social media crisis response

1. Social Media Crisis Response Plan
Social media make crisis communications and reputation management more complex - whilst at the same time offering an
opportunity to improve an organization’s response strategy. This guide is a simple process to help communications profes-
sionals incorporate social media and digital communications into their crisis comms planning and response process.
ONLINE LISTENING
RESOURCES There’s a variety of listening tools.
They can give real- time reports on
FREE SUBSCRIPTION what’s said about your organiza-
• Google Alerts/ • Lithium tion, who is talking and the general
Trends Google • radian6 tone (+ive/-ive etc.)
search • BuzzMetrics • Set clear monitoring objectives/ See our decision
• Bing • Alterian targets/parameters tree for evaluation-
• SocialMention • Trackur • Set up ‘intelligent monitoring’ - response options
• Wazzup • Meltwater buzz quality vs quantity
• Wikipedia • Buzz Capture • Accept that issues will be
• Flickr • Hootesuite missed
• Twitter Search • Market Sentinel • Refine over time
• Topsy • Don’t discount your instincts;
• Tweetscan software has limitations
• Yelp NO
New services come and go; stay up-to-date! Do we have a problem?
YES
RESOURCES
4 P’s ACTIVATE THE CRISIS TEAM
Activate a cross-functional team to speed up the
• POLICIES - already agreed
process of:
• PLANS - established and tested
• PLATFORMS - identified and integrated • Information gathering and analysis
• PEOPLE - trained • Information production
• Information dissemination
• Engagement
• Inquiry management and response Management -
Marketing - Communications - IT - Legal should be
part of or linked to the team
Do we need to respond, share information?
YES
RESOURCES
• Blog • Quora
SHOTGUN OR SHARPSHOOT
• Google+ • PIER Systems Choose the channels that will reach your audiences di-
• Twitter • Website rectly or help spread information as widely as possible.
• YouTube • Ushahidi
• Prepare for a conversation
• Facebook
• Cross-link and consider taking your message off-
site to where conversation is most active
• Help the crowd help you
• Be pro-active and re-active
Are people finding our information?
YES NO
RESOURCES
• Google Adwords • Yandex HOTWASH ADJUST
• Google Insights • Rakuten
• Google Trends • Baidu Use SEO tactics (yes, even when Use SEO and measurement tools
• Google Analytics • Weibo bad news strikes) and measure- to understand info flow.
ment tools to understand how • Identify gapts
SEO* Tactics information flowed. • Set clear targets/objectives
*Search Engine Optimization
• Identify improvements • Communicate learnings
• Remember: search engine • Recalibrate your 4 P’s
preference differs by
country
For more info on our social media crisis communications training & workshops: http://bit.ly/oE8kU0