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Comment Response Chart

You’re a #PR Crisis Manager, But Are You a Pre-Crisis Doctor?

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PR professionals are familiar with the crisis drill, because we’re called upon when crisis strikes and we’re prepared with our crisis plans in place.  Today, executives realize that crisis takes precedence, as their companies are in the public’s critical eye, their brands are the topic of constant conversations and communication travels more quickly than ever before through social media channels.

The difference between the PR crisis manager and the pre-crisis doctor is the ability to use the very channel that causes the crisis, to prevent the situation from either starting or spiraling out of control.  It’s one thing to prepare how you would manage the situation but it’s an entirely different strategic process to try to prevent it from happening.  Today we’re able to scan, monitor and respond more proactively to all different types of media, including the negative conversations in social media communities.  There should be no waiting or hesitation.  If two hours of crisis goes by, then those two hours have the potential to lead to serious reputation issues and damage.

It’s better to prevent and/or manage the situation to lessen severity, with a public response that immediately addresses the issue at hand.  Companies are learning to listen more closely to the dialog of their customers and other constituents, whether it is positive praise, product questions, service issues, related organizational concerns or outright anger.  As the pre-crisis doctor analyzes how the organization moves through different situations, these conversations are documented and separated into “conversation buckets.”  These are the very buckets that house information or intelligence on best practices.  In some cases the intelligence leads to a favorable outcome and in other cases to some serious lessons learned.

How do you become a pre-crisis doctor?  Part of the process is learning to monitor more closely and on a constant basis. Social media doesn’t stop at the close of the normal business day and it doesn’t take off on holidays.  People are talking into the late hours of the night and early hours in the morning. Years ago, the crisis manager would have plan in place that covered what would happen if negative communication appeared in traditional media.  Then, at the onset of web communications, businesses found the benefits of 24/7 interactions and a broader reach, but this also meant that information about their issues could spread faster through online media, when a negative story broke.

Now, the media doesn’t have to break the story because consumers can easily share their negative views and opinions in their communities, followed by the media reinforcing the escalating issues.  When ongoing monitoring is in place, the pre-crisis doctor has a better chance of pinpointing the mounting issue, evaluating it more quickly, focusing on the change in sentiment and carefully responding to slow down the rapid pace of sharing before the issue(s) gets completely out of hand.

Going beyond the crisis manager, most pre-crisis doctors will prepare several additional resources integrated in the crisis operational plan.  These items include:

–   Prepare an organizational chart of key contacts involved in the social media responses, as the crisis escalates to different levels.  For example, by charting levels of escalation and the appropriate parties tied to those levels (usually from different departments) there is no question at any time or hesitation when it comes to the evaluation process and who responds to the crisis, through the appropriate social channels.

–   Create a thorough comment response chart that gathers types of actions and responses and walks the company through the situation with a Yes / No flow chart to determine specific actions that need to be taken.

–   Identify of different areas within the company that may need to work together (integration of departmental crisis plans).  These areas may include marketing, PR, Web, Brand, IT, Legal, and Customer Service. Remember, the communications department is no longer the sole gatekeeper of information when it comes to social media and the crisis situation.

–   Determine the shell of messaging from the small conversation mishap on Facebook or Twitter to the full-blown “tornado” crisis in a YouTube video. Many of these types of situations may already be properly documented and placed into your “Conversation Buckets.”  You should also have an internal sharing system in place in order for all members of the crisis team to easily access the documented information during the crisis situation.

–  Build relationships with key media and bloggers before an issue escalates. Also, prioritize those influencers who you will alert first at the onset of a crisis.  Crisis managers are skilled at pinpointing the priority media and today the pre-crisis doctor includes bloggers among those powerful influencers during a crisis situation.

–   Select and evaluate the social media tools, resources and platforms that are necessary to highlight rapid communications during a crisis.  Demo and test all of your technology so that you’re able to easily and quickly use it during a crisis situation.  This type of homework must be done beforehand.

–   Identify what type of measurement will be used to determine if the evaluation and response system is working during a crisis situation.  For example, measuring aggregated conversation sentiment before, during and after the crisis helps to determine the crisis plan’s effectiveness.

–   Train the crisis team as well as your general employee population, so they understand what can and can’t be said on any channel during a crisis situation.

The pre-crisis doctor is ready and waiting for the negative situation to occur.  Because information is documented, monitoring is in place and employees know what to do in a crisis situation, there’s more of an opportunity for the pre-crisis doctor and the rest of the crisis team to possibly prevent the situation or slow down the rate of escalation, before the company experiences reputation issues or damage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enhanced Social Media Response Chart

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In preparation for my presentation last week to the members of the PRSA Alaska Chapter, I created an enhanced version of a Social Media Comment Response Chart.  The updated version includes three areas of comments: (1) Positive Comments, (2) General Brand/Product/Service Comments with various types of responses required based on the different kinds of inquiries and (3) Negative/Inappropriate Comments from the self promoter and spammer to the abusive commenter and constant complainers.  The chart also provides a look at who is involved in responding to the different categories of questions, as well as when to review/research the level of influence of the negative/inappropriate commenter.

