- You're bound to face a crisis as a company leader
at some point in your tenure.
Regardless of what precautions you put in place,
sometimes what happens to a brand is out of your control,
and in those instances, it's a leader's responsibility
to react accordingly.
To help mitigate the impact of a company crisis,
use social media to thoughtfully respond,
like how British Airway's CEO shared
a video apology on Twitter, to inform customers
about the IT systems failure that grounded
all of their flights at the Heathrow and Gatwick airports.
The video is about two minutes long
and features the chief executive at the company
apologizing for the issue, explaining how it happened,
and how they'll resolve the issue,
especially for customers that had their flights canceled.
To duplicate this process during a major crisis,
start by quickly assessing the situation
to identify the problem, its cause, and how to fix it.
Even if you don't have all the answers,
taking some time to understand what factors are at play,
will help inform the information you're sharing
with the initial apology, you'll soon share.
It's important to quickly apologize within a few hours
of a crisis unfolding, and it's the best way
to inform customers of what's happening,
and control the spread of information.
Publish a video on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook
on the company's accounts, where you or another leader
goes on camera to apologize for what happened.
Re-share the apology from your social accounts as well.
Social media isn't the only place you apologize,
but it is one of the best channels
to initially say you're sorry,
and it's one of the easiest ways
to reach your customers at scale in real-time.
Be sure to explain the cause of the issue,
how you as a leader take responsibility for the problem,
and what steps are being taken to resolve the crisis
in a timely manner.
Not to mention, taking on the blame as a leader
helps to refocus some of the frustration
away from the company and its interests.
Sharing a written apology works too,
especially for minor issues,
but it is far less convincing method of apologizing
as compared to featuring company leadership in a video.
Here, Adidas apologized in writing over Twitter
for a faux pas with one of their email subject lines,
but the apology would have been more effective
had a leader at the company signed the note,
or been featured on camera apologizing for the mishap.
Use social media as a leader to communicate with customers
about a company crisis, to genuinely apologize,
and explain how it'll be corrected,
to help minimize the damage.