This week’s “Listen to This” took me to a dark place in my professional career. A place that didn’t really exist before the adoption of social media. My guess? You’ve been to this place, too. Or you’ve at least seen it.

This American Life Episode 545 (“If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say, SAY IT IN ALL CAPS”) is quite dark, full of tough language, subject matter, and personal stories that might not sit well with everyone. But it’s an important hour, and one that I want to put a spotlight on today. There’s not a singular moment this week that grabbed my attention, more of an overall feeling. If you take the hour to listen in, you’ll understand.

“Communication crisis”; are you familiar with the term? It could go by so many other names, but essentially it’s the period of time directly after you have screwed up, particularly in social media. There is a mistimed post, an unfulfilled promise, a hashtag gone wrong, a bad attempt at a joke, or simply poor communication, followed quickly by a releasing of the hounds.

[An important sidenote here: I’m going to talk about my personal communication crisis experience and what I learned from it. It was a bad day, and there are important lessons to write about. But it was a day. Just one day. Many, many (many) people experience online attacks every single day because of their gender, beliefs, race, or other affiliations. It breaks my heart that it’s the norm for so many; I’ll let Lindy West say it in her own words (@6:30 in the podcast): “It went on like that for weeks. It’s something I’m used to. I have to be. Being insulted and threatened online is part of my job”. Me? I’m lucky, and I consider myself such. So take my story for what it is. A day. A hard day, but only a day.]

Are You Prepared?

What are we, as brands, to do when our communication is in crisis? How do we respond when we no longer have control of the message? What is your escalation plan? These are great questions, but ones that came too late for my day in the trenches facing the angry mob.

Some context. Rewind to January of 2012. I was at a previous company, and we were launching an updated version of a marketing program; we saw nothing but success on the horizon. We had listened to our audience feedback, worked out some minor bugs, and had all hands on deck. The countdown was on. The day had arrived. And…launch!

Uh-oh. A confused post to Facebook, another curious post to Facebook, a handful more, many handfuls more, and it was obvious that there was trouble. More posts, more posts, and more and more and more.

The posts started out as curious: Hey, what’s going on with the site?
Then, they turned to helpful: I tried X but there was an error that said Y.
It didn’t take long for the mob (numbering in the hundreds at this point) to turn angry: Hey! It isn’t working!
After anger came humor (not the good kind): memes, images, punchlines, making fun of us to our face (well, logo).
Then, the attacks poured in. Personal, mean-spirited, borderline-offensive attacks.

There’s nothing like a promise unfulfilled or a promotion gone wrong to bring out the vitriol, and nothing seems to produce vitriol more than the social web.

And what were we doing to calm the crowd? Scrambling. Behind the scenes, there was a flurry of chatter; however in public, we were largely silent. To put it mildly, we were not prepared. At all. Certainly not for the aggressive rate at which things escalated, for everyone to see.

In the end, we struggled but we survived. It was a very long day, perhaps the hardest of my career. Only one bad day but a day that I wouldn’t wish on any of you. (If you are interested in reading more about how it all went down, hit me up on Twitter, and I’ll send you a link to the news article.)

Why do I share all of this with you? Because there were lessons learned. And I hope you can take something away from my experience.

Have a plan, for Pete’s sake.

Here at SME, we love to create response models. These documents are built with the specific intent of instructing any employee using social what to do and when to do it. Happy social post? Awesome; follow this path. Really pissed off social post? Uh-oh; here is the escalation procedures. Confused social post? No problem; here’s how to handle it.

Sure, playing social on the fly can be perfectly fine…for a while. But the day will come when the social point-person will be stumped; that day is too late to start thinking about a plan. Ensure that everyone is aware of the procedures, signs off on the procedures, and follows the procedures. It’s better for you, better for management, and much better for your customers. If you don’t already have a response model for social, I’d recommend starting on that today. And if you need help, just holler (we’re good at those).

Be really, really, really honest.

Well, maybe just really honest; it’s unwise to publicize the emotionally-heated conversation you are having behind-the-scenes during a crisis. However, you will need to explain the situation, possibly apologize (perhaps multiple times), and make people aware of the progress to rectify whatever has gone wrong. Silence is a really bad idea when your customers are restless. Be honest with your audience, and take your cues from them. Do they need more information? What information do they want? They’ll let you know whether you’re succeeding or floundering, so listen, be honest, be mindful, and be transparent.

Be immediate, but be smart.

Timing is very important during a communication crisis. You need to get ahead of the crisis as quickly as possible. But be careful not to jump the gun. This is where a response model comes into play. The last thing that you want is for an employee to speak too candidly, too quickly, or out of turn. Make sure that your procedures are followed, and follow them quickly. Meet your customers’ needs before the spark turns into a flame. Public silence and internal confusion are the quickest way for a fire to get out of control.

Have so much empathy.

