Crisis Mitigated: Social Media Manager Rescues Your Brand Identity, Proves She’s Worth her Weight in Gold

Any good business leader knows the first step in a crisis management strategy is always anticipate. Sure, now that we are in the midst of a crisis like no one has ever seen before, it is not helpful to draw attention to a weakness (like, maybe you never created a plan to manage a crisis in the first place). So I won’t go over all of the steps to take in crisis management that occur in the pre-crisis timeframe.

Communication Is Key
Audience & Timing

If you don’t already know who your audience is, or maybe you haven’t thought about it concretely before, think about this first. Who are they, and what tone and information are essential to them? Once you know who your audience is, commit–to yourself and your customers- that you will touch base with them. Ideally, it will be publicly at least once a day during the crisis. It’s a good idea to reach out as needed when any breaking news that affects your business or audience occurs as well.

When you have laid these parameters out, then you need to have a plan each day for the things that are critical for you to express to your follower base. Even if you’re thinking, “What could I possibly have to say to my customers each day?” believe me, there’s no shortage of appropriate things for you to share with them.

What’s In It For Me?

It’s the responsible and thoughtful thing to stay present in the conversation during a crisis. Then, when business does go back to usual in the future, you will have remained top of mind to customers. Which is important during a time when you couldn’t necessarily be selling to them in the traditional sense. Need something to further drive this point? They’ll also likely view you as a company that cares. Your company is diligently serving their customers, no matter the conditions. Perhaps you could even convert casual customers to loyal customers. They could be customers for life based on your actions and communication in a crisis.

Channel Choice

If you now understand that being vocal during a crisis is required, let me offer some tips and strategies you can use starting as soon as today! Like I mentioned before, you should commit to touching base with your customers once a day. What channel works best? That all depends on who your customer is. Here is a handy table from the Pew Research Center that breaks down data of the use of different online platforms. Note, it is broken down by demographic groups.

Customer Example 1

For example, if your primary customer is a woman in her mid to late 20s, Facebook or YouTube would be worth your while. With your commitment to reaching out and touching base with your customers every day, maybe each day, you could record a short video (3 minutes or longer) to share with them any updated messaging that might affect them from your company. Fortunately, both Facebook and YouTube are channels where video is essential, so this example is slick!

Customer Example 2

Speaking of nurturing relationships, I want to take a moment to note that I understand this is an unprecedented time in history. I’m tired of saying that and I’m tired of reading it, hearing it, and so on. With that said, if you hear from me during this pandemic and it is anything business-related, I hope you know that I am not here to pitch you. My role as the Social Media Manager for Purplegator is to create excellent content. I am here to develop and engage in the right conversations. As the Social Media Manager for Purplegator, I’m promoting what’s unique and stellar about the company and all of our clients. I am not in sales. Never have been, and most likely never will be.

Should you want to check out Purplegator and tuck our info away for another day, that’s cool with me. If you need social media management (or any of our other digital services) and you would appreciate a more one on one conversation about it, connect with me, or message me. I will be happy to start any of those conversations!

Regardless of your business needs, I hope you got some nugget to save for later or maybe a reminder of something you already knew to be true. Please stay safe and sane.