Digital crisis management - Trends in digital crisis management

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Digital Crisis Management
- Bhushan Shetty

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By definition, digital crisis management is the act taken by an
organization to prevent unexpected situations or events, leading to
negative publicity in the digital space, which can affect a company’s
reputation, image, resources or people. Digital crisis management
involves the procedure taken to minimize risk before they occur. It is the
development of plans and actions taken to deal with a crisis as it occurs
online to minimize its impact and to assist the company’s recovery.
It has been said that “if a customer has a positive experience with a
company, they’ll tell 3 people. But if they have a negative experience,
they’ll tell 10”. There’s no doubt that negative feedback can spread like
wildfire. That’s why it is essential you have a digital crisis management
strategy prepared in case social damage control is needed.
Digital Crisis Management

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Five trends in digital crisis management
• Everything happens at lightning-speed
• People demand “hyper-transparency”
• Dialogue as important as message delivery
• Search reputation delivers multimedia
• Brand detractors have the same tools
Social Media’s Role in Crisis
• Social Media tools shape the communication
• Play a key role in igniting crisis

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#1 – Speed
• Bad news spreads faster than ever before via Twitter,
Facebook and our collective “livestreams”
• Monitor all relevant consumer generated media, not just
traditional media
• When responding to emerging crisis, you may need to react
fast – in a matter of hours, not days
• Have a streamlined approach and a team in place
• Experience in social media will help you respond fast
• The first 24 hours

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#1 – Speed
• The first 24 hours
Sharing
CRISIS
HITS
Mainstream
0 Hour
Hour 6
Hour 12
Hour 18
Blogs
Hour 24
Search
Editorial
Microblogs

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#2 – Hyper Transparency
• There are no secrets anymore – don’t assume you can hide
information
• Any individual has the power to expose what were once
“private” conversations, making them public – expect what
you say to be blogged
• Be ready to reconcile contradictory business practices
• Ensure any CSR efforts that are sincere, defensible and
authentic
• 1 million forensics experts

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#3 – Dialogue
• One-way messaging doesn’t work anymore in a world where
people crave dialogue
• Inviting customers into a conversation is the most effective
way to build goodwill and brand advocates who will support
you if crisis hits
• Communicating solely through press releases and scripted
interactions doesn’t satisfy
• A system for listening is critical to remaining responsive
• Get ready for two-way conversation

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#4 – Search
• 80 per cent of Internet users start their session at search
• Organic search is sensitive to social media content due to the
cross-linking
• Google delivers “universal search” making multimedia critical
• Difficult to dislodge content once it is in search results
• Reputations are built or broken in search

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#4 – Search

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#5 – Detractors
• An individual voice can travel around the world more easily
today
• Small organisations can often be fast and nimble with social
media
• Listening to consumer generated media is critical
• Everyone is an influencer in their own circles, so traffic alone
can no longer be the only metric for judging influence
• Your detractors are resourceful

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#5 – Detractors
• Your detractors are resourceful

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Digital crisis management
• A framework

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• MONITOR
 Before the Crisis
o Establish weekly social media monitoring to compliment existing
media monitoring reports.
o Reports should include analysis of discussion, topline charts or
visuals, and clip sheet of the most relevant “hits” across social
media (blogs, message boards, micromedia, multimedia, soc
nets)
 After the Crisis Hits
o Expand weekly monitoring reports to daily or hourly reports
o Include response recommendations to take action

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• CULTIVATE (Influencers)
 Before the Crisis
o Create an Influencer Map to know where your promoters and
detractors live online
o Consider influencer engagement campaigns during non-crisis
times to develop relationships that could be revisited if needed
 After the Crisis Hits
o Engage influencer in your rapid response efforts as needed: be
personal
o Monitor pre-identified detractor sites and apply messaging
strategy to determine appropriate response

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• PREPARE
 Before the Crisis
o Develop crisis messaging and adapt it to social media venues
o Identify and train marcom staff for social media
o Set up online crisis collaboration site
o Design and build a crisis dark site
 After the Crisis Hits
o Turn on dark site or messaging on home page, and use
collaboration site to communicate around the crisis in real time

