How to Handle a Social Media Crisis

In today’s quickly changing social environment, every company should be prepared to handle a social media crisis. It’s not a question of if, but when you, or your company could be under attack online.A social media crisis usually starts small, but can progress into something very difficult to handle. It is crucial that you detect a social media crisis while it is still in its early stages.

Step #1: Don’t ignore it
Social Media fiascos typically start with something small. A customer posts a bad review, or a negative blog is posted. Recognize that this is the point at which your company should respond to the situation proactively.

When you notice an unhappy or angry customer has left a not-so-good review on your Facebook or Twitter page, it’s a good time to reach out. It is crucial to constantly monitor your company page and set a Google alert for your brand. Once you spot a social media issue, try to resolve the problem that is causing it.

Step #2: Identify the Problem
Accepting blame is not a typical human response. While there are individuals out there that will never be happy, consider most customers are being honest about their experience.Apologize right away if you are sorry. Explain why your company has a certain policy if you’re not. Things can get hairy very quickly, so having a publicist manage the situation properly can be invaluable. No matter what you do, don't give your initial knee-jerk response. Make sure your response is professional, truthful, and prompt.

A certain company went through a sudden social media crisis when a fan posted a question asking for directions on how he could ask them for help and they failed to respond. Because of this, the fan posted very bad reviews about the company the next day, which went viral quickly. People shared the negative post more than 50 times in 24 hrs. Once we stepped in , we approached the unhappy poster, and provided him with the info that was required. He then posted a positive review, which got shared 15 times. This is typical of human nature. Bad news spreads a lot more quickly than the good, so digging yourself out of a social media snafu can take time.

Step #3: Be Proactive, not reactive
One of the biggest mistakes to is to not respond to customer inquiries or reviews. Respond to posts and messages within 2 hours. Social Media leaves a public record of how your company handles customer service, so respond quickly and politely. A pro-active response tells customers that you are serious about their concerns and want to satisfy their needs. When used properly, social media can actually help publicize stellar customer service, and fans will be drawn to you.

Step #4: Don’t get Lazy
Once you have successfully managed your current social media crisis, you need to work towards making sure that it doesn’t happen again. For this reason, it is vital that you assign responsibility for all your social media pages and accounts. Once it's online, it's forever, and your reputation is on the line. Everyone posting willy-nilly is a recipe for disaster. Either hire an agency to do it for you, or train an employee to do it in house. Maintaining your online legacy is an ongoing process.

[Source]

Social Network Activity: Mobile vs Desktop

Facebook Continues Redesign Rollout With New Look for Pages

Facebook redesigned its news feed last week, but the company isn't stopping there. Next up for a makeover is Facebook Pages.

Facebook announced a new look for Pages on Monday, changing the appearance for both Page visitors and Page admins to what the company is calling a more "streamlined" look.

The new design includes two columns similar to the old version, but the right column is now the Page's timeline and the left includes information about the brand or corporation. In the previous design, both columns served as the Timeline; posts were staggered between the left and right columns as users scrolled down.

The new design for Facebook Pages.

IMAGE: FACEBOOK

The old design for Facebook Pages.

IMAGE: MASHABLE

In the new design, the "Invite Your Friends" section has moved from the right side of the screen to the left, and the text box for posting switched from the left to the right side.

For Page admins, a new metrics section on the far right-hand side of the Page includes data about ads, Likes and post reach. Facebook is also rolling out "Pages to Watch" for all admins, meaning users can create a list of similar or competitor pages to compare metrics like engagement and Page Likes.

The redesign comes less than a week after Facebook updated the look for news feed, a relatively minor change that included larger photos and new icons and fonts. That change was a year in the making, and Monday's update appears to be in the same vein, using similar fonts and icons.

The new design is rolling out this week, according to a spokesperson, and is changing for web only. Facebook announced a mobile redesign for Pages last April.

[Source]

Facebook Hit With Lawsuit: Could Mistrust Spell The End Of The Social Giant?

Facebook, the popular social network with over a billion users world wide, has just been hit with a class-action lawsuit. The allegations, revealed in the FT, are that Facebook systematically scans the content of private messages so it can sell the data to third parties such as advertisers.

Facebook’s entire business model is based on the fact that it monitors what users write, like and up-load in order to sell this information on to others. I have covered some of the concerns about this in my articles ‘How Facebook Exploits Your Private Information’ and ‘How Facebook Likes Reveal Your Intimate Secrets’. In principle, there is nothing wrong with Facebook using our data to make commercial gains. In the end, the service is free and Facebook has to make money somehow. However, my biggest concern is that the data mining activities are not as transparent as they should be.

Facebook has been criticized for this lack of transparency on many occasions, but two Facebook users now believe Facebook has gone too far. Users Matthew Campbell from Arkansas and Michael Hurley from Oregon have filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the over 166m Facebook users in the US. The accusation is that Facebook is violating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act by scanning and exploiting the content of private messages sent via the Facebook platform without prior consent by users.

