The incredible speed and fluidity of social media is a marvel of our digital age.

Social media is an unmatched mode of direct connection with your audience, but it also opens up a new world of crisis management where one complaint can quickly gain momentum, putting your brand’s reputation (and potentially, share price) at risk.

In order to build lasting trust amongst your customers’ base, setting the stage for the creation of loyal brand advocates, it’s essential to have a framework for responding to negative feedback on social, before it snowballs into a larger fiasco.

Here are five key social customer care tips which are applicable to every social marketer, no matter your industry.

1. Listen Carefully

Stopping a problem in its tracks (and building lasting relationships) starts with social listening.

Unfortunately, an angry customer won’t always speak directly to you - to ensure you don’t miss important feedback, you need to track all mentions of your brand, branded hashtags, and branded URLs shared on social - whether they include an @ mention or not.

2. Remember That Response Time Matters

When establishing your target response times, know that now, more than ever, speed matters.

Common SLAs can vary from mere minutes to hours, depending on a variety of factors including your industry and your team, and are likely to fluctuate based on peak times, specific events or campaigns. But one thing is consistent across the board: rapid replies are increasingly becoming the expectation.

In fact, 42% of customers who complain on social expect a response within 60 minutes. And with sensitive issues, like an emotionally charged complaint, a slow response can leave a customer feeling ignored and stoke the flames of further discontent.

Negative sentiment can soar, and multiply - in some cases, circulating on social until it reaches media outlets - when a brand’s response is seen as comparatively too slow.

3. Be Human, Be Transparent, And Never Go Negative

Brands can take the control of the situation by responding in a helpful and genuine manner. Never respond negatively or defensively.

Avoid canned responses and strive to establish a human connection.

Ensure your customer feels listened to, and don’t be afraid to apologize for any inconvenience or a less-than-stellar experience to help diffuse a negative situation.

4. Respond Publicly Before Moving to a Private Conversation

When responding to a complaint on social, always reply publicly before moving the conversation into a private message.

The days of purely 1:1 communication are behind us - on social, a brand may be replying to a comment directed solely at your brand, yet this exchange is still taking place in the public eye.

Responding publicly is essential to showcasing your brand as transparent, attentive, and helpful. Only after this first step should you move the conversation into a private message in order to provide a solution with greater detail, or to ask for sensitive information, like an account number or identifying details, essential to solving the customer’s problem.

Negative feedback on social can also represent the chance to turn unhappy customers into brand advocates and provide unique opportunities to surprise and delight.

5. Know When to Engage - and When Not To

Responding to social posts - both compliments and complaints - can strengthen a brand’s relationship with its customer base, but comments that veer into trolling territory (comments that are racist, sexist, or otherwise aggressively derogatory) are often better left untouched.

Be transparent with your audience by including a statement of what violates your online community terms in your bio or 'About me' section, and that you reserve the right to remove any postings of a vulgar, discriminatory, or inappropriate nature.

One caveat: be wary of deleting comments. This can incite more anger, and additional comments are likely to increase - both in number and in vitriol.

If a comment is derogatory, you can report it and on some networks, like Facebook, you can hide the comment from the public. This feature lets the comment remain visible to the user who posted it, as well as to the original poster’s friends, which lessens the potential for additional conflict when removing a comment from the public eye.

Investing in Customer Experience Starts with Listening

There's no better way to understand what your customers need and want than via their own feedback. A negative comment presents an opportunity to show your brand’s dedication to resolving any issues with transparency and empathy.

Use the five steps above to deliver service necessary for a satisfied fanbase - and to create a brand worthy of customer loyalty.

Written by Manish Agarwal, Brand Head at Zee Entertainment Enterprises and a Digital and Social Media Strategist from IIM Calcutta.

Dil Dhoondta Hai will premiere on Thursday, 21st September 2017

Home is where the family is …SPACE no bar! Or is it? Raising pertinent questions about the pros and cons of community living, Zee TV’s next primetime fiction drama – Dil Dhoondta Hai, is a show that captures the struggles of the Indian middle class whose dreams surpass the boundaries of the small houses they reside in! The show premieres on Thursday, 21st September and airs every Monday to Friday at 10:30 PM.

Committed to offering its viewers thought-provoking stories that nudge the ordinary common man to break out of his self-imposed shackles, draw from his inner strength and re-write his destiny to land at an extraordinary destination, Zee TV launches Dil Dhoondta Hai, an endearing tale of dreams and aspirations revolving around the lives of a millennial couple Raavi and Vishy.

