Hi there!

I’m writing a special report (that I will be giving away free) on preparing your brand/business to be able to properly handle a social media crisis – you know, so you come out of it strong with minimum repercussions to your brand.

I’m curious to know if anyone has any questions or concerns regarding social media crises that I could perhaps address within the report? Don’t be shy because if you’re wondering, it probably means others are as well and I want the report to be as helpful and informative as it can be!

Also, if you’re interested in receiving a copy of the report when it’s complete, let me know here and I’ll be sure to let you know when it’s released.

Thanks so much for your valuable input!

I think one crisis that businesses are often unaware of is the ability of ANYBODY to claim a business’ listing on many of the Review and Social Media Sites and even Google Maps in some cases without actually being an authorized representative of that company.They need to know for instance that a disgruntled employee can claim a yelp etc listing and respond on behalf of the company. I am dealing with a situation right now where an employee created multiple Google map pages and free directory listings for a company and then set up website links to nowhere. The company was unaware of this misinformation until I started reviewing their online foot print.Good Luck, ellen

@melissaagnes I’d be most interested in receiving this report, thank you for the offer.One essential question for me is when a crisis becomes a crisis. I work mainly in the non-profit and non-governmental niche, where social media does not yet go without saying but is still some partially unknown thing. Due to this fact some of my clients have absolutely no clue whatsoever. However, since they have heard that social media streams are a must, we prepare a strategy to implement social media into their online presence. But some of them literally never check what’s going on in their own social media streams, although we offer them every possible help to do so. 

Now if something goes terribly wrong within the interactions limited to social media and the client does not recognize, does that count as being a social media crisis? Is there a certain point in time during a “standard crisis scenario” where the effects of that crisis reach out beyond social media and catch the client via the traditional ways of communicating? Maybe you could elaborate on that. Thanks! Thomas

@melissaagnes Congrats on your methodology of asking here in the groups for assistance in collecting data for your report. This leads me to very important part of any organization/business big or small needs to address before publishing content publicly.

1. Who will be the company spokesperson?
2. What are the companies policies and best practices?
3. Why we must adopt strategies before publishing?
4. How are we analyzing the data?
5. Where are we targeting our tactics?

@melissaagnes This is a great idea and I would be very keen to receive info – would be good to include stuff like what happened with the qantas airlines recent crisis – I am in travel so a bit niche there but it did have some pretty devastating effects – http://www.heraldsun.com.au/archives/old-news-pages/qantas-attempt-at-twitter-promotion-a-pr-disaster/story-e6frf7ko-1226202536419 – they did a twitter promo i belive at a time when airline was not doing well and people hijacked the # and used to post their discontent. Now many airlines are weary of social media.  so what to do in this case or how to handle it would be good!

also another case we knew of people wrongly blamed in an african adventure sports disaster and they were not able to respond because they were not on social media like we had suggested them to be and listening to what was being said about them and responding so would be good for ideas on what to do in big pr disasters like this.

@mambamedia Some great ideas here, thanks! Ive blogged about some of this stuff over on MelissaAgnes.com, but some will be used as inspiration for other posts! Thanks for taking the time to write this great comment!

@melissaagnes- Hi, great post..I would like you to address in the report the crisis where there are individual companies that promise to increase your fan count on facebook by using methods that are not, in my opinion legal. I have seen instances where people state they can increase fan count, but when you dig into their claims all the fans that they get for you are fabricated with fake ID profiles. I would like to know how many real people Facebook actually has- this number of 800 million must be incorrect because of this. I think that has to be stopped. I would also like the report when finished. Thanks

@melissaagnes sorry for the interruption! And thanks for recommendations, i’d be happy to have this report. All the best  

@melissaagnes thank you, i don’t know why i did it I mean i am an active member to this club and though posted such a silly note. Anyway, thank you and stay connected!

what  exactly is a social media  crisis?   for me it would be if the  computer  broke down..

@moinshaikh  interesting  questions……..the way i see it ,    local   small businesses   should have a lot different  approach  to  facebook  than  a national brand…. i know lots that  work  great… they  they know the  fans   face to face…..but  they start start with their  business  not their marketing…business first..and  then  connect  with their  customers  in a way the  customers  like…… the  business has to  be  worth following..the  growth is  mainly organic  imho….we encouraged   our  customers to join  our  facebook    in so many  ways…talk, paper  reciepts, emails, newsletters,  and  at the start  our  family and  friends…i try and think …WHATS IN IT FOR  THEM.?   but we didnt  do  contests or  freebies… 

and on the  welcoming page, im  looking  at the  whole page as the welcoming/   landing page….by really thinking about  what pictures to use  and  laying them out  right….wouldnt  suprise me  if  some even  drop the  welcome  tab. .

my page is a mess right now …but still getting lots of  comments…im having  lots of trouble  understanding  my tab options..maybe next week!!!.and i  keep  losing   where things are…..but  getting there…