Online Social Customer Support

From bit players to some of the country’s biggest multi-billion dollar industries, incorporating an element of customer support within their social media platforms is key.  Whether in healthcare, entertainment, the financial industry, or consumer products, the need to provide quality online customer service crosses both horizontal and vertical markets alike.

The basis for the emergence of online customer service is the reality that most customers and prospects today are engaged in using some form of social media platform, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or another favorite social media channel.   As part of their digital marketing strategy, companies need to have a social media presence.  This cultivates a connection between the business and the customer and in turn the very real need for real time social media engagement.  Customer complaints and inquiries that once funneled through to an 800 number or an info email on a website, now come directly to businesses through direct messages and posts on social media.

The protection of the business’ reputation from complaints and concerns raised on social media channels is crucial, as these very public forums offer short windows of opportunity for customer service and problem resolution.   The solution? Online Social Customer Support.  It’s not surprising that we are seeing a huge uptick in the need for this service.  According to Gartner, “81% of businesses compete through the level of customer service they’re able to deliver.”

At Online Moderation, our experts build customized social customer service support strategies to launch new and improved customer support processes, including overnight services.  These help businesses both respond to and retain their customers, but also to gain new customers through positive engagement and great service.  There is no doubt this trend will continue to grow in 2019 as more and more people turn to social media to engage with businesses and services in a more personal manner.

Social Listening

Another trend that is certainly not new for 2019, but continues to garner headlines and shape social media, is Social Listening.    In the past, just googling your company name was probably enough to bring up several mentions of your company if the mention was newsworthy enough to show up easily in the Google results.  Sorry Google, we know you mean well, but there are times when you’re just not enough.  Social Listening goes far beyond google search results, scouring social media networks, forums, news feeds and other locations on the web to find mentions of particular keywords and phrases related to your brand.  These mentions are analyzed for indications of trends and interests that may affect your company, such as opinions of key influencers, interest in products and services and more.    We have seen the importance of Social Listening slowly grow as a real insight strategy for identifying leads and potential customer sales.   This trend is not about to slow down in 2019.

The other key motivation behind Social Listening is reputation management.  Where there are customers, there are opinions, and key review sites like Yelp, PissedConsumer.com, and TrustPilot offer customers a platform to both praise and jeer at companies and share their experiences with a large-scale audience. As audiences become more global and online customer service grows, so will the trend to post social reviews online.  While negative reviews can be disheartening, they also have a silver lining or two.  Negative reviews can alert you to problems you weren’t even aware of, so you can fix them. They also offer you the opportunity to respond to the reviewer’s concerns and turn around their impression of your business.  But only if you are listening!

As this trend continues, so will the need to manage reviews professionally and quickly.

24/7 Online Monitoring

24/7 real-time interaction, communication, and response is growing.  Chat bots, for example, give consumers the option to contact a company at any time, day or night, and the expectation is that someone is going to answer.   Consumers are no longer satisfied with hold times, canned responses and templated bot responses.  They want real service and they want it now.

Offering 24/7 customer service to today’s consumers is a decision that more and more business-owners are making and for good reason.  Issues and questions usually come at the most unexpected times, and customers need someone knowledgeable to help them sort things out as soon as possible.  By offering 24/7 customer service you are telling your customers that you have their back, no matter what time of day.  Plus, once you have won your customers’ trust because of your 24/7 customer service, they will not hesitate to recommend you to their circle and contacts.

You’ve all heard the expression the internet never sleeps.  Logging off, shutting down, and unplugging can leave brands blind to what’s going on outside of their region, or with night owls nearby.  With the online audience growing at a phenomenal rate, companies are realizing that investing in a moderation and monitoring service may no longer be a luxury.

Conclusion

As 2019 dawns, new challenges will be facing companies globally.  You need to identify influencers and micro-influencers, prepare for social media crises, and continue to sell online and evolve your social customer service.  Preserving existing customers and connecting to and capturing new business, all while maintaining a good online reputation, can be daunting in an age where a few keystrokes from an upset customer or past employee can trigger a potential PR crisis. The right mix of Social Customer Support and Social Listening 24X7 works. Make sure you’re listening and engaging with your customers online, the results will be worth it!

Online Moderation is a social media moderation and monitoring company providing leading brands, such as ABC News, Beachbody and Mass Mutual, with a suite of moderation, customer support, social listening, and reputation management services.  We bring an experienced, unbiased, and results-oriented approach to our work with large and small brands, 24x7x365, across the globe. Whether you are just starting to build your online strategy, looking to better service your customers, protect your brand reputation, oruncover social insights, Online Moderation’s solutions will help you thrive in today’s digital world.

The post The Top Three Social Media Moderation Trends that Will Rule 2019 appeared first on Online Moderation.

Does your company use social media? Chances are, by now, that you do. But does your company use social media for customer service? If not, you’re leaving a lot to chance: customer satisfaction, engagement, and brand reputation.

The good news is that it’s not too late. Implement these social media customer service best practices to not only get in the game, but to win. And if you already use social media, this guide is a great way to double check that you’re using it for customer service the right way.

#1: Time Is of The Essence in Social Customer Care

timely customer service

If a customer tweets a complaint about your company, they expect a fast response. According to SocialMediaToday, 72% of consumers who complain on Twitter expect a response in an hour or less.

It’s not just what you say that matters – it’s how fast you say it. Other social media networks might offer more patience, but as a general rule, you should answer all complaints or messages in 24 hours or less.

Positive Engagement: When you respond to social media posts in a timely manner, you make a good reputation for yourself as a company that cares about people and relationships.

#2: Answer Every Single Complaint

What happens if you receive a complaint you don’t know how to respond to? What happens if you receive a complaint that’s rude or false? Is it okay to delete the post?

Never. Absolutely not. Deleting a customer’s post will only make them more irate, whereas dealing with the issue shows that your company takes customer service seriously and behaves in a transparent manner.

When in doubt, deal, don’t delete.

Positive Engagement: We’re talking about complaints here, but the fact is that you want to answer all incoming feedback on social media. Engage with the positive for positive engagement!

#3: Tone and Severity of Complaints

While you want to answer every complaint, and quickly, answering without taking the time to analyze the tone and severity of a complaint can cost you.

Remember that when communicating via text instead of face-to-face or on the phone, it’s easy for both tone and severity to be misunderstood—in both directions.

Take a few minutes to consider both of these, and then respond with a respectful tone that honors what your customer is trying to express. In other words, be empathic.