Raavi’s never had to share space as her house back in Punjab, though modest, was a comfortable stand-alone accommodation with separate rooms for each family member. But destiny has her falling in love with Vishy and marrying into his Maharashtrian family, the Dalvis who stay in a small room in a Mumbai chawl where neighbors are as much a part of the family as your closest kith and kin. While Raavi makes this enormous shift, quickly gets acclimatised to her new surroundings and even warms up to the closely-knit chawl neighbors and relatives, claustrophobia gradually begins to set in for both Vishy and Raavi as they barely manage any privacy or space for themselves. Though Vishy proposes that they move out of the chawl and into a 1BHK apartment, Raavi refuses saying- Not without our family!

Produced by Dashami Creations, Dil Dhoondta Hai will highlight Raavi and Vishy’s story as they set out on a challenging journey of buying their dream house – a ‘3 BHK’ and planning a ‘happily ever after’ with their family!

Deepak Rajadhyaksha, Deputy Business Head, ZEE TV said, “Dil Dhoondta Hai is a unique concept which addresses the ever-growing challenge facing millennials – ‘family or personal space?’. The show depicts how modern India, despite being upwardly mobile, continues to be deeply attached to its core culture of family togetherness. With a robust weekend primetime in place, we are strengthening our spectrum of offerings by introducing the show at the 10:30 PM late prime-time slot on weekdays. Dil Dhoondta Hai marks our first-ever association with Dashami Creations, however, Nitin Vaidya who helms the production has been an integral part of Zee TV’s journey with a 10 year stint with the network and having been the channel’s business head. We look forward to creating a strong viewing proposition with the show.”

Producer Nitin Vaidya of Dashami Creations said, “Dil Dhoondta Hai ventures deep into the heart of Mumbai’s chawl-life set-up, and focuses on the very real struggles of space and privacy that the middle class faces while also touching upon the warmth and togetherness that comes along with this lifestyle. Raavi and Vishy’s life reflects the ever-increasing dilemma of choosing between community living and a more nuclear set-up. With apt casting and a finely nuanced slice-of-life treatment, we hope to touch hearts with this endearing story. ”

Dil Dhoondta Hai will feature a very talented cast including Shivya Pathania as the strong-willed and spirited Raavi and Stavan Shinde as the calm and determined Vishy. The show will also feature actors Ashish Dixit, Pratiksha Jha, Rajan Bhise, Purnima Talvalkar, Varsha Dandle and Hunza Sabir in pivotal roles.

Don’t forget to tune-in to Dil Dhoondta Hai starting 21st September 2017,every Monday to Friday at 10:30 PM only on ZEE TV!

Raman Singh to be Chief Guest

News18 network is organizing ‘Rising Chhattisgarh 2017’ in Raipur on September18, 2017. The Chief Guest for the event will be the Honourable Chief Minister of the State Dr. Raman Singh. The main objective of "Rising Chhattisgarh" will be to provide a platform to the state’s top political and bureaucratic leadership to outline and roadmap the development priorities for the state.

The programme will also feature a series of interactions with senior leaders & bureaucrats including former Chief MinisterAjit Jogi;Leader of Opposition T S Singh Deo;Revenue & Higher Education Minister Prem Prakash Pandey; Special Secretary, Energy & Commissioner, Housing BoardSiddharth Komal Pardesi, Special Secretary, Tribal WelfareReena BabasahebKangale, CEO, New Raipur Development AuthorityMukesh Kumar Bansal, District Collector of RaipurOm Prakash Chaudhary andMD, Electricity Distribution Company & CEO, CREDAAnkit Anand.

The engaging discussions at Rising Chhattisgarh will centeron the state government’smajor initiatives and achievements. The platform will also witness candid discussions on the challenges that the state has been facing and the strategies for addressing the same.The event will see diverse points of view being presented from across the entire political spectrum as well as have senior administrators and policy makers articulate their thoughts on the state’s development agenda.

Commenting on Rising Chhattisgarh,ETV News Network’s Group Editor Rajesh Raina said, “This edition of the Rising Series being held in Chhattisgarhwill provide our viewers here with a unique window into the priorities of the state government and how the overall governance apparatus in the state aims to address issues that people in Chhattisgarh are facing.”

