Let me ask you a question: How often do you monitor your Facebook Fan page? If someone started writing comments to your fans from your fan page, pretending to be you and causing havoc, how long would it take you to notice?
I ask because this exact situation recently happened to the brand “Just Jeans”, and it took them over 12 hours to realize that someone was upsetting and confusing their fans on their behalf. Take a look:
Image taken from theage.com.au.
The above is just one of many upsetting conversations that took place on the ‘Just Jeans’ Facebook page, when someone created a hoax account under the brand’s name, with the brand’s logo as their profile picture. Apparently the brand’s activity on the page had been non-existant since mid December, but once Just Jeans realized what was going on right under their nose, they deleted the comments and posted a note to their page saying:
”We’re sorry for any upset that has been caused, we are doing everything we can to address the matter as soon as possible.” (This message has since been removed, along with any evidence of the entire situation.)
Social media monitoring is a must
Although this isn’t a social media crisis, it is an upsetting situation for the brand’s fans who were subject to such taunting. This example reiterates the clear importance and necessity to monitor your social media channels on a regular basis.
Simply being set up with a free HyperAlerts account, or having Facebook email you when someone posts a new comment to your timeline, can be a big help. Of course, this can get tiresome when you have dozens to hundreds of posts per day, but if your social media channels get that much attention, it’s even more important to have someone responsible for monitoring your channels regularly.
If your brand isn’t active on your social media accounts regularly, then another option is to disable the ability for fans to leave comments to your timeline.
Either way, monitoring your social media channels is not an option, it’s a must. You don’t want to find yourself in a sticky situation, simply because you weren’t paying attention.
So, let me ask you again: How often do you monitor your Facebook Fan page? If you found yourself in Just Jeans’s situation, how long would the unacceptable comments go unnoticed? And finally, if your answer is “too long”, what are you going to do about it?
Author of Crisis Ready: Building an Invincible Brand in an Uncertain World, Melissa Agnes is a leading authority on crisis preparedness, reputation management, and brand protection. Agnes is a coveted keynote speaker, commentator, and advisor to some of today’s leading organizations faced with the greatest risks. Learn more about Melissa and her work here.
Leave a Reply