Positive Engagement: When people see you treat their words with empathy and the appropriate tone, they can trust your company more. This can turn even the most dire situations into positive ones.

#4: Moving Complaints to Other Channels

Handling social customer service in public can be stressful. It’s easy to feel more comfortable exchanging one-on-one emails or chatting on the phone with a distressed customer.

In most cases, moving a complaint to a different channel is a mistake that can alienate both potential and future customers because it can make them feel like you’re not being transparent.

AdWeek reported that about 40% of complaints are made in public. You’re not alone if you’re receiving public complaints—but don’t be afraid to address them there.

There are two caveats to this advice:

1. If you’re on a social media platform that limits the length of your messages and you have to write at length to address the complaint.
2. If you need to discuss confidential information with the complainant.

In both of these cases, it’s okay to move to a different channel—as long as you explain why. A simple message can do the trick: “I’d love to help you, but I need to review some confidential info with you; can we talk on the phone?”

Positive Engagement: Drumming this up is all about creating trust; if people feel that they can trust your company to be transparent and accountable, that can boost your positive engagement.

#5: Follow Up for Customer Engagement

Setting a reminder to follow up with complaints is easy, but there’s more you can do to follow up with customers that will make your company shine like a beacon of social customer service.

Those companies that positively astound customers and potential customers can enjoy a 30-50% increase in recommendations and repeat purchases, according to Forbes.

Become that beacon by:

• Following up with customers who have just purchased goods or services.
• Following up with customers to ensure satisfaction after a complaint.
• Following up to congratulate customers on their life events.

Following up can set you apart from your competition. But like all things, you’ve got to strike a balance. Don’t annoy your customers by sending them messages too frequently.

Positive Engagement: Following up can create positive interactions that leave a pleasant afterthought about your company.

#6: Social Media Customer Service Best Practices: It’s Okay to Apologize

Responding to complaints as part of your social customer service isn’t like getting into a car accident. Saying “Sorry” isn’t akin to admitting fault.

You can apologize for a customer’s frustration without stating that your company is in the wrong with a statement like this one:

I’m so sorry to hear that you’re having trouble with ___. I’m happy to help you resolve this.

When the Problem Is Your Fault

Sometimes companies mess up. They’re run by humans, and we humans tend to make mistakes from time to time. If the error lies with you, apologizing can double a customer’s satisfaction and improve customer engagement, according to GrooveHQ.

Positive Engagement: It might not seem positive to have to apologize, but this is a great way to show that you’re human and willing to improve your company’s policies for the benefit of your customers.

#7: Get the Resources You Need

A crucial part of customer care is making sure you have the staff and resources for adequate social media monitoring. According to Salesforce, use of social media monitoring technology is going to double in the next year to year-and-a-half.

Responding to customer complaints and other opportunities for social customer service requires that you keep your fingers on the pulse of what your customers and potential customers are posting on social media. Don’t get left in the dust.

Positive Engagement: The best intentions aren’t enough to engage with customers through social care; you need to be able to commit the hours and technology to take action on those intentions.

#8: Consistency Is Key

Whether it comes down to the hours you’re available for customer service (which should be clearly displayed on your social profiles), or the way you handle customer concerns on social media, be consistent.

Not only does this help current and future customers know what to expect from you, but it also:

• Communicates that you have a social customer care plan in place.
• Prevents customers from feeling like they’ve received unfair treatment.
• Boosts your brand’s reliability.

Positive Engagement: Meltwater reported that 90% of consumers expect consistency on social media. Provide that consistency, and you can boost your brand’s online reputation and customer engagement.

#9: Be Proactive

Other than resolving customer complaints on social media, what can you do with them? Tracking and analyzing what people complain about can inform you of weaknesses and pain points in your offerings.

Producing educational content to prevent those pain points not only increases your authority in your field; it enhances trust with readers, engaging them and solving problems before they occur.

There are a few ways you can share educational content via social media:

• Create a blog, video, slide deck, infographic, ebook, or other resource and market it via social media.
• Share posts or a series of posts to educate current and potential customers in small doses.
• Post customer success stories (with permission from the customer involved).

If you don’t want to wait for customers to post complaints, you can be even more proactive by:

• Posting polls to hunt down pain points.
• Holding forum sessions or live videos to answer customer questions.
• Asking customers to fill out a short survey.

Positive Engagement: Proactive social media use is a great way to balance what’s coming in with what you’re sending out into the world, and if you invite your community to participate, that can create positive engagement.

Final Thoughts

We’d love to hear from you about any questions you may have about social media customer services best practices. Contact us to chat more about how you can monitor and respond to your customers’ needs.

The post How to Boost your Social Media Customer Service appeared first on Online Moderation.

Is your company experiencing any of the following five signs? If so, it might be time to hire some help.

#1: You’re Not Creating Content Your Audience Craves

Your company runs a blog and shares posts on social media, and that’s a great start. But if you’re just creating the content you imagine your audience wants to read, you’re missing out. Having a content marketing strategy is no longer enough.

Readers want to connect with your content. They want you to tell a story. More important – they want it to be a story they care about.

How do you find out what your audience cares about, what content they crave? According to Social Media Examiner, 68% of marketers look to social media activities.

In other words, they’re engaging in social media listening.

They’re taking the time to find out what topics are trending among their audience. They’re paying attention to people who post hashtags about those topics. They’re keying in on what their competitors’ audiences are craving.

Almost 30% of people who spend at least 3 hours each day on social media place a high value on engaging with their favorite brands, according to Search Engine Journal.

In order to maximize on your content strategy ROI, your company needs to listen to what your audience wants, and then create content to fill that need, to tell that story. A good rule of thumb is: The more others are interested in your stories, the more value they have.

#2: You Don’t Know Your Overall Brand Health

How often do you go to the doctor for a checkup? Probably once a year so that you can get a picture of your body’s overall health.

Just like you need to know if your cholesterol is too high, your company needs to know your brand’s overall health, and that involves more than just watching the places you post.

Did you know that 96% of people posting about brands don’t follow the brands they’re talking about? This is according to a 2015 study performed by Brandwatch.

Social Monitoring

Brand health is where many social media marketers and analysts confuse social listening with social monitoring. Social media monitors:

• Track how many times your brand is mentioned.
• Alert you when your brand is mentioned or contacted.
• Allow you to respond to mentions on social media.
• Comprise one part of a digital reputation management team.

Social monitoring is a great place to start, but that on its own can be time-consuming depending on your brand reach, the number of social profiles you have, other sources you choose to monitor such as forums and blogs, and the size of your audience.