Avinash Kaul, President - Network18 said, “The Rising Series has become established as a highly credible and impactful platform since its launch earlier this year. Chhattisgarh will be the 7th state where the News18 Network will be organizing this event. We firmly belief that as the country’s leading news network, it is incumbent upon us to create avenues for a direct and open dialogue between all stakeholders key to the growth of a region.”

Tune in to view this program live on ETV MP/Chhattisgarh 5.30pm onwards on 18th September.

The Cinematic Journey of the Deols with ‘Dashing Deols’ every Saturday at 7 PM

Flamboyant, handsome and charismatic- his fandom remains unmatchable. In the year 1958, Mumbai welcomed a handsome lad from Punjab. Amidst the host of aspiring faces at a talent hunt, this young man’s charm was unforgettable. Producer Arjun Hingorani spotted the talent and thus began the journey of the evergreen, Dharmendra.

What started off as his individual journey soon trickled down to his family. Known as the angry young man of his times, his elder son Sunny Deol gave Bollywood some of the biggest blockbusters in Ghayal, Border, Gadar and Darr amongst many others. Zee Classic, with its brand promise Woh Zamana Kare Deewana, celebrates the cinematic journey of these two dashing men in its new weekly property ‘Dashing Deols’ 16th September onwards, every Saturday at 7 PM.

With two of the most glorious and talked about acting careers in the Hindi film industry, Dharmendra and Sunny Deol make for an adorable father-son duo on celluloid. Dashing Deol which celebrates their brilliance, will kick off with the premiere of Mera Gaon Mera Desh on 16th September, also starring Vinod Khanna as the antagonist and Asha Parekh.

Legendary singers Lata Mangeshkar and Mohd Rafi rendered their voices to the film. Next in line follows ‘Lootere’ on 23rd September starring Sunny Deol opposite the bubbly Juhi Chawla. Directed by Dharmesh Darshan, this action flick was one of the highest grossing films of 1993 and follows the journey of a police officer assigned with the duty of protecting the eyewitness of an underworld case.

The line-up continues with ‘Kasam Suhag Ki’ on 30th September, starring Dharmendra and Rekha in the lead. The story dwells on a widow, who takes revenge from her husband’s killers. The film has a talented ensemble of Gulshan Grover, Danny Denzongpa and Shakti Kapoor.

Genesis Burson-Marsteller bags ZEE Entertainment’s nationwide PR mandate

Will manage public relations for the content company, including its corporate brand, broadcast & non-broadcast businesses.

Genesis Burson-Marsteller, a leading public relations and public affairs consultancy that delivers integrated communications services to some of the best global and Indian companies, has bagged the public relations mandate for the global content company, ZEE Entertainment.

From a consumer outreach programme perspective, Genesis Burson-Marsteller will work to position ZEE as the entertainment destination and the powerhouse of creativity by following a strategic and customized communications approach across its various brands. While the Mumbai office of the consultancy will be spearheading the relationship, the expanse of work will spread across India, including key tier-I and tier-II markets. Handling the diverse bouquet of channels across movies and general entertainment in multiple languages like English, Hindi, Marathi, Bangla, the team from Genesis Burson-Marsteller will work closely with the team at ZEE Entertainment to ensure seamless integration and delivery to create business impact.

Speaking about the development, Sunil Buch, Head – Corporate Brand & Communications, ZEE said, “We are excited to have Genesis Burson-Marsteller as our communications partner. We look forward to their breadth and depth of expertise to manage our corporate reputation. We are confident in their ability to deliver strategic communications campaigns aligned with our business imperatives.”

Prathyusha Agarwal, Chief Marketing Officer, ZEE added, “At ZEE we are conscious of the exponential consumer connect and word-of-mouth that a strategic and focused PR programme can build. It’s our endeavour to create integrated communication across the corporate and channel brands and we needed a communications partner who has the apt expertise and scale. Genesis Burson-Marsteller was a perfect fit and we’re extremely excited to start this fresh journey with the team.”

Speaking on the new account, Prema Sagar, Vice Chair, Burson-Marsteller Asia Pacific & Principal/Founder, Genesis Burson-Marsteller, said “ZEE has been an integral part of India’s entertainment and broadcast landscape for over two decades and is a household name associated with high quality entertainment and information programming. We are delighted that they have chosen us to partner them in managing the strategic communications of their corporate brand and channels. With committed teams, our strength in evidence-based, ideas-driven and result-oriented communications and the expanse of our presence across India, I am certain that this partnership will help strengthen and enhance ZEE’s reputation in India.”