This is a presentation I gave at the University of Utah's law school to a class about crisis communications. This is for 2011. The next one is coming soon.

1. Crisis Communications in a Digital Age
by Janet Thaeler
@Newspapergrl

2. Social Media can Start Revolutions!

3. Say Goodbye to the
24-Hour News Cycle

4. Say Hello to the
30 Second News Cycle

5. Impact of Bloggers
• Often give analysis and insight to news.
• Break stories that mainstream media then
report on.
• Opinionated
• Form strong loyalties and networks that can
rival mainstream outlets.

6. Example: Cooks Source Magazine

7. Bloggers Shut Down Magazine
• In less than 24 hours, a list of the magazine's
advertisers was generated and the advertisers
contacted, with secondary campaigns begun to reward
advertisers who had pulled their ads from the
magazine.
• The hashtags #buthonestlymonica and #crookssource
went viral on Twitter
• Cooks Source's web hosting
company, Intuit, experienced an outage on November
4, prompting speculation that a denial-of-service attack
aimed at Cooks Source may have been the reason.
• The Company shut down completely not long after.

8. Point 1: Speed
Everything happens at lightning speed.
An attack can do damage in minutes, not days.
Don’t wait a day to respond.

9. On Twitter in 4 Minutes Flat
Jan 2009 US Airways Flight 1549 crashed into
the Hudson River.
Emails, tweets, photos and videos of the
incident began filtering through cyberspace 15
minutes before the mainstream media even
reported it. The first recorded tweet occurred 4
minutes after the incident.

10. Point 2: It Doesn’t Take a Village
One influential person can do considerable
damage.

11. Attensity Blog
Too Fat to Fly
• Close to 45,000 relevant mentions of Kevin
Smith and Southwest Airlines across
blogs, microblogs, discussion boards /
forums, and online news.
• 14,000 mentions the day of the incident.
• 16,000 conversations took place on the 15th.
• Interest waned after the 16th.

12. Point 3: The Network Effect
Attacks spread across multiple platforms.

13. Point 4: Be Real
People demand transparency and detest spin
and “corporate speak.” Whatever you do, don’t
get defensive or be condescending.
Example: Nestle Responds to Greenpeace

14. BEFORE Crisis
• Best to be proactive instead of reactive.
• Have a strong networks established of your
own.
• Assemble a team and plan how and who will
respond in case of a crisis.

15. Create a Culture of Listening
Always monitor and listen online sentiment.
Know the culture and the influencers.
Free Tools:

16. Provide Proactive Customer Service
Train staff and empower them to respond to
customer complaints before they blow up.
Who is really good at this?

17. After a Crisis
• Use dialog to join the conversation and
respond.
• Don’t leave your most important
communications to an intern.
• Apologize and ask the offender’s opinion
(these are opinionated people!)

18. Search Engines Record Everything
Respond on the same platform the crisis
originated on.
If a company has weak search results, an attack
is even more harmful. (Scott example)
Use optimized press releases and media
outreach to tell your side of the story.

19. Questions?
Contact
Janet@OnlinePRBook.com
Blog
www.Newspapergrl.com
Tweet Me
@Newspapergrl