How I got into Social Media
There was a time I was in the beauty industry in Los Angeles. I loved it! As a formal MAC makeup artist I then switched over to skincare. I worked at a gorgeous spa where celebrities were a daily occurrence and it was incredible.
At the time I was helping to develop this company’s website journey for new potential clients and the driving factors were publications like People magazine, US and Entertainment Tonight. Social media in the late- 2000s wasn’t yet a thing. Up until this one day in 2007.
We had a celebrity client that arrived late to his facial appointment (like almost an hour late) and we could not take him in as we were fully booked that day.
He got irate and then took to Twitter where he blasted how unprofessional we were. It was now out there and panic ensued inside our corporate office.
Later that day in our boardroom the then vice president of sales was yelling at his assistant to “take it down”. He thought we can call or somehow remove a tweet. He was that kind of guy…
I then explained how the mechanism of Twitter worked and said “There is no way you can erase a tweet from our end or our request. But we can appeal to Mr. Celebrity by inviting him in for a new experience.”
I used to work retail and was fairly good with working with disgruntled customer from a luxury retail perspective. I can get someone to agree with me at the end or laugh with me at the end of our interaction. I was good.
I contacted the clients management and re-arranged another visit with timings that suited him and blocking out time after so if he was late we can accomodate him. I met with him at the end and asked if he might take down his previous tweet. He did. Mr. Celebrity also added a new tweet: “I love (company name)” simple easy and finally done with the drama.
When this was all resolved the VP of sales pointed at me and said “You are now our new social media person.”
That was it. I fell in love with the role and came up with my first strategy by showcasing our aestheticians demonstrating the features and benefits of the products. So simple but effective.
It was an exciting time. I help lead the first campaign with SEO on our website to capture the keyword anti-aging that beat Estée Lauders ranking! Social media was more of the same by showcasing those same keywords in our written content. Social merging was making sense and the start of my online marketing career was happening.
It’s a crazy story I know. What I learned out of it and reputation management was priceless!
Here are my top tips to help recover your brand’s reputation using social media:
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Own up to the mistake. Don’t ever double down on your mistake.
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Create reparations for the client. Even if you are not in the wrong it’s a better PR move to amend the situation and at a later time you can quietly drop them as a client.
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Use reflective listening techniques when engaging with an irate customer. An example is “I hear you. You don’t feel it’s fair not to give you a refund because this garment is not fitting you correctly. I hear you.” You may have to do this back and forth but if you keep saying “I hear you.” and give them a exchange offer or refund you can quickly move on with your day instead of taking on the negative energy.
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Boundaries should be clear before any completed transaction. Make sure policies are clear before you trade. Also list on your website or anywhere else for social proof just in case you need to respond to a Google review.
There will be learnings and who knows you might have a new budding career.