What social monitoring can’t do is provide a bird’s-eye view of your brand’s health.

Social monitoring is like getting a cholesterol test – receiving the numbers, and perhaps going on a restricted diet if they’re too high.

Social Listening

Social listening is like getting a full physical and finding out that you’ll also need medication as part of your treatment strategy. “Strategy” is an important word here.

Social listening can also help you recognize trends so that you can benchmark your brand’s health. After all, how can you see if your health needs a boost when you don’t know what your “normal” is?

A free social listening snapshot can show you how people feel about your brand right now.

#3: You Don’t Analyze Data to Take Strategic Action

This is related to the point above, but it’s important to understand that taking action means a company-wide effort. Social media strategies don’t exist in a bubble; they can impact every department and every stakeholder in your company.

For example, if your PR department has a news release coming out, you’ll want to put that content in front of your audience. Data gathered via social listening services can help you determine when and how to push that content.

When data is analyzed, reports should be tailored to specific stakeholders. The CFO might be interested in different KPIs than the IT department.

Brainstorm with each stakeholder to determine how to fit social media into relevant strategies and take action to implement those strategies. This is where it’s crucial to realize that social listening services are about more than just observing.

It’s about analyzing. Reporting. Brainstorming. Implementing.

If your company doesn’t have the time and expertise to cover this ground, it’s time to hire some help.

#4: You’re Running Out of Ideas for Marketing Campaigns

In August 2017, there were over 3 billion people using social media worldwide, according to We Are Social.

That’s 3 billion people pumping out ideas, hashtagging the topics they care about, following the brands they want to support, and talking about their pain points.

It’s the perfect source for marketing campaign fodder.

You could run a focus group or conduct a survey, and those can both be effective. But the benefit of social listening services is that those conversations happen organically, without prompting. There’s a difference between someone tweeting a question they have about using a product in your industry and someone sitting them down and asking them to come up with a question.

Organic genesis of ideas that feed your marketing campaigns can help you connect with brand heroes, or advocates, as well as consumers and clients.

#5: You Think Social Media Listening Can Be Done in Spare Time

Internet Live Stats reports that there are over 500 million tweets posted to Twitter each day.

That’s just on Twitter, not every social media outlet. It doesn’t include forums and blogs, either. Do you have the spare time to view even one-tenth of that information, analyze it, report on it, strategize, and implement?

Even with social media moderators, that would be too much work to complete in a standard 40-hour work week. A company that expects its social media manager or specialists to handle every aspect of social media posting while acting as social media moderators and listeners will not enjoy the maximum ROI social media has to offer.

Final Thoughts

When you make the most out of your social media strategy, you can see an increase in ROI across multiple departments, for multiple stakeholders. But this powerful avenue requires the time and expertise to realize that benefit. Contact us for more information on social listening services to embark on your journey towards realizing the benefits of social listening to achieve social media success.

The post 5 Signs You Need Help with Social Listening appeared first on Online Moderation.

Social Media Fails

Top social media public relation fails of 2017 (and how you can do better in 2018)

Social media can be a company’s best friend, then suddenly turn into its worst nightmare, especially during a PR disaster. The following two corporations understand what I’m talking about as their major PR disasters were exacerbated by social media. That being said, the company’s lack of ability to deal with a social media crisis is more at fault than social media itself.

I’m sure you’ve heard these stories and these corporations very likely had a social media crisis management strategy in place. That being said, they still seemed to have dealt with their crises in a less than ideal way when they clumsily “made up” for their honest mistakes with below-par apologizes via social media.

What’s the issue then?

When brands don’t know how to properly communicate with their social media audience, an easily manageable incident can turn into a PR disaster. Not only can messages be misinterpreted, but the fast-paced nature of social media platforms such as Twitter also allows brands to send out messages quickly and without giving them much thought.

After describing each PR disaster, I will break down what each corporation can specifically improve the next time a big fail happens. I will then discuss how you can apply this to your own social media crisis management strategy and learn from their mistakes.

1.Pepsi

What Happened: Pepsi released a campaign starring Kendall Jenner that sparked the public’s attention when she handed a police officer a can of Pepsi to draw a bridge between the protesters and the police.

The public reacted by dubbing the campaign an example of “white, economic privilege” and called out Pepsi for trivializing serious social issues.

As a response, Pepsi removed the video and apologized with this message:

The apology sparked even more anger as the public felt that it didn’t reflect the seriousness of the issue, which was ironically the issue in the first place as Pepsi undermined the seriousness of demonstrations and social justice issues.

Related: Pepsi Ignites Outrage with Kendall Jenner Ad

The Lesson: Although Pepsi promptly removed the video and made an apology, the message lacked sympathy and understanding. Specifically, because the campaign was built around “joining the conversation,” Pepsi should have thought less about how social justice issues could be made “trendy” (like using Kendall Jenner in the ad) and more about the issues themselves.

What You Can Do Better – Protect your Online Reputation

Prevention: Make it a a part of your social media strategy to run your campaigns through a few small test groups composed of your target audience or have an outside agency take a look your idea before publicly airing a campaign, Companies can create “echo chambers” that produce content that is out of touch with the real world.

Furthermore, before sending out an apology message, really understand what you’re apologizing for. This may seem obvious, but sometimes brands are quick to pull the trigger on their messages to settle the public down when in reality, the bigger issue that needs to be addressed requires time and thought.

Change Direction:  In Pepsi’s case, an apology wasn’t enough for the public to feel like justice was served, and it would’ve been wise of them to put forth other campaigns or messages that truly showed their commitment to social justice.

But when an apology is not enough, what do you do? Let’s use the grocery store Loblaws as an example. The public was upset to find out that the company had been fixing bread prices across all Canadian stores for the past 14 years. As a response, CEO Galen G. Weston officially stated that “this conduct should never have happened.” However, a remorseful response wasn’t enough to the public, so the company decided to change direction and issue $25 rebate cards to everyone who submits their email to the company. This not only made the public happy but gave customers back their good faith and trust towards the company.

Your social media crisis management strategy should include more than one “plan of action,” and you should be prepared to change directions if the first plan fails to solve your issues.

2. United Airlines

Everyone has heard about the multiple disastrous PR hits United Airlines took last year. It was a major learning lesson for the company and the public regarding how you should (or, more accurately, should not) deal with PR disasters.

The first incident was when two teenage girls were denied permission to board a United Airlines flight because of their leggings, which were said to be inappropriate travel attire.

Shannon Watts, a passenger at the airport, brought the incident to the public’s attention via her Twitter account. Shannon and other Twitter commenters were calling the airline’s behavior sexist and intrusive.

