Even
the most careful of people trip on their feet. That is to say, businesses
aren’t exactly protected from making mistakes online. Some do falter, and
sometimes it yields grave effects.
Learning
how to handle these blunders can help alleviate the situation and can restore
your relationship with your audience. Take note of these helpful tips:
Let people talk
Don’t
fuel their hate by deleting and suppressing negative feedback. Let them air out
their frustrations.
Acknowledge and Apologize
The
thing that drives people nuts is when a business doesn’t own up to its mistake
and defends itself against negative comments. When you make a mistake, let your
pride down and apologize to your audience, especially to those who were
directly affected. When people see that you admit your error, their fury will
die down eventually.
Reach out
But
apologizing isn't the only thing you should do. You have to reach out to your
audience to further extinguish the flame. Respond to negative tweets or
comments; the more personalized and sincere your responses are, the better.
Monitor the crisis
Usually,
the quicker you act, the faster people forget, but that will always depend on
the circumstance and the gravity of the situation. Keep monitoring your social
media to learn how to manage the crisis more effectively. There are programs
you can use to make monitoring easier for you.
Create Powerful Content
After
you’re done extinguishing most of the flame, it’s time to create content in
form of article, images, videos or infographics to bury all negative effects of
the blunder and revive your social media presence.
Seek help when needed
When
your business can’t manage the crisis on your own, you can hire an agency that
can assist you in responding to the crisis. 9DotStrategies offers an Online
Reputation Management service that can help you gain back your former glory.
Remember,
it’s best to plan beforehand to limit the damage caused to your reputation. But
when disaster strikes, contact 9DotStrategies!