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• RESPOND
 Before the Crisis
o Develop your brand’s presence & voice on the social Web – a
corporate blog, Twitter handle, Facebook page, YouTube
channel…
 After the Crisis Hits
o Actively update home page or dark site
o Consider using video to deliver a human message
o If corporate, use social web platforms to respond – these are
most effective when they are well established and active prior a
crisis

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• PROMOTE
 Before the Crisis
o Build list of keywords (negative and positive) to use for SEO/SEM
(Search Engine Optimization/Search Engine Marketing)
o Explore leveraging or creating online advertising
o Identify potential multimedia responses (photo, video) and key
players necessary to create them
 After the Crisis Hits
o Deploy a keyword buy across major search engines
o Create and optimize a variety of multimedia content to help tell
your story in multiple ways
o Advertise online with crisis messaging (as appropriate)

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Five keys to digital crisis management
1. Set up a Listening Post program TODAY
2. Get buy-in on the importance of social media
3. Identify the top online influencers for your business (and
begin building relationships)
4. Know how you will “speak” online (e.g. Twitter, Blog)
5. Establish Social Media Engagement Guidelines across your
marcom team

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Case Studies

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Armaan Kapur, a writer and designer had been refused entry when he visited
the Starbucks Delhi store along with a friend. The bouncer did not believe
Armaan that a friend was already waiting inside with two vacant seats for the
two of them, and asked the duo to move back in the queue.
The two let it go as they were in a hurry and called up the friend to get the
takeaway for them. But, then something disastrous happened – the bouncer
and a friend of his asked Armaan and his friend to step far away from the glass
and move away from the store itself. Further, a Starbucks employee asked
them to stop making a ruckus. So much for crowd control!
Following this appalling incident on the 7th of February, Armaan wrote
to Starbucks India in a Facebook post where he described the shocking
experience of that day and stated that he won’t be compelled to return and get
brushed away by their idiotic security guards. The said post soon gathered
momentum and had garnered 5177 likes with 293 comments.
The Starbucks Facebook page deleted the post 5 days later on the 12th of
February.
Case Study: Starbucks India

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How did they tackle:
Internet never forgets!!
Rather than take note of this complaint and apologize for the lousy
treatment to Armaan and his friend, the Starbucks Facebook page
deleted the post.
Once the damage was done, apologised with free coffee for him and
his friends

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Pepsi India posted a content on a Friday asking fans about their weekend plans, but
little it did know that it’s own weekend was about to fall flat. In a world where we are
rampantly posting content without considering to give credit to the creator, Pepsi
India did a grave mistake by taking original content from a person who is quite popular
on social media, Akshar. He was disgusted by this act from a reputed brand like Pepsi
India, had no choice but to go and ask answers on social media. The below screen
grab gives a clear picture how Pepsi India stole Akshar’s work.
Akshar posted the content
on Facebook and Twitter as
well and left the people to
decide. And in no time, the
Facebook post got more
than 50 shares, more than
150 likes and 20 people
joined in conversations on
the content.
Case Study: Pepsi India

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How did they tackle:
The brand deleted the content.
Got in touch with Akshar personally and wrote an apology too.
Accepting the fault and showing what it really takes to be a true social
media brand.

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Dave Carroll, a musician, sees his $3500 guitar being THROWN by United airline
baggage handlers on a stopover in Chicago. He tries to alert airline personnel, but
they don’t listen. He confirms the damage when he arrives at his destination but
doesn’t file a formal complaint till his trip back one week later.
After arguing with United for maybe a year, he makes video of a song he writes and
sings (United Breaks Guitars) wherein he has describes what exactly happened
during the flight and how his guitar was mis-handled inspite of notifying the luggage
handler. The song received millions of views and was an instant hit but a nightmare
for United Airlines.
Video Link (United Breaks Guitars) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWClV7rSfmk
Case Study: United Airlines

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How to deal with crisis:
The lessons that emerge from the social media crises so far are as follows:
1. Don’t wait till the crisis has gone out of proportion
2. Respond to what has been said.
3. Counter Twitter with Twitter.
4. Use power names. CEOs, brand ambassadors
5. Turn the tide

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