Here is the conversation as it happened on March 26th, 2017.

United Airlines responded, not with an apology, but with a link to their policy rules stating that United Airlines has the “right to refuse transport for passengers who are barefoot or not properly clothed.” This specifically applies to passengers using “riders passes” (which the two girls were, in fact, using) given by United Airline employees to their friends and family.

This explanation wasn’t enough to satisfy the public, however, as the incident grew increasingly viral. Even celebrities Chrissy Teigen and William Shatner reached out to address the issue.

Issues of sexual abuse, body shaming, and sexist behavior have been a major occurrence online, and United Airways’ response was considered highly insensitive.

What was considered even more insensitive, however, was when video footage was released of airport police forcibly removing 69-year-old passenger David Dao from a flight that was said to be overbooked.

CEO Oscar Munoz responded by saying Dao was “disruptive and belligerent.” The incident left Dao in the hospital and fellow passengers in shock.

A few days later, however, Munoz publicly stated that “no one should ever be mistreated this way.” and that he promised to “fix what’s broken so this never happens again.”

Related: United Airlines shows how to make a PR crisis a total disaster

Lesson Learned: It was too little, too late for Munoz as his “seemingly heartfelt apology” lost its value due to his previous statements. Furthermore, United Airlines failed to address the issue with the two teenage girls any further than shown above. United Airlines should have been more sensitive to the people experiencing the incident by crafting messages that were truly apologetic.

What You Can Do Better – Protect your online reputation

Prevention: Make it a part of your social media strategy to ensure that your messages are carefully crafted and approved by multiple people before being made public. We understand that responses need to be made quickly, but this is nonetheless a crucial part of diffusing a PR disaster. Ask yourself, “how could this message be interpreted as offensive?” and don’t treat your apology like a press release. The United Airways’ incidents involved real emotion and trauma for the people involved, and brands should subsequently treat it as such.

Get Ahead of the Situation: There was no way that United was getting out of an apology during these PR disasters. So, why did it take Munoz so long to make a statement? Well, the public was wondering the same thing, and the longer the hours went by without any response, the more customers lost their trust in the company. Make it a part of your social media crisis management strategy to get ahead of the situation by making moves as soon as you catch wind of a PR disaster. This first move can be anything from an outright apology to  a refund, to simply acknowledging that the situation is happening. The rest of your social media crisis management strategy can be implemented after this initial message.

Conclusion

Mistakes happen, and we (and your customers) understand that. But how a brand deals with their mistakes is a real measure of their commitment to protecting their customers as well as their brand.

The Pepsi incident taught us that it is important to think thoroughly about the possible impact your message may have on the general public before pulling the trigger. Furthermore, we learned from United Airways that messages must be crafted with care translate as truly apologetic across social media.

Make it a part of your social media crisis management strategy to have a team dedicated to message creation.

Learn more about Social Media Crisis Management at Onlinemoderation.com

The post Social Media Public Relation Fails of 2017 – How You Can Do Better in 2018 appeared first on Online Moderation.

Did you know that 65% of consumers are visual learners?

As we begin 2018, video content is  becoming of even greater significance to businesses and their customers. In fact, “[33.33%] of activity is spent watching video,” and the numbers are predicted to increase to 80% by 2019. As a result, “the average business publishes 18 videos each month” as a means to attract customers using innovative content.

However, as the percentage of videos being both shared and viewed increases, so will the need for video moderation. How many videos have you seen recently with commenting disabled? That’s because businesses need to protect their brand, their customers, and their bottom line by moderating their comments sections against spammers and trolls. However, video moderation not only allows businesses to monitor their comments sections but also the videos themselves. The reason is that it allows businesses to find out more about the impact of their video campaigns on their customers.

This article will highlight the valuable impact video marketing can have on your business and how video moderation can help you maximize the value of your video content.

Why Is Video Content Valuable and Essential for Businesses?

Marketers have recognized the potential impact video content can have on customers that interact with their business on social sharing platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and (especially) YouTube. For example, according to iMPACT, “over 500 million hours of video are watched on YouTube each day.” Furthermore, “social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined.” That’s a huge difference in reach!

Video content is valuable and essential for your business not only because customers love watching and sharing video content, but also because video is a versatile and profitable marketing tool that can:

1. Increase conversions and boost sales: According to DMB Adobe,“online shoppers who view demo videos are 1.81x more likely to purchase than non-viewers.” Video content is easily digestible, and it’s a great way to build trust with your customers.
2. Increase ROI: According to Hubspot, “51.9% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI.”
3. Increase Reach: Mobile usage is increasing the same way video marketing is – “90% of consumers watch videos on their mobile,” according to Wyzowl’s 2017 video marketing statistics report. By providing mobile-friendly video content, you will increase your chances of reaching a larger audience.
4. Improve Education about your product/service: According to Wyzowl, “45% of businesses who use video say they have an explainer video on their homepage. Of these businesses, 83% say their homepage explainer video is effective.” Users find explainer videos to be the most effective means of learning about new products and services.
5. Increase your search engine ranking: According to Moovly, businesses are 53x more likely to show up on the first page of Google if a video is embedded into their website. Google values video because it is an easy and quick method for customers to absorb information.

Video content is king of the online marketing environment, and it can add a lot of value to your business. However, it is important to accompany your content with video moderation to help it reach its full potential.

Why is Video Moderation Valuable and Essential for Businesses?

Video moderation will help you share highly engaging and effective video content while protecting your brand, your customers, and your profit. Moderating your videos and comments allows you to:

1. Protect your brand from trolls: It’s no secret that businesses are dealing with trolls on a daily basis. Video moderation lets you search for such commenters and deal with them responsibly and effectively. See how you can deal with Internet trolls effectively and efficiently here.
2. Protect your customers from cyberbullying:  Video moderation will help protect your customers from cyberbullying, which is something that is commonly seen in the comment sections of videos, by bringing hateful comments to your attention.
3. Protect your comment section from spam: Video moderation services automatically identify and remove spam so that your comment sections only display useful content.

As seen in the bottom-right corner, Ecko Unlimited uses YouTube analytics to track views.

