How a Brand Should Act and React on Twitter, and other Social Media Platforms

Twitter and other social media sites exist as universes in a sea we know to be the Internet. Within each, there are landmines waiting to be blown. Brands have to carefully navigate in tone, reactions, and general best practices any time they post a marketing message, a customer service reply, or a message of any variety.

How a brand avoids falling trap to a social media PR nightmare comes down to knowing what you need to do when there’s a panic and knowing what’s appropriate or inappropriate in a situation. The right tone can nip an issue in the bud before it becomes a larger problem or can avoid it altogether.

Hire a social media expert.

The best approach to managing your social media marketing and responses? Hire someone experienced. Don’t put someone unqualified to handle your public brand perception. Who you choose to oversee your social media will have full control over your brand’s responses to customers, brand marketing, and have the ability to mess things up BAD. Be sure you have someone you trust or a digital marketing agency in that role.

Deliver regular, relevant, and consistent content.

Consistency in tone is very important, even at times when you can’t control the conversation around you. Followers on your account are expecting a certain type of content so give it to them. Provide them with something of value, like a how-to video or a link to a promotion. Establish a brand’s identity and follow through with it, day-in and day-out. Creating a calendar, schedule social media marketing posts, and repost evergreen content marketing from time to time. If there are a lot of customer service requests, consider establishing a second account to handle them ensuring your main page doesn’t appear cluttered.

Be useful, don’t just messages of ‘how great we are!’

No one wants to be spammed on social media. They want to see posts with value. Don’t be promotional in your social interactions. Give them something they actually want to see. Deals, exclusive prizes, how-to instructions, shareable fun facts, or mix it up if you’re on Twitter by retweeting posts from customers using your product or service. With Twitter marketing, a rule of thumb to go by is to have retweets make up no more than 15-20% of your content.

Use visuals.

Photos, graphics, and videos. These are your friends. Use them. Visuals are rewarded with more attention, likes, shares, and engagement. They encourage click-throughs and sharing, and can help to emphasize a point such as through an infographics or statistics visual.

Your frontline for damage control.

Be ready. In the event that something’s happened that threatens the perception of your brand, it’s your social media response which will be considered your ‘official work’. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms are your front-line for damage control in event of a PR threat. Here are a few other social media tips on how to act and react.

 Accounts which are being abusive or overly critical shouldn’t be acknowledged.
 Be honest in every interaction and ensure genuinely aggrieved customers are communicated with.
 Direct negative conversations or complaints to direct messages, email, or to your website.
 Do not attempt to explain or justify a PR mistake on social media without re-reading it and editing frist.
 Do not be afraid to block or mute people that are engaging in negative behaviour towards your brand. There are plenty of anonymous accounts out there whose sole purpose is to harass others.

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