference around the SEA region. Also the Founder and Managing Director of JY Ventures & Consultancy, a marketing, sales and crisis management firm, he sees it as an advocacy of sorts to help companies break bad social media habits.
Internet policies and culture must be laid out and cultivated to make employees realize that they ultimately represent the company they are working for. “ Yes, they don’t wear a corporate hat. But they should be aligned on what they are allowed and not allowed to to post on the internet. If they don’t know the limits on what to post, everyone will be in trouble.”
Identifying point persons, Yabut calls as “gatekeepers,” help ease this process by becoming the face of the company during a social media crisis. It lays out the rules of engagement between public relations, marketing, customer service, top management and external parties.
“What I notice is that there is a often a struggle of power on who holds the keys for the password of social media accounts whenever a crisis happens. Most of the time, companies don’t know who should be the first to speak out and last person to shut up. You need to cover that.”
Investing in listening tools is also essential to able to listen and respond in real time, avoiding nasty surprises. But it is also pays to have your company a deep understanding of website terms and conditions and broader regulations globally. Countries in Europe, Yabut cited as an example, is urging Google the right to be forgotten for people incited with criminal charges who want to be taken out in the first page of Google Search.
“Understand if that applies to your country of continent. When the time comes that you need to talk to the likes of Google for this and other massive changes, you’ll know how it can work in your favor.”
All the tips culminates into a crisis management that should be “predictive, automatic, responsive.” “The moment a social media crisis erupts, you should be the first one to update,” Yabut adds.
Within the first two hours, companies should have posted something online to be able to control the flow of information surrounding the crises and avoiding the media to dictate the unraveling story.
“When they don’t find something on your website or social media properties, they will look for other ways to be informed. If you control the information, you get to dictate what people ought to know.”
Yabut recommends using a hashtag strategy to help identify which people are on your side or against you. Retweeting big influencers that happen to support you, for instance, helps establish a positive reputation among the community, while also enables brands to reach out to naysayers.
Another useful tool is video content which can be used to educate the public about important details about the crisis at hand. “Nothing explains better than videos,” he says, saying that it also establishes an emotional connection faster than any medium can. More importantly, Yabut adds that Google prioritizes video content in its search engines and is 30% more likely to get shared online.
Like in business, as in handling social media blunders, time is off the essence – not to mention, seizing the chance to speak out. Yabut observed that businesses has a strange habit of keeping quiet when they end up in hot water when they clearly shouldn’t,
“It’s better to say something than be judged as guilty, especially in a region where silence is often seen as guilt.”
This article was first published in the July-August 2015 issue of adobo magazine.
