Managing social media disasters

Last class, Professor Kagan showed examples of few social media disasters (bad tweets for example). Yesterday, I read an article on Linkedin written by the CEO of HootSuite (providers of social media management tools) on top 5 corporate twitter disasters of 2012. Obviously, it makes sense for Mr. Holmes to write this article as he makes a case (at least couple of times in the article) for employing social media management tools. But the article itself is valid and got me thinking about how companies manage such social media disasters. Professor. Kagan gave few guidelines for managing corporate tweets. Below are few other guidelines that I found online that seems to be relevant. But first here is the top corporate disasters of 2012 Linkedin article.

• Develop an organizational social media policy in order to ensure that employees understand what is expected of them.
• Provide training to employees so that they understand the policies, knows how to follow them, and understands why such policies are important.
• Establish disciplinary protocols and standards in place for workplace behavior.
• Employ social media management tools to designate who can draft the social media content , who can approve the content, and who can post them online.
• Once a social media blunder disaster occurs, as an organization respond reasonably quickly (within 24 hours). If the organization is legitimately at fault, simply apologize and affirm the organizations commitment to the customers and clients. The tone is also important -- for instance, companies have successfully used humor to diffuse tense situations; empathy and authenticity go a long way too to resolve crises.
• Deal with the offender immediately. Note, "dealing" here does not necessarily mean "firing" the offender.
• Lastly, develop an excellent listening and monitoring tool. Listen to customers across all platforms for any "developing" issues