By Madeline Cullen
There’s no doubt that during these unprecedented times, social media has been a helpful tool to release updates, check-in with friends and family, and spark joy. The question is: as a brand, how do we address our audience during times of crisis and uncertainty?
For example, unhappy comments might arise surrounding a controversial topic. Or, your audience may not agree with your stance on a certain social issue. Whatever the case, it’s time to be strategic. Here are Olive’s 4 tips on how we handle a social media presence from a brand’s perspective when everything else in the world may be unclear.
Stay Updated and Informed
Staying up to date with local and national news is the first step to a successful social media campaign. Start by following credible news sources on Twitter and Instagram to diversify your feed with influential happenings. In order to be sensitive to topics in the news, we must first be aware of them. Always inform clients of trending hashtags or movements that surface on platforms, so they can decide whether or not to participate.
Social silence, which means pushing pause on any social content that is not relevant to the current issue at hand, is another way to show solidarity.
Be Sensitive
When drafting posts for social media, it is imperative that you proceed with the utmost caution and think about how the content you are creating could be perceived by not only your audience, but by everyone. With everything going on in this world, be wary of how certain subjects may affect every kind of group. Topics such as race, politics and religion can be especially controversial- so tread lightly on these.
Daily Engagement
It is essential for any social media campaign that you stay in tune with your audience. Daily social media engagement is the best way to do this, and that means checking all platforms once or twice per day for any interaction, engaging with influencers and other users in that given community, checking popular industry hashtags, and checking the geotags in significant areas.
This a great way for us to get a pulse on our audience and make sure that your tone is on par with the rest of the online community. It also helps to build the relationship between the brand and your audience. Conducting engagement every day will help you catch any negative comments or posts in the early stages before they get out of hand. The best thing to do in these situations is to respond with kindness and always try to take the conversation offline to a private message when further communication is needed.
Multiple Eyes Always
Set a standard for your team to have multiple people look over the content before it is posted. To scan not only for typos and other errors, but for any discretion in the content that could cause someone to take offense.
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When it comes to crafting an online crisis strategy, this is just the beginning. Are you ready to launch your social media campaign and gain visibility for your brand? Contact us at info@olivecreativestrategies.com to get started.