Picture this:
It's Monday morning. A new social media hire tweets out a tasteless joke from your company handle. Maybe it's a little sexist, maybe it's a little racist, maybe it's a little homophobic. (Heaven help you if it's all three.) You delete it immediately, knowing you might be breaking a cardinal rule of social media but not sure what else to do. After all, it was only up for a few minutes.
What's the worst that could happen?
By 9:30AM, an influencer has retweeted a screenshot of the joke to a million followers, adding, "This is NOT okay, @yourcompany." Amongst that influencer's million followers are dozens more influencers, celebrities, and journalists, many of whom glom onto this outrage bait and spread it among their own followers.
Then the bloggers come for you. Oh, the humanity!
By noon, the hashtag you were dreading is born, and 15 minutes later it's trending nationally: #YourCompanySnafu. By dinner time, you're on the evening news...but not in a good way. By 10PM, CNN's treating you to the whole Don Lemon experience. But the day's not over yet: late night means it's time for Jimmies Fallon and Kimmel to pile on.
If that scenario made your palms sweat and your pulse race, you can't miss the workshop we're running in Atlanta this June: Rehearsing a Crisis Breaking over Social Media. (You can register for it here.)
Using Polpeo, a state-of-the-art social media simulator, you'll get to manage a social media crisis for a fictional company while an experienced team behind the scenes mimics the public reaction to the crisis, making the session incredibly realistic. As the crisis spreads over social media like wildfire, your job is to neutralize it: devise your strategy, post to Polpeo's simulated social media channels, and respond to the public, all while the clock is ticking. Afterwards, get feedback on how you did and ask questions about best practices.
This is your chance:
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To experience the terrifying speed at which a crisis breaks and spreads on social media
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To test different ways of responding to the public and see how they respond
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To gain insight into current best practices in crisis management and learn how to prepare your organization for the worst
No one can afford to be without a game plan when it comes to managing a social media crisis. In fact, even someone with a mere 170 followers can accidentally trigger a worldwide furor. So register today to join us for this workshop (it's one of four we're offering). Because who knows -- maybe you won't ever need to deal with a crisis of your own. But are you willing to bet your company's reputation on it?
disaster / shutterstock