After signing out of my social media accounts, I often find myself lying in bed tossing and turning. Horrific thoughts race through my head such as: “What if someone posts or tweets  something highly offensive,” or “What if one disgruntled customer’s posting turns into an army of negative comments?” Thanks to technology, social media can be accessed 24/7, 365 days a year, thus making social media nightmares a real thing (cue music to Freddy vs. Jason).

It’s inevitable that you or your company will face or have already faced a social media catastrophe. As a PR professional, I am unfortunately finding this out the hard way. Whether you have misspelled the CEO’s name or accidentally posted an inappropriate picture or tweet that has now gained media attention, social media nightmares can occur in all shapes and sizes.

In today’s PR world, social media is a must and with more than a billion people on social media sites, slip-ups almost always go public. When this happens, it’s the job of the PR professionals to act like magicians and make the blunder disappear or at least downplay the situation. Nobody likes social media nightmares, especially when it comes to your company or client accounts. Fortunately, there are ways to prevent them from happening and there are many steps you can take to fix a catastrophe if one has already occurred.

Here are four tips on how to avoid a social media nightmare:

1.    Be prepared- Even though you may be on top of your social media game, it’s nearly impossible to control everything that is said on your platforms. Relax, people say negative things all the time. As long as you take an active role in online conversations and respond back promptly via Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc., you’re in the clear. It’s critical for your company’s success to have a planned response or a social media strategy in place to avoid a scare from happening.

2.    Put the customer first- If something of negative nature is posted, you should immediately slap on the customer service band aid. For example: if you have a customer complaining about your product or a service you offer, be sure to quickly apologize for their experience and tell them how you plan to handle it. Putting them first and owning your mistakes will help make way for a speedy recovery.

3.    Think before you tweet- Before you post a status or tweet, be sure to double check what you are sending out. A good rule I follow is to compose a word document of my future postings and email them to my staff to confirm that they are appropriate to post. Ask yourself three questions:

  • How will this statement be interpreted?
  • Is this positively/accurately representing my company and/or brand?
  • Who am I trying to reach?

Businesses post inappropriate things all the time, KitchenAid, just recently tweeted an errant remark that insulted the President’s late grandmother. Fortunately for KitchenAid,  they handled the situation properly. Shortly after the tweet went viral, the company deleted it, apologized and an exec took the Twitter handle to explain the situation and reached out to media outlets for interviews. If they had thought about what they were going to tweet first, they could have avoided a nightmare from occurring.

4. Implement an offline strategy- Before you create a social media account, it’s important to have someone armed and ready to monitor, flag and delete what’s being said in the online world. When a negative comment is made, it’s a good idea to direct the conversation to a different medium, whether that’s phone, email or instant message. The less visible negative comments, the better your image will be.

Accepting that a social media misstep can and will happen is not only smart, but a realistic way for PR pros to be prepared. While these are just a few tips to help you start the process, make sure your firm, company or organization has a strategy in place so you’re prepared to act quickly and carefully when it’s time to face a social media crisis.