Navigating the Social Media Minefield

...Or (deep breath):
"Social media is a complete minefield and incredibly difficult to moderate and mediate - so how do you handle it in the context of complaints from the public, especially postings critical of staff that have not been investigated or validated?"

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Why do People complain?

• To get acknowledgement that something was wrong
• To vent
• To put it right
• To get it fixed so that no-one else has to suffer
• To get redress

Why do people complain on social media?

• It's easy and quick
• It gets attention
• It can get a quick response
• It's easier than being put on hold or firing off an email
• We push service users to do so (partly because it's cheaper for us)

Social media is person-to-person

Sometimes it works really well

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But it's easy to get wrong...

...especially when outrage is the default

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Advantages of social media

• Cheap
• Speed of complaint and response
• Convenience
• Reach
• Reduced pressure on other channels
• Data

Disadvantages of social media

• Cheap
• Speed of complaint and response
• Convenience
• Reach
• Reduced pressure on other channels
• Data

Principles for social media complaints

• Why are we on social media?
• What won't we do?
• Smiles, not laughs
• We don't defend
• We acknowledge fast, then take it offline
• We set triggers for escalation
• We monitor against standards

Why are we on social media?

• What are our goals for:
• Performance?
• Time?
• Cost?
• How will we know?

What won't we do?

• Use the wrong tone (angry, frustrated...)
• Adopt the wrong language (formal, defensive...)
• Accept abuse (and we are clear about what is, and what is not, abuse)
• Feed the beast online
• Show bad manners, lack of respect or courtesy

Smiles, not laughs

• Funny to me might be an insult to you
• We are helpful and sunny, but we don't make jokes

We don't defend

• If we argue, we put them in opposition
• If we force them to defend, resolution becomes harder, more painful and expensive
• We don't want fights in the playground

We acknowledge fast, then take it offline

• Service users hate to be ignored
• We acknowledge that they need, and have, our attention
• Then we take it offline, for both of our sakes
• Once resolved, we close the loop online.

We set triggers for escalation

• Triggers tell us that the complaint needs different attention
• Two kinds of escalation: technical and managerial
• Technical: someone has specialist skills or facilities to help
• Managerial: additional resources are needed to resolve the issue
• Automatic or formal triggers are best

We monitor against standards

• We need to know how we are doing vs performance, time and cost standards.
• Set some, and track them.
• Then adjust.
• Remember why we are engaging on social media...

What if we stand on a landmine?

IF It goes viral...

If There is a firestorm...

If They keep complaining...

IF Social media goes offline...

If Only social media stays online...

If They name and try to shame...

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We need Fire drills

• Test how we will respond if things go bad on social media
• How will we know?
• What will we do?
• Who will do it and when?
• What do we need to have ready, just in case?

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in summary...

Principles for social media complaints

• Why are we on social media?
• What won't we do?
• Smiles, not laughs
• We don't defend
• We acknowledge fast, then take it offline
• We set triggers for escalation
• We monitor against standards

We need Fire drills

• Test how we will respond if things go bad on social media
• How will we know?
• What will we do?
• Who will do it and when?
• What do we need to have ready, just in case?

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what questions do you have?