Today, the primary source of the crisis is often Internet sources. This is because online information is more dynamic and active than information in traditional media. It can spread rapidly and become overgrown with new information drives within one or more crisis manifestations. It is also convenient to share and supplement publically.
Track and react
Below are the cases when even a secondary or episodic mention can trigger a crisis mechanism or create problems for the company.
Example 1:
Ryanair Vice President David O'Brien's comments sparked a wave of negative mentions for UIA, even though the company’s role in the first publications was only secondary.There are also cases when the info drive triggers a crisis reaction not directly but more so through related topics.
Example 2:
The beginning of the nationalization of Privatbank caused the media to speculate over the possible financial crisis in the country, which did not initially involve the negative mentions about the bank itself. Such information branching resulted in the greatest excitement in the media and damaged the bank's reputation.
Influencing the crisis
When it comes to monitoring the development of the crisis, it means that the company has already embraced it and finds itself at the stage of implementing its anti-crisis plan or improvising on the go looking for a plausible solution.
How to monitor the crisis effectively:
- Assess the tone of publications and record changes during the crisis period. If the number of negative mentions in the media decreases, and neutral publications are on the rise, then the situation is gradually leveling off. At this stage, it is better to organize a smooth transition from negative to "normal state", rather than immediately seek a positive absolute, because it will not look natural and will affect the company's information balance in the media.
- Use filters in the News Feed, such as Popular Words, Author, Tags, etc. With the help of "Popular words”, you can select the negative mentions from social networks and see what words they are associated with. The "Author" filter immediately personalizes publications and you see who writes about you and in what tonality.
- Focus on the original source and predict the path of distribution. If the crisis information drive first appeared in the regional online media, then one of the areas of your focus should be local monitoring. The local crisis resolution can happen faster if the necessary measures are taken in time. When the primary source of the crisis is publications on social networks, alerts might come in handy. Instant alerts will help monitor the situation in real time.
- Enable maximum monitoring capabilities. To monitor the crisis closely, you can order daily automatic reports, as well as set up alerts for several key queries. You can also monitor the titles of publications of key sources and analyze their tonality and context.
