The Mannings printing incident at the beginning of 2018 caused a public relations disaster, which I believe is still fresh in everyone’s memory. Facebook’s mishandling of the printing incident due to Mannings’ jurisdiction, coupled with the media’s fuel, detonated a huge brand crisis, and it was not until the CEO of Mannings issued an apology statement that it came to an end.

However, the long-publicized “Mannings Cat” has become a catchy “Dead Cat” by netizens, and the good image that has been built up in the past has been ruined. After that, the corporate brand is all soldiers, everyone is in danger, and they don’t want to become a new victim of a public relations disaster.

In fact, in order to prevent a public relations disaster that breaks out in an instant, it is necessary to have an alarm to remind the corporate brand that there is a crisis coming, so as to be foolproof and prepared.

Social Listening, on the other hand, is an all-around alarm on the Internet. It obtains huge data on the Internet through keywords, continuously listens to the public opinions, opinions, feelings, and evaluations of each user on the brand on all social networks, and then summarizes the trends of netizens as a reference for decision-making on the market development of the brand.

Before formulating an online market development project, the corporate brand must first ensure that it maintains a good image on the Internet, otherwise, shooting countless advertisements will only be exchanged for countless abuse.

Therefore, the most basic role of social media listening is brand protection, looking for any clues in the discussion of netizens, as long as there are any signs, you can be the first to know, and then deal with it neatly. If they do not keep up with the trend of public opinion among netizens, it will be difficult for corporate brands to cope with the sudden public relations crisis, or to strike first and stifle it in the cradle before the public relations crisis occurs.

Social media listening can also be effective, such as exploring the trends of other competitors (Brand Competitor) or industry development (Brand Industry). But if a PR disaster unfortunately happens, how can community listening help?

Brand protection first requires a group of keen listeners, even if it cannot prevent the outbreak of a crisis, but often after a disaster occurs, it enters the crisis management mode

Professional listeners will update the situation at regular intervals, and at the same time quickly find the source of the fire, understand the mentality of netizens, and discuss countermeasures. At this point, corporate brands need to fully trust the advice of their people to effectively turn crises into opportunities.

In the past, a company ignored the advice of the listeners and recklessly contacted a netizen after a public relations disaster, but it was clumsy and was screenshotted by netizens and attracted more netizens’ attention to the incident, which made the crisis even more out of control. Thankfully, they followed the listener’s approach and managed to fade the matter down and minimize the damage to the brand.

Nowadays, all kinds of public relations disasters are frequent, but as long as you believe in the almighty siren and handle the crisis properly, you can get the praise of netizens, turn the whole situation around, and get more positive attention because of the blessing in disguise.