(Chris Syme) A quick look at the Weber-Shandwick publication, The Good Book of Badvocacy, reminds us that the internet is crawling with people just waiting to launch an online campaign against you, should you make them mad.  According to the research, up to 20 percent of online adults are badvocates, "people who stand on a virtual soapbox to criticize or detract from companies, brands or products." Their influence is far-reaching: on average they tell 14 people of their dissatisfaction. The research also found that nearly four in 10 global executives fear that a dissatisfied customer or critic will launch an online campaign against their company. Badvocates are social media engagement's nemesis. 

 

On the flip side, Pew Internet just released research showing that the majority of adults (85%) that use social networking sites (SNS) view their experience as mostly kind. Also, 68 percent said their experience on SNS made them feel good about themselves.  So for most, social media is a positive experience.

 

Organizations may find themselves at the mercy of badvocates when a crisis pops up if they haven't invested time and effort in developing a loyal community of brand ambassadors.  At CKSyme.org, we use a system called "Listen, Engage, and Respond" to help organizations build an effective crisis communications strategy. Developing an effective listening strategy is the first piece. Listen and monitor the important conversations to find out what is being said about you and your sector.

 

After establishing an effective listening program and finding out where your fans are, you are ready to build an effective brand ambassador program via social media. There's a debate raging among social media pros on the quality versus quantity of fans. Some say your chances of engagement are better with more fans and likes. Popular, but controversial applications like Klout have helped promote this philosophy. Others say it's the quality and engagement level of your fans and followers that matter, and not how many people "like you." Mark Smiciklas from Social Media Explorer recently wrote on the need to move past acquisition to advocacy. From a PR standpoint, social media strategies that aim to develop engagement coupled with identifying key influencers are your best protection in a crisis. More might be merrier, but it isn't a guarantee of engagement levels.

 

 

While working in a university athletic department that experienced a series of crises which culminated in a rather ugly, public event, I was tapped to lead the department team tasked with reputation recovery. One of the first things I did was establish a brand monitoring program. There was no Twitter or Facebook yet, but that didn't mean people weren't talking online. The school had a rather large and vocal fan message board  that the department did not participate in. After all, if you don't hear people saying bad things about you, you don't have to deal with them, right? I quickly established a spreadsheet noting the comments and tracking sentiment on the message board. I found out who was talking, and pinpointed the key influencers. Then I established an "official" account and made myself available to answer questions and address concerns on behalf of the department.

 

An interesting thing happened. Once we became a supportive part of the message board community, the conversational tone about our brand became decidedly more positive. Rants lessened and thoughtful questions emerged. We were there to take our licks, and our invested fans valued that. The number of people coming to our defense increased and the number of badvocates decreased significantly in a short period of time. We made our leadership available to answer questions through a live blog. People settled down. I saw the same phenomenon when I was tracking the social media interactions during the recent Penn State troubles. People will come to your rescue if you have taken time to value them and build a relationship. Will you take a hit? Probably. But will you bounce back quicker with the help of a loyal group of advocates? Definitely.

 

 

If you build a social media following to build your reputation, your goals will look different than if you are building strictly for numbers. Likes and fans can be bought (literally) with gimmicks, contests, and free stuff. Fight the desire to give in to these "paid growth" strategies. Determine to build a community of loyal brand ambassadors that like you because they like your products and services (organic growth), not because you give them free stuff. Basic goals for organic engagement include the following:

 

 The best PR strategy in the world will be laid bare by social media.  When it comes to crisis communications, the best organizations use social media to build brand ambassadors, not just numbers. If you've been measuring your engagement levels by numbers, it's time to redefine what engagement means. Develop brand ambassadors, and they will be your advocates in a crisis.

 

- This was part 2 of the series, read part 1 'Listen Before You Speak'