These days, a single 50-character badly-worded tweet, or a 10-second Vine taken out of context can make or break a brand. With the rise of social media that has brought company-customer and customer-customer interaction to whole new levels, skills in managing the company’s online reputation becomes handy.
The question is, what exactly does one do when something unfortunate like this happens? And how does a PR-savvy company deal with controversies that happen in this age? Here are the basic options that should be deliberated on thoroughly, on a case-to-case basis.
Ignore. Say, a customer says something bad about a brand, on his Twitter. It could be an uninformed rant, or something with basis, such as an unpleasant experience in the company’s establishment. If it’s the former, and if the person in question does not exactly have a following, then ignoring may be the best option. It does not put more undeserved attention to his post, and the company will not be engaged in a conversation that they do not want to be in. If it is the latter, choosing to ignore can still be an option, if the rant uses foul language, or if the person simply seeks to draw attention more than obtaining “justice.”
Delete. If the venue of the post is the company’s account, say, their Facebook page, or their blog, then there is the added option to delete user comments that are baseless and/or nastily worded. The key to this is regular and comprehensive monitoring of the company’s social media assets, exactly to nip these kinds of conversations in the bud. This way, less people will be able to see such negative posts. On Facebook, another option is to just hide them, so that the original poster will mistakenly believe that their comment is still visible. For very special cases, in which the user does not even appear to be a real person with a proper profile but just trolling around, blocking from social media accounts helps keep the company’s online reputation spotlessly clean.
Delayed response. Yes, this is an option. Sometimes, a topic can be so controversial that releasing a knee-jerk reaction can just be disastrous. Or, the company can just sound very defensive and so offended, which may dignify a comment that should not be. Delaying the response, until the “smoke has cleared” so to speak, can be a great option if the company is sure that it is on the right, and that the course of things will vindicate their organization.