The issue here is that ‘private’ messages are seen by most users as exactly that: private! The accusation is that Facebook identifies website links (URLs) contained in private messages and then searches these websites in order to profile users. In their accusation Campbell and Hurley argue: "Representing to users that the content of Facebook messages is 'private' creates an especially profitable opportunity for Facebook, because users who believe they are communicating on a service free from surveillance are likely to reveal facts about themselves that they would not reveal had they known the content was being monitored."

A Facebook spokesperson told Bloomberg that the allegations are without merit and that Facebook will defend itself vigorously. Of course they would say that. The trouble for Facebook is to strike the right balance between offering a customer service in form of a free social networking platform and shareholder returns, especially profits from selling data and advertising.

To answer my own question from the headline: No, I don’t think that this lawsuit will be the end of Facebook. However, I do feel very strongly about the need for better transparency about how our data is used and believe it can lead to a loss of trust that could seriously threaten companies like Facebook. To me, it feels like Facebook (as well as many other companies including Google, Yahoo! etc.) are trying to hide the data mining and analytics activities in their very long Terms and Conditions, to which most people sign up but rarely fully read or understand. Maybe a simple opt out with an alternative “paid for” service would be a good option.

What do you think? What is your view on Facebook exploiting your private data? Would you consider a “paid for” service if your privacy was guaranteed? Please share your views…

[by Bernard Marr]

The Complete Guide to Smarter Social Sharing on Mobile: Buffer for Android and iPhone

As the Buffer team grows we’ve been able to make some awesome adjustments to our mobile apps, including some great new features. In case you missed some of the recent additions, I’ve collected a run-down for you of how they work in our Android and iPhone apps.

We’ve also included a few features that are easy to miss and might be a good bonus, which should make your Buffering much easier. Look for them towards the bottom of the post!

Getting started with Buffer on mobile

If you don’t have our app installed on your phone already, you can download the iPhone version from iTunes or the Android version fromGoogle play.

Add your accounts

When you open up the app, you’ll be able to sign up with one of your social network accounts: either Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Just tap the network you want to sign up with and login to give Buffer access to your account.

Once you have accounts connected, you can add more with the link at the bottom of your accounts list.

Using Buffer to manage your updates on the go

Sending your first update

Get started by adding your first update from the mobile app. On Android, tap the pencil icon and you’ll see a new post screen where you can type your update, attach photos, choose a time to post and select the accounts you’d like to send it to.

When you’re done, tap the green Buffer button to add the update to your queue, or tap “Share Now” to send it right away.

Managing your updates

Keep an eye on how well your posts are doing by tapping the analytics tab. Under each post you’ll see the interactions for each post you’ve sent.

Tap on the Buffer tab to see your queued posts. You can tap a post to edit it, or tap and hold with your finger to drag and drop.

What’s new: Twitter auto-complete and custom scheduling

Our new features have made both of our mobile apps faster to use and more robust replacements for Buffer when you’re away from your desk. You can now add updates to your Buffer account more quickly and with more control.

Twitter autocomplete

We recently introduced a Twitter autocomplete feature that’s not only fast, it’s smart too. When you’re typing an update in one of our mobile apps, just type an @ symbol and start typing letters after it. Autocomplete will jump in and suggest some usernames for you to choose from:

Custom Scheduling

Another really exciting new feature we introduced recently is the ability to choose a specific date and time for your update, rather than adding it to a slot in your Buffer queue.

In the iPhone or Android app, tap the clock icon to set a time and date for your update to be sent.

When you’re done, you’ll see that your custom-scheduled posts are shown with a grey background behind the chosen time, so you can easily differentiate between these and your normal Buffer posts.

New networks

With our recent additions of Google+ and LinkedIn company pages, you can now have up to 7 types of accounts connected.

With a free Buffer account, you can connect one profile or page per network. This means you can share content to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and App.net all at the same time.

If you sign up for an Awesome account, you can pick and choose any 12 profiles from all of the types we have on offer:

• Twitter profile
• Facebook profile
• Facebook Page
• Google+ Page
• LinkedIn profile
• LinkedIn Page
• App.net profile

To connect a new account in the iPhone app, slide open the menu on the left and swipe to the bottom of your accounts list. Tap on “Connect an Account” and choose the social network you want to add:

From here you’ll be taken to the relevant network to login and give Buffer access to your account. Then you can choose which profile or page you want to add.

7 bonus features you might have missed

Our mobile apps have some really cool existing features as well, that are easy to overlook. I wanted to highlight a couple of these in case you hadn’t seen them before.

1.) iPhone: Shake-to-shuffle

One of my favorite iPhone app features is that you can shuffle your Buffer queue by shaking the phone. Just open up the app to show your queued updates and shake the phone in your hand.

You’ll see a confirmation message, and once you tap “Yes” your updates will be shuffled randomly. This is super handy if you share a few quotes from the same article or a few links from the same site in a row, and you want to mix them up.

2. Analytics

In the iPhone app we have a tab for your analytics, where you can see the interactions each of your posts has received. Just open up the app and tap on analytics at the bottom of the screen:

3. Android: Share from any app

On Android, our app takes advantage of the built-in share menu that shows up in most apps, to let you add updates to Buffer from anywhere on your device. Once you have Buffer installed, just tap the share menu inside another app like your browser or Pocket and tap on Buffer to send an update to your Buffer queue.

