How to Use Social Media for Crisis Management

When most people think about the advantages of using social media for business, they immediately think of the marketing benefits.


However, many businesses are starting to use social media as a tool for listening and providing customer service.


When a crisis or emergency erupts, the power of social media can be an amazing tool for businesses. A crisis can include anything from a simple website outage to negative publicity. This article will reveal how to use social media during a crisis and provide many examples you can model.

Why Your Reputation in Social Media Is Important


Why should a company be concerned about social media’s influence on their image? The answer is simple: Social media allows consumer opinions to spread far and wide quickly. Word of mouth and social search are two powerful reasons to manage your social media reputation.


Word of mouth


Imagine you’re a restaurant owner, and you recognize a customer walking into your establishment as someone who has a wide influence in your community, such as a newspaper writer. You would want him to have the best experience possible so if he chooses to write about your restaurant, those who read the review would be impressed and possibly come in to have a wonderful experience as well.


Social media allows anyone to be a major influence in the community. Any customer who walks through your door could possibly have hundreds or even thousands of followers in your region, or if not, his friends might. Word of mouth marketing can reach a worldwide audience through social media; thus, one bad experience could be retold to the masses.


Social search


Google’s recent implementation of social media in their search results brings real-time conversation to the front page. Twitter users in particular are fond of hashtags, and just adding a hashtag in front of a search for a name brand can reveal what is currently being talked about in relation to that brand.


Take Toyota for instance. Adding the hashtag in front of the name reveals the following in the first page of search results.


Now, let’s look at what happens if you do the same for Ford. More.......