Yes, speak with authority; yes, speak with clarity; yes, speak with sympathy. But absolutely prioritize empathy. You are on the wrong side of the fence during a communication crisis. And even if you aren’t on the wrong side, your audience believes that you are. You need to be able to jump that fence, see things from their point of view, and speak to their needs, wants, and feelings. Understand where they are coming from, and they might just understand where you are coming from, as well. Empathy is the secret sauce of social; use it wisely.

Turn your unfortunate situation into a WOW.

It’s not always possible to turn the tide, but rarely is there an opportunity to make such a lasting impact as during a crisis. If you can view the storm as an opportunity, stop at nothing to capitalize on the event. Reach into your budget, go (way) above and beyond, extend offers of value or communication, find the pain points and solve them with passion, etc. Yes, you might take a hit financially or otherwise, but the opportunities to gain in customer loyalty, customer advocacy, and overall good will should not be taken lightly. Do what it takes to WOW because that WOW will last and last and last.

It is no fun to face angry customers, and that is especially true when it comes to something as public and complex as social media. However, if social is part of your job, you will face angry customers at some point. Know the plan before that day comes, and you can survive, even thrive, through the crisis.

Have you faced your own communication crisis? Let us and our readers know how you survived and what you learned. Hit up the comment section below with your experience and learnings.

Huge props to This American Life for tackling such a difficult subject. I highly recommend you check out the whole episode; you can do so here. It’s rough, full of tough language, violence, and heartache. But so is the internet.

And so is life. *Shanti*

The post Listen To This: Why So Mad? from This American Life appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

This week, my inspiration comes from Dave Delaney’s “New Business Networking Radio” podcast: Episode 43; guest, Jason Keath. There is a ton of goodness packed into Dave’s interview with Jason, CEO of SocialFresh, but the moment that stuck out for me the most occurs around 15 minutes in. And it’s a goodie.

What’s Your Purpose?

In answering Dave’s on-point question about networking tips for attending conferences, Jason replies, “Have one Purpose.”

On one hand, what a great angle for approaching networking events. Instead of rambling around the room…rambling, or standing against the back wall pretending to be busy on your phone (yes, that’s me), Jason reminds us of the importance of arriving with a singular purpose. Decide on that purpose before getting dressed, keep that purpose in mind as you grab your nametag, and be monomaniacal about that purpose with every hand that you shake. I totally dig that, and I am going to steal it.

On the other hand, the inspiration here is not to only steal it for networking; it’s to steal it for life. We should take the time to focus on that.

I am going to take a wild guess that you are busy; some might call your days super-busy. So busy, in fact, that it’s 100% blowing my mind that you are taking the time to finish reading this post (thank you for that). I am busy, too. And I admit that the distraction of being busy oftentimes leads directly to my adopting numerous, scattered purposes. It might not seem like such a bad thing on the surface, having many purposes, but when you lose sight of the one, the capital-P Purpose, that’s an issue. Here at SME Digital, we call that capital-P Purpose your “zone of genius”. If that inspires you, steal it.

Your zone of genius is that part of your day that is effortless. It’s that thing you do that provides you energy, instead of taking energy away. It’s that space where, if you can stay there, you do the good work that you’re meant to do, that you enjoy doing, and that fulfills your Purpose. We should focus more on that Purpose and run everything else that we do against it.

My Turn

So here is my Purpose, thanks for asking (and I want yours in return).

My life Purpose: To enable my wife and kids to do the good work that they are meant to do. I’m a caretaker, and my purpose is to do everything that I can to care for them.

My work Purpose: Creating simplicity and beauty out of the complicated. (A little spoiler there from our coming-soon SME Digital website.)

But even beyond those, what is the reason, the Purpose, that I work here at SME Digital? Putting aside humility here for a moment, we are excellent at a lot of things: Conversation Reports, Digital Strategy, Marketing Automation, Social Outreach, etc. But where we really shine…our zone of genius…our Purpose… is Measurement. We’re phenomenal at measurement, and everything that we do, every other purpose that we take on, serves that larger Purpose.

Helping marketers become business Rock Stars by proving marketing’s effectiveness.

Apologies for the commercial there, but that exercise is important for a specific reason. When I attend networking events or participate in 1:1 outreach, I now know my Purpose. Yes, I am a caretaker by nature, and yes, I am a creative director by trade, but the one thing that I am going to talk to you about when we share a table: Measurement. Are you doing it? Are you actually being effective? Are you satisfied with your measurement? If so, awesome; tell me more about it. If not, I have a Purpose. And having a Purpose feels good and is empowering. It might even get me to put down my phone and leave the sweet comfort of that back wall.

Your Turn

Now, it’s your turn. What is your Purpose? Consider this blog a networking event, or at least a networking opportunity, step up to the plate, and commit to your Purpose. And if you’re not comfortable having that conversation yet, then making that decision, putting your stake in the ground, and committing to be monomaniacal about your zone of genius, well that’s your new Purpose.

Many thanks to Jason Keath and Dave Delaney for the reminder of how important and how valuable having a singular Purpose is. Own yours, and let us know what it is. There’s a comments section (and a Twitter account and a Facebook Page, etc.) for that. *Shanti*

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