Don’t Get Caught with Your Pants Down
We have all heard that an “ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” and this has never been truer than in the social media arena. Social media crisis prevention should be a part of your marketing plan. Nobody wants to wait until something happens then try to put out fires. Even though it may be unlikely that you will need to execute the plan, it is better to have one ready to go. With the growth of social media for businesses it only stands to reason that there will invariably be those that misuse platforms for other purposes.
Social media crisis prevention goes a long way in stopping or at the very least diluting any negative results that can occur from antagonist. What is a social media crisis? Altimeter reports it as “a crisis issue that arises in or is amplified by social media, and results in negative mainstream media coverage, a change in business process, or financial loss.”
The good news is that social media crisis prevention works in the majority of cases. In order for prevention to truly work companies must have a plan in place. A major part of the prevention plan is having a social media policy in place and having employees educated on what this entails. One of the harder aspects of creating a plan and a policy involves the legal issues that can arise. Unless you are aware of this aspect of creating a policy it is important that you have a company that can help you develop one to fit your needs.
Developing a social media crisis prevention plan and social media policy for your business can be a little time consuming, but the benefits can be a huge cost savings. Hiring a company to assist in setting up a prevention plan and help in the development of a working social media policy can save you man hours and a lot of headaches.
Nobody wants to get caught with their pants down. Social media is the way to go to add to your marketing plan, and it is only going to grow. This can be seen with the changes in social networking platforms such as Twitter and Facebook gearing up to assist businesses in letting others know what they are about and have to offer. Mega corporations would not be using social media as a marketing tool if it didn’t work. The numbers of users grow every day.
Developing a social media crisis prevention plan only makes sense for any business savvy enough to use social media as a tool to market their business. Don’t wait until something happens and then decide to create a prevention plan; get started on one today.