When it comes to dealing with a potential social media crisis, all of our experts are big believers in the axiom: Those who fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
 
"It's really important to have some sort of plan before anything even happens," says Zimmerman. She believes an effective plan should be a well-conceived, coordinated effort between multiple departments -- not just a public relations effort. "You cannot operate in a silo; the PR department really can't do this on its own."

"My advice is to have a crisis communications plan and look at the different kinds of things that are likely to happen," states Carr. He warns brands against putting off developing a plan and adopting a complacent attitude. "So many people sit back and say, 'That's not going to happen to me; I'm not going to have a problem.' They don't see the urgency of it. But everyone has problems at some level or magnitude, and, when the big ones occur, that's when they get into some serious trouble."