IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MANAGING BRAND REPUTATION IN CRISIS

 INTRODUCTION
Social media crises are a reality and a risk that we all face today. We’re all vulnerable to online attacks that threaten having a lasting and damaging impact on our brand’s reputation, both online and offline, and bottom-line.
Managing your online risk requires more than just social monitoring of your brand. It requires a plan against them.A social media crisis is an online situation that has the risks of having, a negative and long-term impact on your business or organization’s reputation and/or bottom-line.Social media crises usually involve strong, negative emotions that are relatable and can
easily:

• Outweigh common sense
• Get clients, fans, staff, stakeholders and others riled up
• Provoke viral behavior

Social media crises risk going viral very quickly, in a very short period of time, they risk being highly unpredictable and, often, unforeseeable. When not responded to promptly and in a proper manner, social media crises risk having a damaging and lasting negative impact on your brand’s reputation and bottom-line.A social media issue is a lesser situation than a social media crisis – though one that
still needs to be addressed and resolved in a prompt and proper fashion.
Social media issues are negative and potentially viral situations taking place online about your brand, but they do not threaten any severe long-term negative impacts on your brand’s reputation or bottom-line.
Some examples of social media issues include, but are not limited to:

• Negative comments or discussions being posted about your brand online
• Unacceptable comments being posted to your channels
• Negative customer service issues
• Negative pressIf not responded to in a prompt and proper manner, social media issues risk escalating into more severe social media crises.

However, when responded to quickly and properly, social media issues define a unique and positive PR opportunity for your brand. The best way to prepare your brand for both a social media crisis and a social media
issue is to:

• Assess and understand the risk that social media and the online world
  present to your business or organization. This is typically done with a
  vulnerability audit or risk assessment.
• Take the necessary steps to prevent the preventable risk.
• Develop a social media crisis management plan to protect and prepare
  your company against the unpreventable risk.
• Train your entire team to be able to efficiently detect, respond and resolve
  a social media crisis and a social media issue.
• No company or organization is immune to a social media crisis – or issue for that matter.
• A social media crisis can come from anywhere, when you least expect it. It could be the launch of a new campaign, a technical malfunction that leaves clients upset, an angry employee who posts an unwanted video online, or a thousand other scenarios.
• The best that any brand can do is to be able and prepared to detect the warning signs of a social media crisis as soon as they begin to show themselves.
• To communicate effectively and in real-time with your market and your staff through the crisis.
• To resolve the situation in the least amount of time and with the least amount of repercussions to your brand for the long-term