In 2008, the Air Force shared their plan on how they respond to user-generated posts around the Web. It was seen as a valuable addition to any social media strategy.

Fast forward a few years and the flow chart is still just as relevant and just as necessary to any type of organization’s plan–if not more so. If we’ve learned anything from the Chrysler tweet, the Reel Grrls’ message to Comcast, and the hoax on McDonald’s, there are multiple ways for organizations to respond to posted content about their brands. Responses also vary depending on type of post addressing and intended channel being used to respond on. Most importantly though–applying a lesson BP learned the hard way–is the timeliness of a response.

With over 1500 new blog posts being written every 60 seconds, how can companies and organizations approach the assessment of user-generated content such as blogs effectively? Well, for starters, by revisiting the Air Force flow chart. While it was buzzing, bloggers such as David Meerman Scott and Jeremiah Owyang kept mentioning how organizations should consider creating similar assessments in their own arsenal of crisis management tools. After revisiting our own crisis communication plan, AREA203 did just that.

Inspired by the Air Force, we developed our own chart for blog response assessment but customized to the agency. One of the benefits of creating your own version is that in doing so, as an exercise in itself, heightens the proficiency of the assessment process procedure. Increased familiarity now, will increase efficiency later when response time is critical.

We hope that our rendition of the diagram will encourage development of social media management tools of your own. Feel free to download ours as a template!

→ SM + PR Team, AREA203 Digital