8 Ways To Handle A Social Media Crisis

As a business, brand or any organisation you will likely face a public relations crisis at some point, the way you respond to it can either build your image or damage it. It is important to properly handle such, should it occur, so as to maintain a proper relationship with your clients and business partners. Here are 8 ways to handle a crisis:

1. Take responsibility

2. Stay proactive, transparent and accountable

3. Have a strategy in place in case you face a social media backlash

4. Communicate as a brand not as an individual

5. Remember to humanise your messages

6. Include verifiable quotes in your press releases.

7. Apologise where wrong, and take corrective actions.

8. Keep monitoring the situation and communicate regularly. Anyone operating in the public relations sphere needs to be vigilant, proactive and have a strategy in place so as to quickly and effectively handle any PR crisis that might arise. At WildFlower PR we take issues and crisis management seriously; as we are proactive and have a strategy in place to see that our clients are never caught unawares.

DEVELOPING YOUR BRAND VOICE

Brand voice can be simply defined as the unique way a brand conveys its personality while communicating with its audience. What are you saying, and how are you saying it? This is reflected in the choice of words, attitude, and values a brand uses. Every time you interact on social media your brand voice is being portrayed. It pays to be consistent and deliberate when interacting with your audience.

Here are 4 major factors to consider to help you understand your brand personality and how to better communicate it;

• PERSONA – What kind of character do you want to portray? Will you be authoritative, friendly, or inspiring, etc. You have to decide which one suits your brand properly and stay true to it.

• TONE – What tone of voice will be used to pass this message? Will it be personal, direct or even scientific? What aligns with your brand identity? These are questions to deal with to help you understand how to choose what best suits you.

• LANGUAGE – What choice of words is best? Simple? Fun? Complex? What words would your target audience relate with best?


• PURPOSE: Why is this message being passed? To inform, educate or entertain? When these questions are settled, you would have a better understanding of your brand voice and how to use it effectively.

N.B: It is important to know that a brand can have more than one of each and does not have to limit itself to one expression.

Tips For Handling Negative PR

RSooner or later everyone has to deal with negative publicity, perhaps a competition releases or sponsors a negative report or an angry customer releases a bad review about your business. The popular saying goes “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”, but we know that negative publicity not properly handled can adversely affect anyone or business. It is vital to handle bad press with poise so it doesn’t spiral out of control and when handled properly you can turn it around for your benefit.

Here are three (3) effective tips in handling negative publicity:

1.  Be honest and welcome feedback:

Where there has been a misdoing, acknowledge the error, apologise or restitute where necessary and welcome the opinion of others. It helps to take a reconciliatory approach as this also helps connect with your audience and rebuild trust.

2. Respond, don’t react:

Reshape and refocus the conversation by countering with good publicity. Drown out your detractors by releasing press statements, social media posts etc. that show your accomplishments. This helps to control the narrative in your favour.

3.  Fix the problem:

Trace the source of the issue and make the necessary decisions to address it. This also helps the public know that you are listening and can be trusted.

It is important to know that any brand can have a positive comeback from a negative press, the difference between those who do and those who do not is in how they handle and respond to it.

    5 Ways of Improving Your Brand Image with Social Media

    When you can understand how people view your brand, you can control their opinions using the appropriate medium. Image branding is the method and strategy used in creating impressions in the mind of customers about your brand.

    The image of a brand is developed over time through PR and Advertising campaigns with a consistent theme validated through the customer’s experiences with the brand.

    There are several factors you need to consider  when it comes to image branding:

    1. Identify your target audience

    The first step is to know your audience. You need to specify who your audiences are as they comprise of customers, partners, industry analysts and employees.

    Have an achievable goal

    You have to create a feasible goal. Having an attainable goal is critical for image branding, this will let you perform tasks at your own pace.

    3. Create a good brand persona

    Once the key audiences have been identified and achievable goals have been set, you can now start to build your brand persona (what your brand stands for).

    4. Key messaging

    After defining your brand persona, it is important to document your message to appeal to your target audience.

    5. Be consistent

    Customers like knowing what to expect from the interactions they have with your Brand. This means you have to deliver a clear and consistent message through social media channels. Especially during your PR and advertising campaign.

     

     

     

     

     

    7 Effective Strategies for Marketing to a Nigerian Female Audience

     “Pleasing a woman should be as easy as making her your top priority.” ~ Anonymous

    There’s nowhere this quote should come alive than in marketing to women. In this case women in Nigeria.

    A look at majority of Nigerian TV adverts of the 70s, 80s and some from the 90s gives a glimpse into the marketing considerations of brands in those eras. – An unprecedented level of patriarchal patronage.

    This may not be unconnected with the then positioning of women. Coupled with the expected gender roles, majority of Nigerian women at the time were less educated, poor and politically non-existent.

    Now, the wheels are gradually turning for good. There are more educated Nigerian women. Majority of women entrepreneurs. Many more politically active women now trot our sphere, and the enlightenment quotient of the Nigerian woman is on a major rise, making it an error for any brand to try the marketing tactics of the past now and expect to win.

    Why give consideration to female audience in marketing?

    The Nigerian woman has perceptual and behavioural modes different from that of their male-counterpart, therefore marketing to her in the same mode as her male counterpart may not result in the same favourable outcome.

