Gini Dietrich: Social media crisis response plan

Posted by Adam Franklin

After any social media crisis arises it’s important to follow a communications response plan — assuming you have one!

You have a social media crisis response plan, right?

In this interview with Gini Dietrich, author of Spin Sucks, writer at SpinSucks.com blog and CEO of Arment Dietrich, we learn exactly what we need to include in our social media crisis response plan.

Gini’s tips

The difference between an issue and a crisis on social media…

An issue is usually something where you feel like it is a big deal – a rogue tweet, someone saying something negative about you online, or a customer complaint over email – but it doesn’t typically affect anything from a reputation or revenue standpoint.

A crisis on the other hand creates a really bad reputation experience and it also affects the bottom line.

Gini says that you want to manage issues early on so they don’t become a crisis, because once they become a crisis that’s when you are in big trouble.

Categorising an issue depending on its severity

Gini suggests to write down every single situation you could possibly think of that could effect your bottom line. Everything ranging from a negative comment online, all the way to a natural disaster.

Then categorise them.

Is it an issue, that could effect our bottom line?

Or is it a crisis, that will effect our bottom line?

Once you have all of these potential situations listed, the idea is to rate them between 1 and 3. With 1 referring to something that is a significant crisis, and 3 being something that is just an issue but could become a crisis if you don’t deal with it appropriately.

Of course you can never predict the actual crisis that will strike your business but if you are in the habit of thinking through how you would respond, you will be well prepared when disaster strikes!

You may also like our free Negative Comments Response Template.

PS…

After a full on Social Media Marketing World in San Diego, Gini and I sat next to each on a flight to Chicago. And then Gini shared this pic on Facebook! Cheeky ;-) I owe her one hey…. what should I do?

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About Adam Franklin

Adam Franklin is the bestselling author of Web Marketing That Works. He is an international social media speaker and CEO of Bluewire Media.  His blog was Australia’s #1 Business Blog and his podcast was #9 on the top marketing podcasts in Entrepreneur magazine.His work has featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald, Huffington Post and iTunes.Download the popular Web Strategy Planning Template which has been used by hundreds of thousands of businesses worldwide. His weekly ‘Bluewire News’ email goes out to over 32,000 readers.

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