Harnessing the power of Social media: Effective Tactics for Brand Reputation and Crisis Management

With more than 12 years of experience in the ever-evolving digital landscape, I've had the privilege of supporting various brands — from travel and aviation to retail — in harnessing the power of social media to shape their reputation and achieve success.

In today's digital age, social media is not just about connecting with your audience; it's about shaping perceptions, driving engagement, and, ultimately, influencing business outcomes. Brands that master the art of social media can cultivate a loyal following, boost their reputation, and navigate challenges with finesse.

In my career, I've developed and implemented strategies that have consistently delivered results. From my early days in the aviation and travel industries to my current role as senior manager of social and digital media performance at Majid Al Futtaim-Holding, I've witnessed how proactive social media management can turn potential crises into opportunities for growth and engagement.

I will delve into three critical aspects that every brand should focus on — proactive strategies to stay ahead of the curve, harnessing social listening for valuable insights and effective crisis management to safeguard your brand's integrity. Join me as we explore these key elements and uncover how they can transform your social media approach.

Proactive strategies for effective reputation management:

Proactive measures are essential to anticipate and mitigate potential risks before they escalate. One of the key strategies we employ is establishing an extensive keyword and expression monitoring system. With the current setup, we have over 85,000 keywords and expressions at our disposal to capture social media conversations across a wide range of topics, including customer care, reputation management, customer experience (CX) and various crisis situations. Comprehensive monitoring allows us to stay informed about what's being said about our brands and media coverage of certain topics and industry trends in real-time.

By continuously analyzing these conversations early on, we can identify emerging issues and trends. This enables us to react promptly and appropriately, addressing potential problems before they grow into more significant crises. A proactive approach also helps us better understand our audience, tailoring our content and engagement strategies to meet their needs and expectations.

In addition to social listening, leveraging on-page listening provides deeper insights into sentiment and audience behavior. This approach helps to understand the context and sentiment behind social media mentions, providing valuable information that informs the decision-making process. By combining quantitative data with qualitative insights, brands can craft effective communication strategies that enhance the brand's overall reputation.

Proactive reputation management is about being vigilant, responsive, and adaptable. By staying ahead of potential risks and continuously improving strategies based on real-time data, we ensure that our brands remain resilient in the ever-changing social media landscape.

Managing a crisis

COVID-19 was a huge learning curve and an intriguing crisis to manage. The sudden shift in consumer behavior and the surge in online interactions required us to adapt quickly. To effectively manage the situation, we established a robust social listening system that included both earned mentions (what people say about our company brands and assets) and owned mentions (on-page engagement). This allowed us to gather comprehensive information about public sentiment towards our brands, as well as key industry topics.

Given that most B2C operations moved online, we implemented COVID-related keywords as an additional filter. This helped us differentiate actionable cases and prioritize them for our customer care teams. It was crucial to address urgent queries and concerns promptly to maintain customer trust and satisfaction.

Broader social listening, facilitated by Sprinklr, enabled us to capture a wide array of audience opinions. This data was invaluable in refining our content strategy to address common questions and issues, ensuring we were responsive to our audience's needs during the crisis.

The dashboard we have created provided a holistic view of the situation, enabling us to make informed decisions and respond effectively.

Through these measures, we successfully navigated the crisis by staying informed, responsive and agile, as much as the situation allowed us. Our proactive approach and use of advanced tools like Sprinklr ensured we could manage the crisis efficiently and maintain a positive brand reputation during a challenging time.

Proactively responding to negative comments or reviews

Frankly speaking, this is one of my favorite topics. While brands and community management teams often dread dealing with negative comments, I see it differently. Every rational negative comment is an opportunity to learn and improve. The first step is to resolve the customer's issue as swiftly as possible. Leveraging Sprinklr AI and fine-tuned rules in the Rule Engine to identify genuine complaints and distinguish them from general, non-actionable negativity. This helps customer care teams to focus on the comments that require immediate attention.

Our customer care or community management team picks up these comments and provides a sufficient solution within company guidelines. If a solution is unavailable on the spot, the query is escalated to the relevant department for further assistance. This ensures that every concern is addressed appropriately and efficiently.

The main challenge in any large organization I've worked in — whether in aviation, travel or a multinational and multi-asset corporation — has not been social media engagement itself, but sourcing the correct answers promptly to address all the variety of queries with a social media spin. Sometimes, customers are niche professionals within a particular topic and have specific questions. While it's impossible to know everything, it is possible to connect with professionals who might be far from social media to provide the necessary input to those engaging with the community. Hence, automation of escalations and integration with existing solutions are crucial to connecting different teams within the organization.