    Secondly, Nigerian women are more advanced in knowledge, education and financial status. They possess a broader knowledge and view of the world now unlike it was in the past.

    Therefore, any marketing effort that fails to take cognizance of these changes will fail to win them over.

    How then can you market to the Nigerian female audience?

    #1. Understand your women

    We cannot say this enough. Learn about the exact demographics of your target female audience. Everything about them. Their age, life stage and all you require to totally understand them.

    Understanding those helps you in designing strategies that would effectively market and convince them to make purchasing decisions favourable to you.

    #2. Balance out equations

    When you have a mixed target audience comprising of males and females, even things out by incorporating contents that communicates to both genders.

    If it’s possible, use a mono marketing content that speaks to all target audience at once. If not, create marketing contents that specifically speaks to your varied audience, male and female.

    #3. Don’t gender-generalize

    Marketing to women does not mean you should lump all women together and shoot your contents at them. Hell no!

    Just like in other audience types, women come in segments by status, interest, age, and other differences that separate each one of them from the other.

    So, targeting them in a lump would be an error that will yield negative marketing results.

    #4. Dig their likes, use them

    Freebies, kids, cute men are just some strong magnets for the Nigerian female.  When appropriate, use these audience attractions in your contents while marketing to them.

    One word of caution, use them in an intelligent manner.

    #5. Freebies are bae

    According to a study conducted at the King Saud University, Saudi Arabia, female consumers are more likely to respond to freebies regardless of their income levels. Same can be said of the Nigerian woman.

    The average Nigerian female consumer, regardless of her economic status likes and looks out to maximize opportunities to purchase goods that comes with a promise of freebies.

    In order to make your marketing attractive to a Nigerian female audience, dangle freebies around your offers when necessary.

    #6. Beautiful colours are the new pink

    It is a marketing error to presume that women love a constricted number of colours and go ahead to use them for ads and other marketing content.

    Just like the men, women are attracted to a variety of colours and would react to marketing contents that speaks to their emotion no matter the colour.

    Just make it beautiful and attractive.

    #7. Tap into their emotions

    Women are emotional beings, they’re prone to expressing their emotions and falling for emotions than the men.

    All a savvy business person needs is a deliberate tap into this and win them over.

    One of the best ways of doing this is by infusing storytelling and fun into your marketing content, then watch them get stuck to your brand as ants to sugar.

    How to Leverage Trends for Brand Awareness on Social Media

    Every business person wants their business to generate more income and grow beyond the teething stage.

    They exploit every opportunity that lean towards this end and make the best of gains out of them.

    Savvy business people do more. They go the extra mile to ensure things happen, including spending on marketing using social media. And adequately maintaining a successful social media account for a business comes with some handsome budgeting, but leveraging trends for your social media marketing efforts can get your business an organic viralty that can compete with its paid counterparts.

    The good news is, the Nigerian society and its political arena presents on the steady, tons of trends that can be leveraged by businesses to drive massive social media awareness for their brands and save social media marketing costs.

    An example is the story of the snake that swallowed 36 million naira which many businesses latched on to create conversations around their brands.

    A good example leveraging a trend for social media content

    Here’s how you too can do same.

    #1. Understand your audience

    We know that you already know your target audience, but when a trend surfaces and you wish to jump on it, there’s the need to remind yourself of those basics again.

    Ask yourself, who’s my audience? Will this flow with them? How are they going to perceive this? Before you proceed.

    #2. Be hyper sure it’s a trend

    Trends are ongoing conversations and opinions about an issue of massive common interest. Not every noise is qualified to be a brand.

    You need to be able to decipher which conversation deserves the trend crown before integrating them into your brand conversation.

    The easiest way to do this is to pay attention to the trend section on Twitter, and check out for real time conversations on Twitter surrounding the identified trend.

    #3. Play by audience location

    Consider the location of your audience before jumping on trends.

    The trend should match with your audience location. This is because trends in countries foreign to your audience will only generate snubs and no engagements. Engagement is needed to be able to drive awareness using trends.

    #4. Twist narrative to suit your brand offer

    When you notice a trend that suits your brand and fits in with your audience, the next thing to do is to create and weave a message that is in tandem with your brand’s offer around the trend before sharing them with your audience.

    #5. Be creative, make it fun

    One basic truth about marketing on social media is this, the audience wants to be either educated or entertained.

    For this reason, any message with a touch of fun easily gels with online audience and sparks them into engaging with them.

    So, make it fun.

    Good intentions gone sour: A social media post weaved around a trend that triggered a customer’s ire.

    #6. Scrutinize for offensiveness

    Even when they have checked out on all the other criteria, social media content meant to leverage a trend for brand awareness still needs to be cross-checked for offensiveness.

    Share the post with a friend or colleague who shares similarities with your target audience how they feel about the content before you post.

    #7. Share with appropriate hashtags

    This caps it all.

    When you’re done with every other thing, share your post with industry hashtags that match with the topic of the content you wish to share. Then post.

    Bonus

    Of all the other social media platforms, trends go more viral on twitter. Consider using Twitter for posts weaved around trends.

    Posting on the social media when your audience is offline may limit the performance of your post, so note when your audience is online and make your post to meet them at the point of their visit to your social media handle.