Posted by Courtney Mills

Last week I explained how to Monitor, Listen & Respond to social media comments as part of my overview of the Media140 conference. This week, we will look at how social media sites can be used as an effective crisis management tool.

The rise of social media sites has given customers a new avenue to talk about your company and in turn a new way for you to reach your customers quickly.

The general practice when a crisis hits your company, affecting your customers, is to deal with it quickly. Social media sites now give you an outlet to explain the crisis and your response almost instantly.

A tip from the experts at the recent Media140 conference was to not sugar-coat your response to customers in a crisis.

Here is how media training expert, Gemma Tognini explained it:

Authenticity is the only currency acceptable when in a crisis.

So don’t lie to your customers, tell it to them straight and they will appreciate it. If you don’t tell them the truth then they will simply go looking for the truth online.

Dena Vassallo from public relations firm, PPR, explained it as the “surprise and delight factor”. If you fix any problems quickly & openly in these forums through conversation with the customer, then not only will they be surprised at how open you have been but they will also be delighted by the fast response. By resolving these problems so publicly any other followers will appreciate this also and it will likely build more trust in your brand.

Being able to respond quickly to any issues that arise comes back to the 3 principles I outlined last week – monitor, listen & respond. Monitor what is being said online about your company, listen to what these people are saying and respond in a truthful and timely manner.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 8:30 am and is filed under Business, Management, Networking, Tips. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About the Author: Courtney is an online marketing specialist at ineedhits - a leading search engine marketing firm with over 11 years experience. Courtney has been living and breathing marketing for over 2 years and specializes in web and permission email marketing and providing news and opinion to online marketing communities.