Have you ever heard this saying before? Basically it means if something goes wrong, it’s better to provide a solution the first time it breaks. If you ignore the problem it will only grow bigger, and ultimately when you’re forced to provide a solution it will be a lot more costly.

For a small business owner or entrepreneur, Twitter and PR can work hand in hand to be that solution when something initially goes wrong. Larger companies have jumped into the social media fray to beef up their Twitter efforts and now engage with customers and bloggers who tweet about a negative customer experience. Twitter enables a company to immediately mitigate the situation by engaging the customer, addressing the situation and coming up with a solution that works for everyone involved.

Case in point as highlighted in The Wall Street Journal:

–When Ford tried to shut down an auto blogger who appeared to be promoting counterfeit products, a Ford executive stepped in, mitigated the situation and tweeted the outcome to all parties involved.

–When a Pepsi customer tweeted about a German Pepsi ad talking about suicide, a company executive immediately worked to have the ad removed.

–When a Southwest Air plane made an emergency landing, company spokespeople closely monitored Twitter to see what passengers were tweeting about, ready to step in and mitigate if necessary. Fortunately the pilots did a fantastic job and Southwest was able to use the opportunity to spread good will and thanks amongst its pilots.

As a small business owner it’s important to utilize the power of Twitter to shape your company’s PR and public image in front of your customers. As with any business, negative stuff happens. Twitter is a great way to immediately see what the buzz is so you can step in and put a PR/crisis plan in place AND use Twitter to carry out your critical communications and response.