Here’s an example of how this looks when sharing from Google Chrome:

4. Schedule Native Retweets

In the Twitter for Android app, the share menu lets you send a tweet straight to your Buffer queue—where we turn it into a native retweet.

Other ways to share from mobile

5. Infinite Buffer’s Windows Phone app

Grab the Infinite Buffer Windows Phone app to keep your Buffer updated on the go.

6. Buffer for BlackBerry

If you have a BlackBerry device, you can keep up with your Buffer account using our BlackBerry app.

7. Schedule Buffer updates straight from Echofon

If you’d rather have Buffer right inside your Twitter app, our Echofon integration is for you. Grab Echofon for iPhone or Android and you can add tweets to your Buffer account without leaving the app.

You can even schedule your Retweets with Buffer, from right inside the Echofon app.

[Source]

China's tragic crackdown on social media activism

China's new leadership, which has been in office for 10 months, is attacking the nation's social media channels, a depressing -- yet unsurprising -- turn of events.

By Minxin Pei

FORTUNE -- Social media in China, which has nearly 600 million users, has long been recognized as a political game-changer. In a country where a one-party regime maintains tight censorship over traditional media, the relative freedom of expression available via Chinese social media, particularly Weibo (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter), has made it a powerful platform for rallying public opinion.

In the past few years, Weibo has been credited for exposing corrupt officials, mobilizing the public against social injustices, and forcing local governments to abandon plans for building hazardous plants in densely populated areas.

The demonstrated potency of China's emerging social media has left many wondering whether the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will continue to tolerate it.

Judging by the recent ferocious crackdown launched by the Chinese government, the answer is clear: The new leadership, which has been in office for 10 months, is implementing a comprehensive plan to eliminate the threat represented by China's social media.

MORE: How Tim Cook can save himself (and Apple)

So far, the campaign has resulted in the arrests of several leading online commentators, each of whom used to have tens of millions of loyal followers on Weibo. On August 21, police in Beijing detained Qin Huohuo and Yang Qiuyu, two well-known Big-Vs (online commentators with verified large followings), on charges of rumormongering and defamation. Two days later, police in Suzhou arrested Zhou Lubao, another online muckraker famous for spotting an expensive watch worn by a smiling official inspecting the site of a horrendous traffic accident a years ago (ironically, Zhou's arrest coincided with the trial of the corrupt official). Zhou was accused of blackmail and rumormongering.

Then, on August 25, the Chinese government dropped a real bombshell. Its police arrested Charles Xue, a wealthy Chinese-American investor with more than 12 million online fans. Xue, an outspoken crusader against corruption and social injustice in China, was allegedly caught with a prostitute in Beijing.

What makes these arrests notable -- and disturbing -- is that they were preceded by emphatic official announcements by China's top leadership that the party would tighten its ideological control and followed by a strong endorsement by China's legal authorities on the validity of prosecuting individuals for online rumormongering and defamation.

On August 19, before the latest arrests, China's President Xi Jinping gave a speech at the party's conference on propaganda. He pledged that the party would never cede control over ideology. After these arrests were made, China's supreme court and prosecutor's office issued an unusual joint legal opinion that essentially affirms that online rumormongering is a serious crime that local authorities can prosecute.

The party's war on social media reveals many things, most notably the political orientation of the new leadership. Before it assumed office last November, there were hopes that the Communist Party's new leaders would be more tolerant and open. Their actions suggest they are more conservative, insecure, and obsessed with instability than their predecessors.

The crackdown will also doom the new leadership's much-hyped campaign against official corruption. Experience around the world demonstrates that the most effective weapon against corruption is transparency and free speech. Indeed, China's social media has played a critical role in exposing many corrupt officials in recent years. The vigilance of China's online muckrakers has reached such a fearsome level that few Chinese officials now dare to display those expensive watches and other bribes in public. By prosecuting online activists, the party has essentially given corrupt officials a license to persecute whistle-blowers at will.

Apparently, the new leadership's strategic thinking is "killing chickens to warn monkeys." By prosecuting a few leading commentators, the government hopes to silence the majority and tame the country's social media.

MORE: Tokyo Olympics: No economic miracle for Japan

To be sure, the harshness of the offensive against social media could intimidate China's people into submission. But such success is likely to be short-lived. Like all government-sponsored campaigns, the attack on social media will lose momentum at some point because the party will have other fires to put out, thus creating an opportunity for social activists to return to this space.

Fighting a war against social media is like trying to squeeze a balloon: The government may succeed in taming one part, but it simply pushes social activists to other spaces and forces them to be more innovative in fighting Chinese censors.

Eventually, the party will lose this war. But by waging a futile and repressive campaign against transparency, the party will only destroy innocent lives and hopes. That is the real tragedy.

Minxin Pei is the Tom and Margot Pritzker Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College and a non-resident senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States

Source: http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2013/09/12/china-social-media/