Most brands would kill for their campaign to go viral and spread like wildfire. However, without proper planning, a viral campaign within social media can quickly become an epidemic.
Run fire drills
To ensure that your campaign is successful, you have to take the time to plan your social media campaign, and planning is more than saying, "Hey, let's have a video blogger campaign on YouTube."
Planning means anticipating what scenarios could possibly happen, multiplying them exponentially, and then preparing your action and response plans based on the worst possible outcome -- like, "What would happen if users downloaded our $3-off coupons and then began to sell them on eBay for a $1.00, and then everyone made copies and took 10 copies to retailers."
An important part of planning is making sure you take the time to meet regularly with everyone who might possibly be involved if the campaign turns into a wildfire. Key people generally are IT, or the web development agency, the PR agency, legal, brand managers/director, the social media agency, the creative agency, and the media agency.
When a campaign is too successful, web servers may crash, and they typically crash during the most inconvenient times like a Sunday night at 7 p.m. If you've ever run a sponsored video on the homepage of YouTube, you know what I'm talking about. By making sure that IT or the web development agency is brought into the planning process, you can feel confident that should load times slow down, there's a backup plan in place.
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Get legal involved as early as possible and make friends with the attorneys. They have the ability to kill a campaign or grease the wheels so you can execute the social media campaign of your dreams. When using social media to run a sweepstakes, bring in the legal eagles early, get them well versed in the policies and Terms & Conditions of any social networking publishers you may be working with so they can draft the proper rules and language to limit liability. If an emergency situation happens, knowing that legal is on your side and involved in the action plan saves time and prevents legal ramifications from the wildfire.
The public relations agency or internal team need to be aware of the fine details of the campaign, so they can draft multiple versions of press releases in advance. Not only does it save precious time that you may not have, it frees up the PR team to do damage control early on in an emergency situation.
It's also a good idea to bring in the creative agency early. They can bring an interesting perspective to the campaign, while providing back-up creative in various formats. Having an extra set of videos, emails, and banner ads already created allows the brand to react with a thoughtful message and not a panicked response. The media agencies (traditional and digital) should have contingency media plans to both support a positive wildfire, as well as a negative one.
This should go without saying, but the agency running the social media campaign and the brand managers/directors initiating the campaign should also be involved. Knowing about the minutiae in advance stimulates the planning process. All too often brand managers think their agency is looking out for them when the reality is that their agency is really just in survival mode. The brand needs to be responsible for the brand. It is the responsibility of the brand manager to ensure that even in a crisis, the integrity and standards of the brand are maintained.
Time is of the essence
Once a social media wildfire occurs, when and how you respond makes a big difference in how the campaign will be preserved. It will also determine the consumer's perception of the brand. If you've taken time to plan properly, your "gear" should be ready to go. Create and utilize pre-written scripts to help control the conversation, and direct a more positive outcome and brand association.
It should be all hands on deck when containing a social media wildfire. Just like the fire department, police, and the ambulance show up to a fire, all of the necessary partners should show up immediately and start working. If the wildfire starts on a Sunday afternoon or at 3a.m., make sure that all parties involved are contacted and can move into action immediately. Do not wait until the next afternoon when everyone can finally meet. There should be an action plan in place so everyone knows how to respond. Messaging should immediately be implemented on the brand's websites, Facebook profiles, Twitter feed, YouTube, and any other social sites. Email should be sent out as quickly as possible in response to the situation. The overall tone should be focused on calming the masses and reiterating the brand's position and identity.
