04/11/2023 GERMINAIT SOLUTIONS PRIVATE LIMITED. PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL 104/11/2023

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

CRISISHITS

Mainstream

0 Hour

Hour 6

Hour 12Hour 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 Hitso Expand weekly monitoring reports to daily or hourly reportso 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 Hitso Engage influencer in your rapid response efforts as needed: be

personalo 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 venueso Identify and train marcom staff for social mediao Set up online crisis collaboration siteo Design and build a crisis dark site

After the Crisis Hitso 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 Hitso Actively update home page or dark siteo Consider using video to deliver a human messageo 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 advertisingo 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 engineso Create and optimize a variety of multimedia content to help tell

your story in multiple wayso Advertise online with crisis messaging (as appropriate)

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Five keys to digital crisis management

1. Set up a Listening Post program TODAY2. Get buy-in on the importance of social media3. 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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