Social media screening for negativity is helpful for monitoring and protecting an online image. Every public relations and communications team should be equipped with social media monitoring to get ahead of public negative sentiments.
The Case of Wendy Bell
In March of 2016, Wendy Bell was fired from a local news station for racially insensitive comments she made on her Facebook page. Her post was both an embarrassment to herself and the station.
The full damage of Bell’s post has yet to be realized. But as an employer, the message is clear – what your employees share online can effect your business. In this case, viewership, sponsorship, and long-term goals of the station were on the line. Though the news station took actions to disassociate themselves with Bell, her history with the company as a well-known anchor is connected to the brand.
Social Media Screening Applies to Everyone
Many companies require employees to attend sensitivity trainings and align with communication and company policies. Publicly facing or key employees are especially important to monitor. And when the face of that employee is associated directly with your brand or channel, social media monitoring and sentiments are even more important.
In an age when one employee can impact a company’s image with a simple phrase, how can you hope to protect the brand that you have dedicated your time to building? Monitoring and investigating the online presence of your current, former, and potential employees is part of the answer.
Social Media Monitoring
How do you successfully monitor social media accounts?
- Identify key persons for monitoring. (We recommend evaluating high-level employees and customer-facing employees.)
- Develop a list of relevant social media accounts belonging to the key person list. Check posts on these social media sites.
- Look for images, videos, or comments that contain negative sentiment, derogatory language, extreme political or religious opinions, etc.
If you spot a thoughtless comment from one of your current employees, act immediately. Request that the comment be removed, insist on sensitivity or public relations training. Apply the same rigorous social media screening to candidates for employment. Get ahead of negative content or sentiments online before making a high risk, bad hire.
Frequent monitoring of past and present employees’ social media presence, as well as a search of potential employees’, allows you to feel confident that you have done what you can to prevent any predictable mishaps.
How SMI Aware Can Help
SMI Aware reports comprehensively search a person’s social media accounts and other public content. Our analysts use our proprietary technology to scour open-source content for relevant information. While SMI can search for pages that have been deleted or removed, these can be difficult to retrieve. Preemptive searching and information capturing helps get the information you need right away.
Your employees are a reflection on your company’s brand. A social media search is an important way to pre-screen and monitor the sentiments about your brand online. Give your company the peace of mind that your employees are compliant with your policies and are a good fit for your business.
Ready to add social media monitoring to your suite of tools? Let’s talk.