I’ll be discussing this chart in detail during my PRSA Webinar on Tuesday, June 28th at 3:00 p.m. ET.  The chart is definitely work in progress and it will continue to develop over time.  I look forward to your comments and suggestions.

XYZ CO. SOCIAL MEDIA COMMENT RESPONSE CHART


Is Your Comment Response Chart Ready?

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Experience tells us that social media may lead to escalated levels of communication or crisis at any time.  Whether a company has contributed to a situation that upsets its customers, information is misunderstood, or there is a malicious attack on the brand, you have to be prepared.

Part of the readiness comes from developing a social media policy, which includes a Comment Response Chart, to guide the response and handling of the conversations.  The best Comment Response Charts are well rounded to show a range of conversations; from normal dialog and how to handle general questions (certain departments fielding specific inquiries) all the way up to the crisis situation.  There are basic Comment Response Charts, and although these companies should be applauded for taking the time to put them in place, it’s time to go to the next plateau.  Your organization must be prepared for the unplanned or unknown social media outbreak of negative information that is not necessarily represented on the simple Comment Response Chart.

How do you take the simple Comment Response Chart to the next level?  Here are four easy tips to think about when you are working on your organization’s chart:

  • Know Your Influencer: Don’t just evaluate the comment, but also research the commenter and that person and/or group’s influence.  Is this person a former customer, who is upset and you know that rectifying the situation will bring that individual back into your happy customer camp?  Or, is this a constant complainer who wants to be heard and included in changes in your product or service, or is it a troll that is a known as a company “hater” and won’t change his/her course of communication?  Knowing the different types of commenters, and their level of influence, will allow you to better understand how to handle the situation.
  • Create Levels of Conversation Escalation:  Decide before the crisis occurs your levels of escalation, and when certain personnel should get involved in the social media communications. Levels can range from department personnel handling the inquiries, and getting the proper information out through different networks, to including the PR department, the Public Information Officer (PIO) and also alerting executives and a crisis management team.  Knowing these levels will help to set guidelines, so that everyone knows when to involve other members of the company, before communication escalates and gets completely out of hand.
  • Let the Community Support Your Brand: Understand that there are times that you will rely on your community to answer questions and to provide information to peers.  In some cases they may be sticking up for or “fighting” for the brand.  If you jump into the conversation and take a stance too quickly it may appear defensive. At the same, you must be ready to have your employees release information at the right time to stop any miscommunication before it spreads. It’s important to identify the topics and instances that you feel are best handled by your community supporters vs. your own internal brand champions (your employees).
  • Add the Comment Response Chart to Your Crisis Plan:  You should integrate your Comment Response Chart into your company’s overall crisis plan.  The crisis management team needs to know the proper flow of information through social media and how social media is a part of all company communications, and not necessarily segregated or placed in a separate silo.  By having your Comment Response Chart integrated, all members of the crisis team will be aware of who handles the different channels of communication from traditional to digital and social media. For example, crisis can start in a traditional or digital situation on the organization’s website and make its way to social media.  The reverse is also true; it’s not uncommon for a social crisis to receive media attention (yes, that means reaching newspapers or digital media outlets, as well).  Having the entire team knowledgeable about the Comment Response Chart and the flow of proper information will allow the company to address crisis through all of the communications channels.

Of course these are only a few of the many tips to help advance your employees with their social media responses, whether interacting with a friendly and sometimes not so friendly public.  If you are proactive in your efforts and advance your Comment Response Chart prior to the crisis, your employees will be ready to handle the many situations that may arise, as they engage on the company’s behalf and in its best interest.

The Role of #PR in the Comment Response Chart

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In PR we’re used to preparing executives or company spokespeople for media interviews and press conferences. We’ve also put our crisis plans in place to be ready for unexpected emergencies.  Our position is to prepare and be ready for all types of public reaction to company communications.  And, with social media keeping our constituents actively engaged in our web communities, by now, we should have our social media comment response charts handy.  A comment response chart should be developed and included in a social media policy to address all types of conversations from general company inquiries to crisis escalation.

Whether your organization is just starting out in social media, or you’ve been actively engaging with audiences, it’s critical to develop a comment response chart so employees know how to participate in different types of situations.  Below is a checklist of questions and when answered, they will help you to develop your chart so that you can (1) recognize the different types of conversations, (2) pinpoint situations in social communities in terms of the level of crisis escalation, and (3) identify who in your organization needs to be involved in the discussion based on the level of escalation.

