A look at what social media crisis is and asks businesses to consider how ready they would be to manage a social media crisis

1. What to do in a social media crisis
The good, the bad or the
ugly? How would you do?

2. Foreword
We’ve
experienced
crisis
SwiSh thinking have been working on social media plans and social media crisis
management since customers started using social media back in 2006.
We’ve worked for high profile brands on some of the most sensitive and high risk topics.
We’ve run high profile campaigns for which we put together social crisis management
plans. We’ve had to put them in action several times. And they worked.
So we understand the risks that social networks bring and we take them very seriously.
It can be
overwhelming
What we’re observing are situations where the most media savvy brands are still
overwhelmed when a crisis arises. Mistakes are made and financial and reputation loss
can spiral out of control.
A social media crisis leaves a very long tail so customers and business partners will still
find out about it years after.
A framework
helps
This is why we’ve put together a framework that aims to get businesses ready. Based on
experience, knowledge of the market and digital expertise, our social media crisis solution
can easily be adapted to any market.
Having a framework that engages stakeholders externally and internally can mean the
difference between experiencing and handling a crisis.

3. Social media has
changed how we share
and respond to
information
It’s a powerful tool to mobilise opinion and societal action
It is a primary source of news,
outstripping traditional news print+
It’s 24/7 and immediate
It’s far reaching. Users account for
one in four in the world* with1.9
billion users projected for 2014*
This community can support, make
or break individual and corporate
reputation
It’s easy for anyone to share, comment and respond to
campaigns and activity
+Gallup survey June 2013 via Most Americans Get News From TV: Gallup, Huffington Post, August 2013
*Emarketer April 2013

4. To see businesses
plan for a social
media crisis like they
plan for a traditional
PR crisis.

5. From crisis to social media crisis
HOW READY ARE YOU?

6. The new face of crisis
Crisis
Social media crisis
A crisis is not just a problem.
A problem is solvable.
A crisis is when the outcome
is not certain, not known and
has the potential to engulf
you.
A Social media crisis is a
crisis that starts within Social
channels or moves into them
from other more traditional
channels.
Social channels enables news to be shared with huge webs of people
in the time it takes to write and send a text.
The old rules do not apply

7. Waitrose witnessed this with their twitter campaign #waitrosereasons.
Intended to build positive customer comment, it backfired

8. High speed, exponential spread and lasting trail
Social media enables crisis to spread faster than through any other channel.
Things can go wrong really fast.
People trust what they see because it comes from their online communities i.e.
their friends, families, people they respect.
Before you know it messages feed on themselves.
They go global.
They are here to stay.
First impressions count.
Being ready to respond to a crisis gives you the means to
influence how it will end.

9. Social media accelerated Egypt’s revolution. The regime fell in just 18 days

10. Savvy and connected
Social media channels bring a new kind of public.
One that knows how to make the most of the devices and
platforms at their disposal.
Members of the public can create multimedia assets in no time.
And often faster than most marketing or PR departments.
They will surprise you. There are no rules. They are agile, you
need to be prepared.

11. It took BP a month after the spill to engage social networks. By then a
spoof account with 38k followers had been created.

12. Preparing for a crisis
SOCIAL CRISIS PLANNING

13. Our solution aims to provide businesses
with tailored social media plans that will
allow them to anticipate, manage and
even see opportunities in a social PR
crisis.
They remove the risk of a reputational
and financial disaster, giving you:
• Control
• Measurable and actionable insights
• New communications & advocacy
avenues
• Shared awareness and communication
across the business which will
strengthen cross functional
understanding
By implementing our framework, you will
be able to:
Know your new digital audience, your
customers, your detractors
Evaluate how ready your business is to
face a social media crisis
Know and be in control of your social
media footprint
Know where you are, where information
about your business goes and who shares
it

14. Approach
•
We evaluate how a risk can turn into a social
media crisis and the resonance it may have.
SwiSh thinking has
developed a
framework that
allows to plan for
and manage a
crisis
•
We develop the plans that will help manage
the crisis.
•
We identify the key players to co-ordinate a
response and establish processes before a
crisis between internal and external teams.
•
We train your staff and produce the guidelines
and processes required.
•
We monitor conversations and impact
•
We help you surface and if necessary, create
content that will paint a positive picture of
your business when the crisis arises.

15. Credentials
We use
strategy, technolog
y and creativity to
prepare for and
manage a social
crisis
• Over 15 years experience
working across all marketing
channels
• Hands-on experience managing
high profile crisis
• Working in partnership with the
best providers of social media
monitoring technologies