Social Media in Times of Tragedy
The Do's and Don'ts
1. Don't - Completely rely on scheduling tools. Companies need to constantly be plugged in to what is going in their industry, and the world, and be able to comment on it in "real-time" if appropriate. Lisa Grimm is quoted in this article saying, "...many organizations hadn’t seen the news or when they did had not remembered that they had scheduled content, or content in their ad queues to reassign for a more appropriate time,”
Source: http://www.mojocreator.com/blog/2013/04/17/social-media-strategy-during-tragedy/
2. Do - Check your source. Don't ruin your credibility or authority by commenting on, or repeating facts that are inaccurate.
Source: http://www.mojocreator.com/blog/2013/04/17/social-media-strategy-during-tragedy/
3. Don't - Use a tragedy to your advantage. You may have a product or service that could benefit from some unfortunate circumstances, but no one likes an obviously greedy company.
Source: http://www.mojocreator.com/blog/2013/04/17/social-media-strategy-during-tragedy/
AND - http://www.adweek.com/digital/how-should-brands-respond-to-tragedy-on-social-media/#/
4. Do - Be sure the person doing the posting is actually qualified and proven to be an effective communicator that can CRAFT a message in times of tragedy.
Source: https://socialfactor.com/social-media-protocol-times-tragedy
5. Do - Be sincere. A company that cares about other people has a good foundation for success in any area, not just in social media. But social media is a good place to show yourself/company genuine. People are better at spotting fake intentions than you might think. And not matter how well your messages are crafted, if they aren't genuine, motives over time will eventually become evident to people.
Source: Yours truly - observed first-hand.
6. Do - Have a plan for future posts. You need to have people dedicated to staying on top of the situation and decided a strategy for whether or not you will or won't continue to make posts concerning what's going on. You may want to comment once and quit, make updated posts, or stay out of it altogether.
Source: https://socialfactor.com/social-media-protocol-times-tragedy
7. Don't - Be disrespectful. This is very broad, and all companies really should be sensitive in times of tragedy to what may be callous or disrespectful. In Ad Week, this article talks about how some companies still send pitch emails in the midst of a major tragedy, and merely preface it be saying something like, " I know we are all heartbroken about what happened yesterday, but....." The preface almost makes it worse. Think twice about ALL postings during a time of tragedy.
Source: http://www.adweek.com/digital/how-should-brands-respond-to-tragedy-on-social-media/#/
8. Do - Stay current. This coincides with my first, "Don't". I just think it is very important to emphasize that all companies with a social media presence need to constantly be checking on what is going on in the world around them.
Source: Myself.
9. Don't - Try to be a prize winning journalist. Let the news outlets do their jobs (however biased they may be...). You don't need to be making "specific" comments and repeated details. It could be "inappropriate" and you could very well be getting the facts wrong.
Source: http://www.adweek.com/digital/how-should-brands-respond-to-tragedy-on-social-media/#/
10. Do - Be generous. This also relates to back to, "Do - Be genuine". Part of being genuinely concerned could manifest itself in participating in some sort of charity related campaign to benefit those involved.
Source:http://www.adweek.com/digital/how-should-brands-respond-to-tragedy-on-social-media/#/
11. Don't - Be random. Sadly, we live in a world where evil occurs every second of the day and night. There are countless tragedies. If a company posted about every tragedy on the news, that's we would see in their newsfeeds. Know when to speak up, and when not to. Don't randomly comment on tragedies.
Source: Me.
Pay attention, don't be stupid, have a plan.
Bloopers
Some examples of what not to do (although they may be too stupid to be funny)
Relating to #3 -
Too late....
http://www.adweek.com/digital/pr-fail-food-website-exploits-boston-tragedy/#/
Relating to #7 -
Should have thought twice before you made an insensitive comment. Reputation damage was not low key.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/02/kenneth-cole-hijacks-cairo-hashtag/339027/
AND
http://www.adweek.com/digital/kenneth-coles-twitter-fail/#/
A Shining Star
Amidst the stupidity there is a shining example that I can share
Relating to #5 and #11. It's genuine, and relevant to Nike as a company as well.
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