1. Connect with your customers: By moderating your video’s comment section, you are opening up a direct means of communication that allows you to build relationships and therefore increase trust with your customers.
2. Increase your traffic and search engine rankings: By analyzing the impact of video content, you can create better marketing campaigns that better suit your customers’ wants and needs. These improved videos will receive a higher number of page visits, shares, likes, and comments, which will lead to Google ranking this content higher.
3. Gather meaningful customer insights: Video moderation gives business owners the ability to organize and analyze their video content in a meaningful and impactful way. For example, YouTube has its own analytical tool that highlights the number of views the video has received. Furthermore, social media moderation services provide analytical programs that gather and organize data in easily digestible formats so that you can accurately make assumptions about the impact of your video marketing efforts.

Ecko Unlimited uses Youtube analytics to find out more about their customer demographics.

Conclusion

As we begin 2018, it is important for business owners to see the potential video content can have on their company. As mentioned above, not only do viewers love watching and sharing videos, but video content is an effective, profitable, and versatile marketing tool as well.

However, with increased video content comes an increased need for video moderation, and it is crucial for business owners to recognize the positive effects it can have on their business. Not only will video moderation help businesses protect their brand, but it can also help them learn more about their customers’ wants and needs and create better video campaigns as a result.

Moderating content on all of your social media channels requires your 24/7 attention. We can help. Start your video moderation journey today by checking out Online Moderation’s Video Monitoring Services.

The post The Importance of Video Moderation for Your Business appeared first on Online Moderation.

Just in time for the holiday season, we’ve highlighted five examples of brands that use social media listening to uncover opportunities to inject a little bit of positivity into their customers’ lives.

Social Listening Stories To Warm Your Heart Over the Holidays

Five brands that used social media listening to inject a little bit of positivity into the world.

IKEA

We’ve all heard of the furniture retailer IKEA, but have you heard about the Facebook group “I want to have a sleepover in IKEA?” IKEA uncovered the fan group using social media listening and saw it as an opportunity to show their customers that they not only supply furniture but also aid in the entire process of building a happy home.

The brand subsequently hosted “The Big Sleepover” campaign; they chose 100 fans for a sleepover in IKEA. Participants received sleepover gift bags, free massages, an IKEA dinner, and enjoyed various entertainment. IKEA even brought in a sleep expert who shared tips and tricks for having a good night’s sleep with guests.

The sleepover was a success – customers were able to see how IKEA could help them create their own fun experiences with their IKEA furniture at home.

Feel-Good Lesson: Social media listening can reveal the funniest and most charming things about your customers. How else would IKEA have known that they had a Facebook group with over 100,000 members that wanted to have a sleepover in their stores?

Zelmer Vacuums

Zelmer had no idea they had such a big-little fan until their social media team stumbled upon this Instagram post of a four-year-old’s birthday cake.

As it turned out, the little guy is a home appliance enthusiast, which is why his mother surprised him with a vacuum cake for his birthday. Zelmer subsequently reached out to the family and offered them a free tour of one of their factories, a gesture that made this four-year-old extremely happy!

Feel-Good Lesson: Not only did the post garner a lot of attention for Zelmer; the company was also able to contribute to their positive brand reputation and give back to their fans – even the little ones!

Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology

Actress Leah Remini’s book Troublemaker highlights her experience with leaving the Church of Scientology. The book received strong reviews with its initial release in 2016, and the publishers at Penguin Random House were interested in learning why readers responded so well to the publication.

Using social listening, they discovered that readers were not only fascinated with Scientology but also Leah’s “entertaining, honest, unpretentious, shocking and just plain funny” story-telling abilities, as seen here in an Amazon customer review.

Based on their insights, the publishing house decided to take advantage of the fans’ love for Leah’s relatable personality and promote the book by hosting Q&A sessions. In this case, not only did Leah’s fans get to meet her and ask her questions; the publishing house stumbled upon an unexpected opportunity that helped them understand their customers in greater depth.

Feel-Good Lesson: Besides uncovering opportunities for connecting with customers who had a negative experience with your product or service, social listening can uncover unexpected opportunities that allow your brand to connect with customers who want more of what you have to offer.

Tommee Tippee Cups

One concerned father was looking for a replacement sippy cup for his severely autistic son, Ben, who would only drink from this one particular cup. When he discovered that his son’s favorite cup model was discontinued, he created the hashtag #cupsforBen and posted a tweet asking his followers to search for the cup. The tweet went viral with hundreds of thousands of retweets, mentions, and shout-outs, and Tommee Tippee Cups caught wind of the situation. Subsequently, the company created 500 of the discontinued cups just for Ben!

Feel-Good Lesson: Tommee Tippee Cups showed their customers that they’re more than just a cup manufacturer by extending their empathy for Ben and his needs. You can use social media listening to show your customers that you’re more than just a business and that you are made up of real humans who care about their customers.

KLM Airlines

Using social listening, KLM Airlines decided that when their customers were experiencing problems, they would reach out on social media to complain. The company then created their #Happytohelp campaign –  for one week, they used social listening and monitoring to find and solve problems that their customers were experiencing in real-time.

Here are some of the good deeds the airline went out of their way to do:

• A customer who was stuck in New York City traffic was picked up in a motorboat and ferried across the river to the airport.
• A family with a newborn baby on an extended layover was provided with a bedroom, complete with baby toys.
• A honeymooning couple whose baggage was lost during a flight was taken on a shopping spree by KLM staff.

Feel-Good Lesson: Social media listening can help uncover opportunities that are happening in real-time. If you jump on these opportunities, you will create a better overall customer experience and improve your brand’s reputation. KLM Airlines did not have to put the effort in, but by doing so, they showed customers that their happiness is important to them.

Conclusion

The benefit of social media listening is that it can be used not only to protect your brand from negative experiences but also to uncover opportunities for positive experiences that can lead to improved brand reputation and increased customer loyalty.

Use these examples to inspire you to do something extraordinary for your customers!

Need help with Social Listening ?  Reach out to Online Moderation for  services and support 24/7.

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By now, most businesses understand the important role social media monitoring plays in the improvement of their overall performance. As a result, many brands are using Facebook monitoring to track and analyze data in order to create and improve the customer experience.

As technology advances and social media monitoring tools are created and improved, businesses can dive deeper into customer conversations, analysis, and trends. However, even after realizing this potential, companies can still miss their mark, causing them to miss out on the power of Facebook monitoring as a customer engagement tool. It’s no secret that customer engagement is important for businesses. In fact, according to Bain and Company, “engaging with customers equals 40% more revenue per person.”

To give you a “leg up,” we’ve highlighted three big mistakes that we see brands make when it comes to their Facebook monitoring so that you can realize each and every opportunity to improve your customer engagement.

