Think Like A Scout (always be prepared)

Murphy’s Law states that anything that can go wrong, eventually will, and while this might be a pessimistic view those of us in social media management know it’s just realistic thinking. An organization’s reputation is one of its most valuable assets. As Warren Buffet put it “it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it,” he seems like the kind of guy who believes in Murphey’s Law. As individuals we spend a lot of time thinking about our personal reputation, even Taylor Swift made an entire album named after it. We spend a lot of time thinking about how the outside world views us and, unless you’re an influencer you receive no compensation for being thought well of. How much more then do organizations value it since so much of their brand engagement stems from their reputation. The importance of protecting your brand’s reputation cannot be overstated and having a crisis management plan at the ready is a huge asset in protecting it.

A crisis management plan has several different layers, the first being defining what type of crisis you’re up against. Is it a “Type 1 crisis”which means it is a crisis that falls in line with your specific business. This is a crisis that you have to think through and be prepared for because it is one you could see happening. Is it a “Type 2 crisis”which means that it could happen to any business. A “Type 3 crisis”is one that no one could really anticipate, but having the other two in place will give you a framework for dealing with this type of crisis. Once you know what type of crisis, you’re dealing with you can find out where it originated. Make sure you have a team lined up who can make the initial response. The team should have well defined roles and understand their individual responsibilities. This team will have a good understanding of how to execute the plan and who needs to be informed and at what threshold of crisis. Next, determine what the level of threat is to your brand; is it something customer servicecan handle on their own or does the crisis management plan need to be enacted. The team will then need to decide who is affected and what actions should be put in place to make sure all those who are affected are taken care of. After, holding statements may need to be issued until official messaging can be communicated. All of this communication needs to be preapproved up the chain of command by managers and then the executive team. How the crisis unfolds depends on how high up the chain you go. The tone of these responses depends on the crisis, but in general it should be handled with swiftness, humility and determination to make amends as well as make improvements going forward.

In January 2017 H&Mfaced a crisis that they did not handle well. They posted a picture of a clack child wearing a sweatshirt that said, “Coolest Monkey in The Jungle.” This post was immediately condemned across social media as a racist photo and people were angry at how this could have been approved. While H&M responded with apology statements the public didn’t think they went far enough. A crisis like this needed to have been addressed publicly by an executive of the company and just a generic apology statement. In regard to the flow chart this incident deserves to be handled by the highest-ranking person up the chain. In comparison JC Pennywas called out for selling a picture that VERY loosely resembled Hitler. It is certainly a stretch, but they wisely chose to respond quickly to make sure it didn’t spiral into a crisis. They chose to respond with some humor while also debunking that there was any intention to design the teapot in resemblance to the dictator. I think they did a great job have handling this situation by making sure they were using social listening to stay on top of what was being said about their brand and then responding to it in a way that wards off potential negative backlash.

The moral of the story is that you can never be too prepared for the worst-case scenario. Your brand’s response to a crisis or potential crisis can be make or break for the company. So, it behooves us all to carry an umbrella because in the social media age we live in you can guarantee that eventually, it’s going to rain.