A negative customer story about your product has started gaining traction and is being widely shared across platforms. You’re the social media lead — what are your immediate and next-step actions across social channels, internal stakeholders (PR/legal/support), messaging/tone, and community management to contain and address the situation?

If a negative story starts spreading, I treat the first hour like a triage window. I’d pause non-essential scheduled posts, push a concise holding statement across channels within 60 minutes, and assemble a cross-functional triage team (PR, legal, support, product, CX — typically 5–7 people). My tone is empathetic, transparent and action-oriented: acknowledge, commit to investigate, and promise an update within a clear timeframe (e.g., 24–48 hours). On platforms I’d pin the statement on X/Facebook, add an Instagram Story with a link to FAQs, and add a pinned comment on YouTube. Community management routes high-risk DMs to support (aiming to respond to 80% within 2 hours) and uses templated but personalized replies to reduce noise. Next steps: gather facts, run sentiment tracking with Brandwatch/Sprout, brief execs, and publish a full update with remediation steps — targeting a 30% reduction in negative mentions within 48–72 hours.