Facebook Monitoring: 3 Mistakes You Must Avoid

1. Missing Out on Trends, Opportunities, and Threats

Improving customer engagement starts with brands monitoring their customer conversations and figuring out their wants and needs. The benefit of social media monitoring tools is that they make the process of finding such conversations much easier.

However, one mistake that brands make is that they stick to searching “brand-specific” keywords. These are the keywords that are directly related and owned by a brand – such as brand name, slogan, and any other relevant keywords.

But the “real magic” happens when brands go one step beyond and monitor “category-specific” keywords. These are the keywords that are related to the industry in which the brand operates. These keywords will help reveal trends, opportunities, and threats present in the industry.

For example, the skincare company Kiehl’s could monitor keywords such as “purchasing skin-care online” to find industry trends that could aid in the improvement of their social media customer engagement strategy. In this example, if Kiehl’s discovers that their target audience prefers shopping online, they can work on engaging with their customers and guiding them to the website.

Avoid this mistake: Don’t get stuck on brand-specific keywords. Create and continuously update a list of “category-specific” keywords that will give you a “big picture” look at industry trends, threats, and opportunities on Facebook. Doing so will help you understand your customer’s wants and needs in greater depth and allow you to create better social media customer engagement strategies.

2. Missing the Mark

Customer engagement is about engaging and interacting with your customers. The faster your response time, the more likely that customers are going have positive thoughts towards your brand. In fact, according to the Forrester Research Centre, “77% of US online adults say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good service.” At the same time, a report from Global CX revealed that 35% of customers had a poor customer experience because of poor response times. The mistake that brands make is they don’t focus on the right conversations using the right team.

The right conversations can be found by searching for the right content. “Owned media” refers to content that was created solely by a brand. “Earned media” refers to content created by anyone but the brand itself. The mistake is when brands get caught up in monitoring their posts and campaigns on Facebook, focusing on vanity metrics such as the number of likes, shares, mentions, etc.

However, the truly valuable information can be found by monitoring “earned media,” which reveals content that the brand’s customers, competitors, and marketers are generating – such as questions, comments, and articles. This is where brands can find their audiences’ thoughts and opinions about their products, services, and customer experiences as well as answer their questions and dispel any misconceptions.

Avoid this mistake: There are over 2 billion monthly active users on Facebook and over 5 billion comments left on Facebook pages each month. That’s a lot of information to sort through and track in real-time! Luckily, social media monitoring apps make the process of organizing and tracking data much more straightforward. To utilize all this information, put together a social media monitoring team that will stay on top of the questions, comments, and concerns of your customers, competitors, and marketers. Furthermore, your staff should be responsible for reporting relevant information to upper management so that your entire team can work together to create an overall customer engagement strategy.

3. Focusing on Demographics Rather Than Psychographics

Facebook demographics include statistic such as “83% of women and 75% of men use Facebook” and “People Aged 18-29 are the most prevalent facebook users.” Facebook psychographics refer to the attitudes, opinions, and behaviors of your target audience.

The mistake made by brands that focus too much on demographics is that it puts their customers into a box. For example, let’s say that Trader Joe’s discovers that their key demographic is “female millennials living in Los Angeles,” and so they base all of their marketing and engagement strategies around this demographic. The mistake is that not all “female millennials living in Los Angeles” are going to have the same attitudes, opinions, and behaviors.

If Trader Joe’s was to focus on Facebook psychographics, they should monitor for more than “female millennials living in Los Angeles” and dive deeper into categories such as “female millennials living in Los Angeles who love trying new food products” or “female millennials living in Los Angeles who hate eating vegetarian food.” The words love and hate are italicized here because psychographics has to do with feelings.

Once Trader Joe’s finds conversations that these individuals are having, they’ll be able to create segmented marketing and social media campaigns that will receive high engagement rates because they focus on more specific interests.

Avoid this mistake: Go beyond demographics by monitoring which Facebook groups and pages your target audience is a part of and use this information to create more specific categories that can help improve your customer engagement on social media.

Conclusion

Facebook monitoring can be your best friend when it comes to customer engagement as long as you realize the full potential of your social media monitoring tools. Avoid the three mistakes discussed above, and you’ll be well on your way to discovering more about your customers’ wants and needs, which is key to improving your social media customer engagement!

Let OnlineModeration, Inc. help you with Facebook Monitoring

The post Top 3 Facebook Monitoring Mistakes of 2017 appeared first on Online Moderation.

Introduction

Do you know if slow social media response time is harming your social media customer engagement?

Here’s a hint: according to Forrester Research, “77% of people say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good service.”

However, according to Social Media Today, “For 51% of brands, real-time social media engagement is the biggest challenge.”

It’s no secret that timing is important to customers and companies are having a difficult time keeping up, but how does timing affect your customer engagement and why is it vital for you to keep up? Read on to find out.

What Is Social Media Customer Engagement?

Social media customer engagement is when a company creates and maintains relationships with their customers online. The company-customer relationships you develop can serve as an avenue for promotions, social customer service, and customer feedback, which can translate into an enhanced customer experiences and an increase in sales.

Social media customer engagement rate is a measure of how much engagement a company is receiving on social media. The higher a social media customer engagement rate is, the more engagement a brand is receiving on social media.

Engaged customers are:

• Informed about your products and services.
• Pleased with your social media customer service.
• Willing to spread their positive experiences with your brand to their peers.

Why is social media customer engagement important?

Customer engagement is about creating a complete customer experience that improves the overall quality of your business. A high social media customer engagement rate often results in improvements in the following areas:

• Revenue Growth: According to Gallup research, “[the] fully-engaged customer represents 23% more revenue than average.”
• Brand Visibility: Customers want to share their excellent customer service experiences with their peers. According to Convince and Convert, “answering a social media complaint increases customer advocacy by as much as 25%.”
• Customer Loyalty: Exceptional customer experiences lead to increased customer loyalty. According to Accenture, “81% of U.S. consumers feel loyal to brands that are there when they need them, but otherwise, respect their time and leave them alone.”
• Customer Information: Engaging with customers on social media can aid in the discovery of:
  • Customer likes and dislikes
  • Improvements that need to be made to your product or service
  • Where and how to reach new customers
  • The best method for reaching your customers

How do slow response times harm my social media customer engagement rates?

When a company is slow to respond to a customer’s question, the individual eventually feels disengaged. This can lead to frustration as the customer views a slow response time as a lack of respect for their time. When a customer expects a brand not to respond, they will not bother to comment, like, or share a post, decreasing the brand’s customer engagement rate.

How long do companies take to respond on social media, on average?

