4. Measure Your Impact as You Go
Don’t forget to gauge how your updates are being received. A
media intelligence platform enables us to track how people are
responding and how sentiment is shifting.
When used well, media intelligence can provide
us even more granular views. As your crisis
takes hold both in social media and in the press,
you can use your media intelligence platform to
compare by keyword and sentiment what’s being
said on social vs the press vs other key players who are trying to
shape the message (for instance, your competitors or government
officials). Doing so can help you target your own communications
and customize them further by channel and audience.
5. Know When to Walk Away
There is no such thing as shutting down a crisis that’s being
played out on Twitter or Facebook. As we’ve seen, your audience
will demand that you engage in dialogue. Blocking them from
the outset from posting to your feeds will only drive them to
others, where they’ll be sure to comment on your strong-arming
tactics. But it’s also important to know when to leave the conversation.
If you’ve made all the points you can make, but there
is still a vocal minority of detractors who are saying the same
thing over and over again, any response you give them will just
add fuel to the fire. Stepping away removes the target and gives
them less to react to.
14 Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications
TIP: Prior to social media, companies often got away with the mindset of “Let’s
issue an official statement and be done with it.” This approach is no longer a viable
go-to strategy. However, at some point, it may become your best option.... That’s
why monitoring the conversation to understand whether it’s a good idea to keep
it going is critical. Facebook has provided a set of crisis management guidelines.
While they encourage dialogue, they also provide instructions for deleting posts and
blocking users. These are drastic steps in an age of transparency, but they can be
effective (and warranted) as a last resort.
Don’t forget to gauge how your updates are being received. A
media intelligence platform enables us to track how people are
responding and how sentiment is shifting.
When used well, media intelligence can provide
us even more granular views. As your crisis
takes hold both in social media and in the press,
you can use your media intelligence platform to
compare by keyword and sentiment what’s being
said on social vs the press vs other key players who are trying to
shape the message (for instance, your competitors or government
officials). Doing so can help you target your own communications
and customize them further by channel and audience.
5. Know When to Walk Away
There is no such thing as shutting down a crisis that’s being
played out on Twitter or Facebook. As we’ve seen, your audience
will demand that you engage in dialogue. Blocking them from
the outset from posting to your feeds will only drive them to
others, where they’ll be sure to comment on your strong-arming
tactics. But it’s also important to know when to leave the conversation.
If you’ve made all the points you can make, but there
is still a vocal minority of detractors who are saying the same
thing over and over again, any response you give them will just
add fuel to the fire. Stepping away removes the target and gives
them less to react to.
14 Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications
TIP: Prior to social media, companies often got away with the mindset of “Let’s
issue an official statement and be done with it.” This approach is no longer a viable
go-to strategy. However, at some point, it may become your best option.... That’s
why monitoring the conversation to understand whether it’s a good idea to keep
it going is critical. Facebook has provided a set of crisis management guidelines.
While they encourage dialogue, they also provide instructions for deleting posts and
blocking users. These are drastic steps in an age of transparency, but they can be
effective (and warranted) as a last resort.