Going Viral for all the Wrong Reasons

Every time someone reads, clicks or shares a link or piece of content that we have created, it sends a small dose of dopamine into our brain. This release provides us with a sense or reward, pleasure – and encouragement. It’s why (for the marketer) digital marketing or social media can be addictive. It is also why those who don’t use social media fail to understand the way that participation can become contagious – or how content can go “viral”.

Unfortunately, the concept of “virality” has positive and negative connotations. And while the highs that come with a viral “hit” can be dwarfed by the lows that come with a viral “miss”. Where once we held that there was no such thing as bad PR, we now know that there IS such a thing as bad social media – and there are very real impacts on our reputation (personal and corporate) and even downsides for our corporation’s share price.

For those who have one eye on the audience and another on your corporate reputation, Sprinklr’s recent whitepaper on crisis management will be a must-read. Covering the five essentials for crisis preparation, it includes a handy score card to help you assess when a crisis is likely to move from medium to critical, and even includes a sample flowchart which you can adapt to your own organisation.

The whitepaper by Rick Reed (Intel), Melissa Agnes (Agnes + Day) and Sprinklr’s Ali Ardalan and Uyen Nguyen is a handy document to model your own crisis plan on. And it might just be your saviour should you find yourself “going viral” for all the wrong reasons. Download your copy here (registration required).

This Holiday Season, Get Your Social Media House in Order

It’s been a long year, and I know you are tired. Worn out. Ready for a break.

But how READY are you? Because when it comes to social media, you need to be business READY, and by that I mean:

Responsive Don’t bury your head in the sand. An issue can turn into a crisis very quickly. Make sure you have protocols and people that allow you to respond to issues as they arise. Even over the holidays.
Engaged It’s hard to hose down a crisis if you’ve never engaged with your audiences via social media. There’s an old saying, “dig your hole before you need the water” – and the same applies to social media. Be sure to engage with people before you need to. And if a crisis eventuates, be sure to remain engaged with the topic, the participants and your stakeholders.
Active In a crisis, remain active. Initiate communications. Actively monitor inbound and outbound channels. Check the facts and correct inconsistencies. Become the authority.
Direct When things are going pear-shaped, it’s tempting to “gild the lily” – to put some positive spin on events. Resist that urge. Be direct in your communications and engage with the issues that you need to, but don’t feed the trolls.
Y-front prepared There can be no doubt that a social media crisis is embarrassing for your brand. Are you ready to be caught out in the spotlight? What do you do when your dirty laundry is aired? Be prepared to talk dirty laundry.

And if you need a more detailed guide to managing a social media crisis, take a look through Simon Kemp’s excellent guide. It may be the best present you’ll get all year.