By fostering this collaborative approach and utilizing advanced tools, we can turn negative comments into positive experiences, ultimately enhancing our brand's reputation and customer satisfaction.

Enhancing your brand’s reputation

In the modern world, data is the key to everything. Centralizing and unifying social media engagement is crucial. Using tools like Sprinklr to aggregate data from various

sources, such as social channels, chatbots, Google Analytics and individual links, allows for close monitoring of a brand's reputation and early identification of emerging crises.

In my approach to crisis management, I find a very effective tactic of implementing a proactive crisis management algorithm that works seamlessly across different markets. When a crisis starts in one market, this algorithm can guide the response to ensure consistent and effective management:

1. Monitoring and communication: enable real-time monitoring and prompt communication about the crisis from moderation teams. This ensures awareness of any issues as they arise and allows for immediate action.
2. Internal coordination: when the crisis starts, inform the organization's management to prepare on-ground operations, the communications team to steer engagement tactics, and the marketing teams to adjust media budgets to avoid exacerbating the crisis. This coordinated approach ensures all parts of the organization are aligned and ready to respond effectively.
3. Keyword library: Build and regularly update a keyword library of expressions used during crises (yes, the audiences are creative during crises). This helps stay ahead of the curve and ensures monitoring is always up-to-date and relevant.
4. Reporting and auto-moderation: Enable detailed reporting and auto-moderation to manage conversations efficiently and address any negative sentiment promptly and appropriately.

To measure the effectiveness of these tactics, several key metrics can be relied upon:

• Sentiment analysis: Analyzing the sentiment of social media mentions helps gauge the brand's overall perception and identify any shifts that may indicate a reputation change.
• Engagement rates: Monitoring engagement rates provides insights into how well content resonates with the audience and whether strategies drive the desired level of interaction.
• Crisis resolution time: Tracking the time it takes to resolve issues during a crisis provides insights into the efficiency of response mechanisms.
• Customer feedback: Collecting and analyzing customer feedback allows for an assessment of the impact of actions on customer satisfaction and loyalty.

By continuously refining tactics based on these insights, any company can ensure its brand remains resilient and maintains a positive reputation in the dynamic social media landscape.

Conclusion

Mastering social media management through proactive strategies, listening insights and crisis management is crucial for any brand aiming to thrive in today's digital landscape. By taking proactive measures, such as establishing an extensive keyword and expression monitoring system, brands can anticipate and mitigate potential risks before they escalate. This approach not only helps in identifying emerging issues and trends early on but also allows for prompt and appropriate responses to potential problems, thereby safeguarding the brand's reputation.

Proactive reputation management involves a continuous process of monitoring, analyzing, and adapting to the ever-changing social media environment. By leveraging advanced platforms like Sprinklr, brands can gain valuable insights into sentiment and audience behavior, enabling them to craft effective communication strategies that resonate with their audience and enhance overall brand reputation.

Responding to negative comments or reviews on social media proactively is also critical to reputation management. Viewing each negative comment as an opportunity to learn and improve can turn potentially damaging situations into positive experiences, ultimately enhancing customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. By resolving customer issues swiftly and efficiently, and by fostering a collaborative approach within the organization, brands can maintain a positive online presence even in challenging situations.

Implementing effective tactics and campaigns to enhance brand reputation on social media requires a strategic and data-driven approach. Centralizing and unifying social media engagement, utilizing comprehensive monitoring systems, and enabling real-time communication and internal coordination are essential steps in managing crises and maintaining a positive brand image. Regularly updating keyword libraries,

enabling detailed reporting, and auto-moderation further ensure that brands stay ahead of potential risks and remain resilient.

Measuring the effectiveness of these strategies through key metrics such as sentiment analysis, engagement rates, crisis resolution time, and customer feedback is vital. These metrics provide insights into how well the strategies are working and where improvements can be made. By continuously refining tactics based on these insights, brands can ensure they remain adaptable and responsive to the dynamic social media landscape.

In conclusion, integrating proactive strategies, social media listening insights, and effective crisis management into your social media approach is essential for building a resilient and successful brand presence online. By staying vigilant, responsive, and adaptable, brands can navigate the complexities of social media, protect their reputation, and foster long-term success.