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How social monitoring can help before, during, and after a PR crisis

by | Aug 19, 2014 | Social Media

With millions of people using social media each day, the chances of a PR crisis going viral are exponentially higher than they used to be: news and stories can now spread like wildfire.

That’s why social media monitoring has become so valuable, and can be your first line of defence in many ways when faced with a burgeoning PR crisis:

Early intervention

By implementing a strong social media monitoring strategy, choosing the right keywords, and consistently monitoring your account (or having someone do it for you), it’s possible to stop a crisis before you lose control.

Social monitoring allows you to potentially identify small issues that may, one day, become larger ones. You can address feedback and complaints, reach out to people personally, and ultimately gain a better understanding of how your brand is perceived.

All of these combined offer great ways to improve your chances of avoiding a social media blowout.


Related: Why silence is not golden in a crisis


Find key influencers

Imagine this: you’re in the middle of a PR crisis, and the issue is still buzzing on social media. You want to know who is speaking out most frequently, who has the most followers, and who is consistently being retweeted/shared. You want to know who are the influencers of the issue, and why they’re keeping the issue alive.

Social media monitoring tools allow users to identify these influencers, so organizations can then develop a social/PR strategy to approach them and (hopefully) resolve the issue.

By keeping an eye on your influencers, you’re bound to find people advocating on behalf of your brand as well. You can then reach out to your positive influencers and harness the power of positive brand advocacy to rebuild your brand image.

Keep your finger on the pulse of popular opinion

You may know the issue, but do you know the full impact it’s having on your brand? By using social media monitoring, you can get a better handle on popular opinion — both good and bad. This gives a much more insightful understanding of the situation, and how it could be potentially rectified.

Monitor your success

Has the problem and negative attention died down? Are people beginning to speak more positively about your brand again? Do your followers feel you’ve offered an impactful solution?

After you’ve implemented your recovery strategy, social media monitoring can help you gauge your success and offers insights into how to further improve your brand image.

Agility PR Solutions
Agility PR Solutions provides powerful, yet easy to use media database, monitoring, and analytics solutions for tomorrow’s communicators. Since 2003, clients have trusted our tools and services to help them identify and connect with influencers, capture coverage, and measure impact of everything they do. Whether we do it for you or help you do it yourself, our team of media experts make it easy to monitor and measure traditional, broadcast, social and online coverage.

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