According to Shep Hyken’s Customer Service Blog:

• “For email, the average response time was 7 hours and 51 minutes!
• For Facebook, the average response time was one day, 3 hours and 7 minutes!
• For Twitter, the average response time was one day, 7 hours and 12 minutes!”

Why do brands have a difficult time responding to their customers on social media in a timely manner?

• When companies receive a large volume of complaints, they cannot keep up as they don’t use the right tools to keep up with their number of social media complaints.
• When it comes to customer engagement, the entire team needs to participate. Companies often forget to implement their customer engagement strategy throughout the entire team. For example, the sales department will be able to answer a sales question quicker and more effectively than the social media department.
• Companies may not understand their customers well enough to implement an effective customer engagement strategy. When you truly understand your customers’ wants and needs, you can also understand what should be posted and when. For example, a social media post about Christmas in July will not receive the same social media engagement rate that a social media post about Christmas in December would. A Christmas post in July just doesn’t make sense, and your customers will be able to see that you don’t understand them.

How can I improve my social media customer service?

1. 1. Understand your target audience: Understand who your customers are and what they want. This way you can craft messages and post them in the right place and at the right time. Furthermore, understanding where your customers are asking their questions will help you find them faster. For example, if your target audience is comprised of 30-35-year-old professionals working 9-5, look for their questions on Facebook during lunch hours, before work, and after work.
   2. Plan posts ahead of time: The type of content you post and when you post it will affect your customer engagement rate. Use scheduling tools that ensure the right posts will be up at the right time.
   3. Reevaluate past timing: Look at past campaigns, customer comment sections, etc. and analyze how well you kept up with your customers. For example, if your campaign from last fall didn’t receive a high engagement rate, consider whether you’re timing had something to do with it. Did you post too early or too late?
   4. Use tools: Give yourself an extra helping hand by using social media listening tools that will help you find mentions, comments, questions, and concerns your customers are asking anywhere on social media. This will make it easier for you to engage with your customers in real-time.

    

   Conclusion

   

   Social media customer engagement is directly related to timing. When you understand who your customers are, you can effectively manage their wants, needs, questions, and concerns within a timely manner.

    

   How has timing affected your customer engagement rate? Make sure your social media customer service is fast enough.

The post Social Media Customer Service Response Times – Are You Fast Enough appeared first on Online Moderation.

Are Social Media Trolls Threatening Your Online Brand Reputation?

A social media troll is someone who purposely creates conflict on social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, etc. by posting messages that are particularly controversial or inflammatory with the sole intent of provoking an emotional response from other users.

These messages are often distracting and take the focus away from the subject at hand. A troll’s goal is to send a rational discussion down a rabbit hole of obscenities and personal attacks instead of staying on topic.

Where Do Social Media Trolls Exist?

Unfortunately, internet trolls exist on all social media platforms. However, according to Business Insider, “a study of 134,000 abusive social media mentions showed that 88% of them occur on Twitter.”

How can Social Media Trolls Affect Your Brand’s Image?

• Damage Your Reputation: You can give your brand a bad name by engaging with trolls. By responding emotionally, you will make your brand look bad in front of real customers.
• Missing the Point: Social media trolls can affect your brand image on social media channels by making your real message get lost and upsetting those who are there for the intended reason.

Brand Protection Strategy: Protect Your Brand From Social Media Trolls

To protect your brand from trolls, the best thing you can do is assess the situation and figure out the best method for responding. The worst thing you can do is act irrationally and reply with an emotional response.

The troll “wins” when you get emotional because that’s what they want to happen.

Deal with social media trolls using 5 essential methods.

1. Distinguish Between Social Media Trolls and Dissatisfied Customers

First, you have to distinguish the difference between a dissatisfied customer and a troll.

Danny Bradbury explains in his article in The Guardian that trolls, “are not looking for a resolution and prefer to engage you in a battle that no one can win.”

Consider the following:

• Constructive Criticism Versus Criticism: Dissatisfied customers add value to your business while trolls decrease the value. A dissatisfied customer provides constructive criticism your brand can use to improve your product or service. A troll will criticize just for the sake of it.
• Specific Versus General Complaints: Dissatisfied customers will complain about your product or service while trolls will attack your entire brand.
• Focused Versus Diversions: Dissatisfied customers focus on the problem at hand whereas trolls like to make personal attacks.

Example:

This is a great example of a dissatisfied customer who is also getting emotional. However, you know they’re a dissatisfied customer because they mention a specific problem they are having with Mobile Giant. Although the customer goes on to bash the overall brand, Mobile Giant can recognize they are just getting emotional and frustrated.

2. Interact Intuitively With Social Media Trolls

Your intuition knows best.

Once you’ve discovered the person is a troll and not a dissatisfied customer, asses the troll situation you’re experiencing and determine the best way to respond. Sometimes it’s best to respond to a troll with humor, fact, or as we will mention below, not respond at all.

Example:

Tesco assessed their troll situation and decided the best way to respond was with humor. And there’s not much Felipe can say after Tesco’s witty response:

3. Know When to Ignore Social Media Trolls

Internet trolls feed on the attention. That’s why you’ll hear people say “don’t feed the trolls.” By engaging with their comments and criticisms, you are feeding their bad intentions.

Example:

Amy’s Baking Company was featured on Gordon Ramsay’s show Kitchen Nightmares until they were kicked off for being “too difficult to work with.” That’s when internet trolls on Facebook flooded the baking company’s page with bad reviews and criticism.

Instead of ignoring the comments, Amy went nuts with her responses.

If Amy had stopped engaging with these people, she wouldn’t have experienced so much hate. Instead, she fed their fire by getting upset and responding with such emotion. By saying nothing, you diffuse the situation and discourage trolls from commenting.

4. Block or Ban the Social Media Troll

There are plenty of cases when trolls have taken their complaints too far. In this case, the best thing to do is block or ban them from your social media accounts.

Example: Banning or blocking a troll is a reasonable response when a troll is:

• Using threats
• Using hate-speech
• Spamming your account
• Trying to convert your followers to another brand

Familiarize yourself with each social media platform’s policy for reporting abuse and blocking followers:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Google+
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn

5. Prevention Is the Best Cure For Social Media Trolls

It’s easier to prevent a fire than it is to put it out. Preventing social media trolls from messing with your brand’s image is the best method of protection.

