We have all been there, said something that in our head sounded exactly how we meant it but the second it was out there we realised the potential for misinterpretation. With all the best intentions, some things just come out wrong but fortunately, in everyday conversation, these can go by relatively unnoticed or quickly forgotten.

When posted to social media channels however, this is a totally different story. There are so many instances of bad press from social media that you might see this marketing tool as a minefield of brand-destroying potential. There are some key learning points to come from others mistakes and ones that are can be easy to implement in a small business.

Consider your online personality
Social Media is all about engaging your audience. Imagine your chatting with a customer you have been dealing with for years, you don’t need to sell to them in the same way as they already value your service. Your relationship with them now is more a friendship, sharing information that might interest them, solving their problems or having a joke. That is what social media is all about and it is good to show people what you and your business are like, your interests or your sense of humour. Sainsburys and Old Spice are two companies known for their sassy replies on Twitter:

Maintaining control
This is as much about who in the company has access to the social media accounts as maintaining a professional approach. This is far easier in a small business as you could designate an individual to be responsible for this area and give them some quiet time to collect together a number of posts for scheduling. This will create a more fluid approach to your brand image, reducing the likelihood of customer messages being missed while managing your security. You really want to avoid upsetting your social media assistant though as they can have tremendous responsibility for your brand image:

Scheduling posts
This is an excellent way to efficiently manage your social media accounts and allow you to create a list of posts to go out at particular intervals over a given period, say two a day in the next week. This is great for gathering interesting information that you can share with your audience but you need to be sure it won’t be out of date by the time it gets posted, or worse, unwittingly conflict with a big news story and damage your image.
The National Rifle Association have come under fire (pun-intended) on more than one occasion for inappropriate tweets shortly after serious gun related incidents in the USA. These seem likely to have been caused by pre-scheduled posts but it has not helped their image.

Avoid controversial subjects
As with a dinner party, politics and religion should be off the menu. Although this might contradict with the first point, some subjects are like Marmite and you are bound to offend someone, even if you try and sit in the fence. Unless your living relies on controversy and then anything goes, hold on to your hats folks, its Katie Hopkins:

Think about posts from a different perspective
No matter how you might mean something to sound, when things are written rather than said, a lot of the meaning is lost in translation and can be interpreted negatively by others. Where possible, especially as you start engaging on social media, run posts by someone else or take a moment to read it out loud and see how differently it might sound. With all the best intentions, something’s just miss the mark.

If it goes wrong, be proactive
Despite following all these points, there will inevitably be a time when it doesn’t go as planned and may be no fault of your own. A customer might hijack a #hashtag because they are disgruntled with your service or they have taken your best planned post out of context. Be prepared for action as inaction is a bad message. When a customer leaves you negative feedback for a service, then its your moment to stand up to the problem and diffuse it as quickly as possible. In some instances the customer isn’t always right, but its how you deal with their issue that is important for other potential customers to see the transparency.

What you need is a Digital Crisis Management Plan. This could simple be company guidelines on how to respond to different situations or who to seek guidance from, depending on your organisational structure. This is especially important for small businesses as it considering these situations now when you are calm and composed is far more productive than the responses you may have in a crisis.

The main things are:
1: reply to Feedback.
Always respond to customers feedback, good or bad. Its good customer service to be seen to be solving customers problems. Ignore it and it will undoubtedly damage your brand.

2: Airing dirty laundry.
Avoid if possible a public debate, try contacting the customer ‘off-air’ to solve their complaint, but its sometimes in your interest to reply publicly which shows others your honesty and integrity.

3: The customer isn’t always right.
Consider your brand image, don’t be afraid to stick to your guns if you believe in your post, but be diplomatic; you don’t want to be branded a bigot.

4: Take the rough with the smooth
Never delete negative feedback or comments unless they are offensive. All individuals are ‘only human’, so at some point something will not go to plan. How you deal with the problem is going to show if you are a company worth dealing with in the future.

5: Hold your hands up!
If you made a genuine error, try self-deprecating humor to show your good-nature side, it will humanise your company, no-one wants to deal with robots!

Did you enjoy this post?, then you maybe interested in another blog article The Do’s and Dont’s of Social Media Marketing

Or to help get the right message across touch and more advice on promotional printing, email info@print-print.co.uk or call us on 01952 850730.

Lisa Cooper

Lisa Cooper is a photographer and marketing writer working for Print-Print Limited, promoting business and building your brand through quality print marketing.

If you’re interested in small business promotion then please get in touch info@print-print.co.uk