Best Practices for Social Media During a Tragedy

I do not enjoy writing articles like this one, but I feel it’s important. A lot of small business owners don’t know how to publicly handle a tragedy or crisis situation on their social media accounts. Should you acknowledge it? Should you share personal feelings? Is it best to ignore it and keep your business page strictly business? How people and businesses want to respond to times of tragedy is deeply personal. Some choose to acknowledge everything and some choose to not acknowledge at all. I’m not going to tell you there is one way that is right for everyone, but I’ll share with you some best practices for social media during a tragedy situation that are universally agreed upon.

If you have automated or scheduled social media posts, turn them off ASAP. Remember that when something big happens, people swarm to Facebook and Twitter to get the latest news. A lot of businesses will pre-schedule their Facebook posts or tweets but when there is a moment of tragedy, a poorly-timed tweet can seem insensitive. Put the automation on pause, or cancel or reschedule anything ready to post in the next couple of days. And do this ASAP. The amount of time you should keep everything paused really depends on the event and the public reaction to it. Go with your gut as to when you think you can resume your automation.

Acknowledge, but don’t advertise. In a way, everything you post on social media is an advertisement for yourself or your business, so this one may seem a little strange or tricky. If you chose to acknowledge a moment of tragedy or crisis, keep it short and humble. Don’t try to tie your business into the tragedy or figure out a way to somehow capitalize on it. Definitely don’t tag yourself or use hashtags, unless there is a hashtag associated with the event. If you share an image, don’t watermark it. This is not the time to self promote.

Keep it personal and not political. A simple way to acknowledge a tragedy is to write, “Our thoughts are with the people of (city, community, etc).” or “Sending lots of love to (city, community, etc).” If you’re religious you can offer prayers to those affected. You could also share an uplifting quote about love and/or equality. Some businesses choose to donate to a charity (like Red Cross) and will post a link in case their followers want to also donate. Refrain from putting in any further opinions, or you’ll risk alienating potential clients or colleagues at a time when emotions are running high.

Don’t change your business profile picture. The hot Facebook trend now is to use a profile filter when a big event happens. Sometimes it’s in response to a good event (LGBT marriage) and sometimes a bad event (the Orlando attack). This can be a bit awkward if you’re seen as supporting one cause over another, and there’s also the future awkwardness of when to change the picture back. Unless it’s a cause you feel very strongly about, it’s best to just leave it alone. (Side note – keep in mind your profile picture/thumbnail is often how followers recognize you when they are scrolling through their feed, so changing your picture frequently is not recommended anyway.)

Don’t flood your business timeline with a ton of links and updates. Acknowledging the tragedy once is a wise move, but anything beyond that could annoy your followers who probably followed you to see pretty wedding things and not breaking news.

One final thought. This is a question that comes up a lot among my social media and blogging industry peers. In a world where it seems like there is a new tragedy every day, how often should we acknowledge it? While some events gather more media and national attention than others, the reality is there are shootings and attacks happening all over the world every day. Which ones are the “right” ones to acknowledge? There really is no easy answer to this, unfortunately. This is why some business owners choose to stay quiet about current events on their social media channels and just stick to their own industry updates. My best advice is to gauge the public response and go with your gut.

Do you have any additional advice regarding this topic, or personal experiences you would like to share? Go ahead and let me know in the comments.

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