Prevention Plan:

1. Consistency: Set a good example in your social media community by being consistent with your behavior and your speech. This way, no one can troll you for moving away from your core values and brand image.
2. Use Influencers: Consumers seem to trust bloggers, vloggers, and social media stars more than brands. Having the right influencer by your brand’s side can increase trust among your social media following.
3. Generate Emotion: According to Brand24, “most consumers wouldn’t care if 73% of brands disappeared for good.” This is why it’s so important to create real value and emotional connections with your social media followers. Developing this bond will increase their trust and loyalty if a trolling crisis is to occur.
4. Monitor Your Social Media: Social media monitoring will give you more control over what people are saying about your brand. You’ll be able to find social media trolls and deal with them faster and more effectively.

Click here to see 6 ways to protect your brand on social media.

Conclusion

Social media trolls do exist and, unfortunately, they’re not going anywhere. The best thing we can do to protect our brand is:

• Be aware that social media trolls exist
• Do everything we can to prevent them from attacking our brand
• Understand we must deal with trolls in a calm, cool, collected manner

See how Online Moderation can help you with your social media monitoring needs and protect our brand.

The post Are Social Media Trolls Threatening Your Online Brand Reputation? appeared first on Online Moderation.

Panic, confusion, and irrational decisions are all words that come to mind when I think of a crisis. If you and your team are unsure of how to deal with a social media crisis, you can make mistakes that affect your brand’s reputation forever.

How to Control a Social Media Crisis: An 8-Step Plan

Follow our 8-step social media crisis management plan to ensure your team is ready to handle a social media crisis in the future. Consider our 8-steps and, afterwards, create your own social media crisis management plan that is tailored to your team and your brands’ specific needs.

Step 1: Determine If You Have a Social Media Crisis on Your Hands

It’s important to determine if you have a crisis on your hands or if it’s just a stream of negative comments or headlines. The way you should act is influenced by the scope of the situation.

Outline parameters that describe a crisis. For example, if you’re an athletic clothing brand that just launched a new line of yoga pants and receive:

1. Five negative tweets within the hour, there’s no need to be alarmed – not everyone is going to like your products.  At this point, you should ask your social media manager to monitor the situation to see if something changes.
2. However, if you receive 10 or more negative tweets within the hour, there could be something wrong with your products and your crisis management plan should be executed.

Pro Tip: The definition of a ‘crisis’ varies from company to company and, over time, you will be able to create a fitting definition for your specific needs.

Step 2: Create a Crisis FAQ for Your Team

If the situation is confirmed as a crisis, inform your team members and have them refer to a social media crisis management website or a web page that explains the situation.

Your resources should include a complete list of FAQs that explain the crisis:

• What are the details of the crisis? Specify what, how, when, and where the company found out about the crisis. Include photos and videos if available.
• What actions have already been taken? Someone should be assigned a role to update the situation whenever something changes. This way, the entire team in on the same page.
• What is the potential impact of the crisis? People tend to panic when a crisis occurs. To prepare your team for what’s coming next, inform them of the scope of the situation.
• Who is responsible for dealing with the crisis? Not everyone on your team can deal with the crisis – that would only add to the confusion. Create a list of team members and their responsibilities during a crisis.

Step 3: Outline Communication Guidelines

It’s essential to outline communication guidelines that team members can follow to make sure this sensitive situation is handled correctly.

Your communication guidelines should include:

• How your team should interact with the public and key stakeholders. For example, what and how information should be revealed to the public and stakeholders. This includes the tone of voice that should be used.
• Network guidelines based on the platform where the crisis is occurring. For example, a crisis on Twitter has to be handled differently than a crisis on Facebook.
• Q&A guidelines that show your team how to respond to questions and concerns from the general public.
• Templates that your team can use to answer common questions and concerns.

Step 4: Deal With Loose Ends

Although it seems impossible to put aside time to deal with your daily tasks, it’s nonetheless an important part of effectively dealing with a crisis.

For example, if you have an important meeting with a client scheduled, canceling the meeting in the heat of crisis shows that you’re still composed and organized enough to inform them of the situation.

Consider the following during a crisis:

• Do I have meetings today? Can I assign someone to cancel them?
• Are there scheduled social media posts for the day? Will posting them worsen the situation?
• Do I have important files that need to be sent out?
• Can I assign someone else to take care of my daily tasks or can they be rescheduled for tomorrow?

At this point, your team should be fully aware of the details of the crisis. Now you can start crafting your strategy to diffuse the situation successfully.

Step 5: Implement Your Strategy

Your strategy for dealing with a crisis is the heart of the social media crisis management plan. Unfortunately, you can’t predict what your crisis will look like and therefore, you cannot create a cookie-cutter strategy that applies to all situations.

However, you can start with a few basic processes:

• Gather the most common questions and concerns being asked by the public and create a template that your delegated team member can use to address them.
• Craft a key message that lets the public know that you are aware of the crisis and that you’re making moves to solve the problem. Create a key message that:

1. 1. Reflects your company values.
   2. Is written in a tone that sounds “human,” relatable, and sympathetic.
   3. Is tailored to your different audiences. For example, your Twitter response will be shorter than your Facebook response.

Step 6: Monitor

Once your key message has been sent, monitor your social media channels closely using a social media listening tool. This is the most efficient method of monitoring the status of the crisis and understanding the full extent of the situation.

Social Monitoring is a great way to monitor what’s being said. Click here to find out if Online Moderation’s Social Listening Services are right for you!

Step 7: Assess the Impact

Once the crisis is over, assess the effect it had on your brand. Compare metrics from the week of the crisis with those from the previous week to see how your crisis management plan impacted metrics.

Check for the following:

• A fluctuation in followers
• An increase in negative comments unrelated to the crisis
• Activity patterns on your social media before and after you sent your key message to the public

Step 8: Evaluate Your Strategy

Evaluate how you and your team dealt with the social media crisis. Consider the impact your actions and messages had on the situation.

Ask questions like:

• Were subsequent responses on Facebook more positive than those on Twitter?
• Which members of our team performed the strongest? Weakest?
• Are there new systems and processes we should put in place to make our plan stronger?

Conclusion

Follow these 8 steps to deal with a Social Media Crisis

Consider our social media management plan and how it can make things easier for you and your team in the heat of a crisis. Work with your team and other relevant parties to communicate and devise the best strategy for dealing with a crisis and create your own social media crisis management plan.

Pro Tip: It should be noted that your social media crisis management plan should be accessible online for all members of your team to see. This will save time and confusion during a crisis because all information can be found in one place and the next steps of your social media crisis management plan can be executed faster and more efficiently.

Click here to see how Online Moderation can help you plan now to handle a Social Media Crisis in the future!

The post How to Control a Social Media Crisis: An 8-Step Plan appeared first on Online Moderation.