Your brand’s social media channel was hacked: Welcome to your nightmare.

Burger King is the latest brand to join a cavalcade of celebrities, Microsoft and even Sesame Street that have had their social media channels hacked.

When hacked, your best defense is responding from your playbook by immediately enacting your social media crisis plan. In the wake of the Burger King Twitter hack, Imagination Publishing Editor Kevin Allen posted five measures to have in place within your plan. All five of these measures are good reminders or additions to make to your plan.

Hacking, without question, is a reputation management challenge, but also brings with it a somewhat insular protection: the explanation that an imposter or imposters are controlling the content.

What about that other attack that keeps you up at night—you know, the one where your channels are being overrun by negative, inaccurate or just purely spiteful comments? Obviously, any policy should include a clear statement on any page or profile that threatening and vulgar language will be removed immediately. This offers a line of defense from one kind of attack. Additionally, inaccurate information should be immediately corrected by the brand. However, what about those other areas, the ones where content is just negative or you can see that conversations are starting to spiral toward a page takeover?

Here are where the tough questions of if, when and who should respond need to be answered. Should you do nothing, have the brand respond or wait for supporters from your community to chime in? A response escalation plan is a vital part of your social media plan. Customized and complete with scenarios, it can be the difference between control or crisis.

As you and your social media internal and agency team refresh or amend your plan, consider incorporating an escalation decision tree, such as this one created by the U.S. Air Force. It may have crossed your inbox at one point and is worth another share.

Image via www.af.mil

A good offense and strategic defense is essential for every brand’s social media policy—aka, most valuable player.