The more you can prepare the organization to understand the different types of conversations and create a best practices approach to address unexpected issues, the better the organization will fare to avert a crisis and keep a situation under control.  Here are several of the questions to help you frame out your chart:

  • What types of general questions can all groups or personnel within the organization address?
  • If it’s a positive, general comment should employees propagate the comment by sharing with the network, or retweeting on Twitter?
  • What types of specific questions need to be answered by an SME? Who are the individuals in the company designated to answer those questions?
  • Who in the organization should only answer specific questions regarding company policies or an official company position on an issue?
  • What types of questions will be handled by a specific department? For example, determine the questions that sales will answer vs. those answered by customer service.  What types of questions will be handled by PR?
  • Predetermine the types of questions that your organization does not need to answer, but rather should be answered by the community because it’s better to have a community member answer for credibility purposes.
  • Who takes care of the spam on a Facebook page or spam posted in a Facebook or LinkedIn Group?  Should the spam be deleted?
  • How do you handle abusive questions?  Is this person a troll that you monitor but don’t respond to and just delete the comment?  Or, was this person once a member of your community and has influence with other community members?  Do you just delete the comment and then handle the situation offline, if you have this person’s contact information?
  • Who in your company handles the dedicated complainer? How will you evaluate if this person is an influencer or a member of the media?  Who is in charge of correcting the situation and making sure the issue is resolved?
  • What do you do if a complaint is incorrect?  Who is in charge of gently explaining the correct facts?  And, if the situation is incorrect, who will apologize and provide the correct information.
  • Who in your organization will handle the bad experience complaints in social communities?  Will you designate certain personnel or departments based on issues in the past that may occur again due to the nature of your business?
  • How will you correct any misguided information in a community?  What does your policy say about correcting the information and who from your organization will be responsible for making the correction and monitoring the situation?
  • Have you identified the various levels of comment escalation, for example, how do you determine your level of response from general communication to full blown crisis escalation? What types of conversations are handled your social media manager and when you do involve your PIO and other members of the crisis team (especially if the crisis escalates into a media crisis as well)?

By answering these questions, you should be able to develop the framework for your comment response chart.  But, don’t stop there…as you do your planning every six months or each year, audit the types of conversations in the past and add to your chart to proactively prepare for new community conversations as they occur.

 

 

PR 2.0 Comment Response Chart

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I’ve been studying brand responses to blog posts and comments for quite some time. However, a recent Facebook incident made me build my own personal comment policy for my online persona.  No matter who you are, or your level of influence, you need to be prepared to respond when someone takes the conversation to a level that is uncomfortable, inappropriate and/or just does not belong in a conversation with you or your constituents.

For me, there are several phases or tiers of responses.  I want to be able to discuss topics, give and hear differing opinions and welcome critique as a “gift.”  I learned about 20 years ago, in an organizational behavior class, that both the ability to give and receive feedback is the best “gift” for professionals who are looking to learn and grow.  However, there are times when you can see a conversation is moving in the wrong direction and just like a brand that’s responsible to answer questions, you can’t always just sit back and hope the commenter goes away.

A helpful tool that I came across is the Air Force Response Chart.  If you haven’t studied this chart yet, you should definitely take a look.  It walks a brand through a process of how it should respond based on the nature of the comment.  Of course, this could be your personal brand. Here’s how I evaluate personal blog comments and messages that people direct toward me on social sites:

Comment or Blog Post Validity: Is the comment or the blog post valid, related to the conversation and present a different but legitimate perspective? If yes, accept the comment and thank the individual for the information. If not, you can explain any misinformation or how you feel the information may not apply to you or your community.  This is considered healthy debate and you can at some point agree to disagree.

Level of Responsibility: Does the comment show that the commenter understands the needs of the community and is trying to be helpful or just purely representing his or her own interests?  If there is a level of respect and responsibility, by all means accept the comment and engage in the dialogue.  If there is no level of respect or responsibility, you can choose not to allow the comment to go through or you can let the comment pass.

Level of Respect: The comment reaches an unexpected heightened level of disrespect. Sometimes conversations can go in the wrong direction because of a misunderstanding or purely because the commenter does not have a level of respect for you or your community.  If someone misunderstands something that you have said and gets upset, then you should immediately apologize and be accountable.  If they have offended you and it was a misunderstanding you should work toward resolving the issue. If there is no respect involved and the comments are nasty, harassing, defamatory, etc., you have the right to not accept the comment on your blog.

The Commenter is a Troll: If the commenter is clearly a Troll or what’s known as a Rager (according the Air Force Response Chart) and has not contributed anything positive to the conversation, but is immediately bashing and degrading or ranting and sarcastic, this commenter does not deserve a response.  I do not recommend blocking Trolls or Ragers on Twitter, as it’s always important to listen and monitor what they are saying.  In more cases than not these Trolls and Ragers are put into their place by the community. Here’s where it helps to have a supportive community in place.

The Commenter is a Spammer by Nature: There are times that the commenter is not quite a Troll or Rager, yet has been able to become a friend and access your network on different social sites.  Then, he or she decides to start spamming your wall.  By all means, you have the option of using your privacy settings to block your wall, so this individual can’t make any comments that are uncomfortable and inappropriate and would be offensive to those who are conversing with you.

I’m all for healthy debate and there should always be mutual civility in our conversations.  If we all had the same opinions, it wouldn’t be as interesting or educational.  However, its important to be prepared and set up a system that tells you when its time to respond and thank someone for a different perspective and when it’s time not to respond at all or to change your privacy settings.  In most cases, I find that people want to give opinions and to help one another.  However, spamming and nasty and inappropriate comments just don’t belong in our conversations.  When do you say enough is enough and it’s time to discontinue the conversation or block the person you thought was a friend?