If there’s one thing that keeps social media marketers up at night, it’s the ever-present threat of a PR disaster. By now, every marketer is well-aware of how quickly dissatisfied consumers can turn to the social airwaves to vent about a brand. Nestle, BP, Domino’s, Southwest Airlines, and many other brands have witnessed the unbridled power of social media as a platform for disgruntled consumers to rally around an anti-brand cause.

You can never fully “control” what your customers say about your brand on social platforms like Facebook , Twitter, YouTube, blogs, and forums — nor would you want to. After all, the biggest benefit of social media is to allow your customers to express their opinions and talk about your products and services among themselves, creating a loyal fan base that spreads the word about your brand to their friends and family. However, there are several actionable strategies you can take to avoid — or circumvent — a negative PR storm about your brand online.

Here are five tips to give your brand the best possible chance at avoiding a social media PR debacle, and strategies for quickly handling problems if they arise.

1. Create a Social Media Policy/Community Management

PlanEvery brand participating in social media should have a clear policy and community management plan in place. Map out crucial “Terms of Service” such as:

What’s not tolerated in conversations about your brand. Things like foul and abusive language, threats against individuals, hateful speech, flame comments about products or services, and similar comments are best handled as strictly forbidden. Make sure this plan maps to the Terms of Service for each channel in which you are active, such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or YouTube, all of which have their own guidelines on unacceptable content.

Hire a community manager or qualified agency partner who monitors your brand’s entire social media presence on the web. Your lead community manager should be in constant contact with the PR and marketing departments, and have clear escalation lines to the customer support team for hot-button issues. The community manager should not only monitor and manage your branded communities in Facebook, Twitter, and corporate blogs, but also use social media monitoring tools to find out where else your brand is being discussed online, such as third-party blogs and forums.

The community manager should work with the executive and PR teams to decide who will respond to which type of comments. High-level “red alerts” need to be handled by a top executive, preferably someone both knowledgeable and accountable to your customer base. The PR team should, of course, be integral in crafting all outbound communications, but in rapid-response situations it’s best to have a key executive who’s already provided his or her willingness to be accountable and available.

2. Have an Escalation Plan

Decide ahead of time what steps your company will take if a flare-up occurs. Knowing ahead of time how you’ll respond to negative comments takes the “panic factor” out of potential negative commentary. Map out the following steps:

Decide which type of comments require immediate response (such as a huge flame against your brand, a customer service rant, or a nasty rumor) and which are best left alone for the time being (a few negative product reviews, a customer discussion comparing your brand unfavorably to another, etc.). Which are indicative of a larger trend, and which are singular expressions of dissatisfaction or concern?

Make a plan for who will flag negative comments, and how they will officially communicate these “flags” to the PR department in order of “Urgent,””Wait,” or “Monitor.”

Create corporate-wide guidelines for the first, second, and third steps to take in the event of a sudden negative sentiment storm. For example, the first step might be: Flag and collect negative comments. The second might be: Community manager works with PR and CEO to craft immediate “we hear you and are working on it” response. A third step might be: Have PR team and CEO craft and post official response

3. Plan for the Worst – Expect the Best

What’s the worst case scenario your brand could possibly suffer in a social media PR meltdown? That situation probably won’t occur, but by imagining the worst, you can craft “first line” responses ahead of time, so you won’t be caught off guard. That way you’ll be well prepared if sentiment around your brand suddenly begins to trend negative. This kind of brand take-down, should it occur, happens extremely fast — in a matter of hours.

4. Respond Quickly, Personally and Directly

If online commentary starts to trend negative rapidly, consult your community management plan to decide who will respond first. Acknowledge questions and negative comments, and assure consumers you’re working toward an answer. Then, execute your official response as detailed in your escalation plan — an official blog post on your domain is always the first, best place to post new relevant information. Even after you’ve delivered an “official” response, go back to unhappy individuals and point them to the latest blog post, as individual responses go a long way. Remember to speak personally and directly. Speed and honesty are what customers value most.

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