Use social listening skills to monitor online Strategies for conversations in the aftermath of a crisis. This means tracking mentions of your brand name and other relevant keywords, conversations, and topics to reveal what the public is saying. Not only will this help you gauge sentiment, but it can inform your response and communications strategy.
Responding to inquiries and criticisms
online can also be effective in moving the needle in your favor. Avoid additional issues by acknowledging concerns and responding with consistent messaging. Express empathy and offer immediate solutions, including connecting customers to support teams or providing links to helpful resources.
Leveraging digital platforms to disseminate accurate information will help you to effectively manage public perception. Quick responses are ideal, but never at the expense of accurate, approved, and empathetic messaging.
The importance of transparency and authenticity
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Maintaining transparency and authenticity in digital communication is critical to preserving consumer trust and loyalty. Consumer research conducted by PwC found that key factors in building respondents’ trust include protecting consumer data (79%), quickly responding to and resolving consumer concerns (74%), and delivering a consistent and reliable customer experience (73%).
Reflect these values by always prioritizing honesty and sincerity—especially during crises.
Related read: Navigating Crisis Management in the Digital Age: Lessons from The Carta CEO Disaster
Control the Narrativeeputation management: Crises emphasize the intimate link between good communication and reputation management. A well-handled crisis can enhance trust and credibility, while mishandling it can lead to lasting damage to a company’s reputation and brand equity.
Short- and long-term effects of mishandling crises: Talkwalker, a platform that specializes in consumer social listening, highlights the short- and long-term consequences of social media crises. At first, brands may suffer from a decline in sales or consumer trust, impacting stocks and stakeholders. In the long run, a singular instance may lead to sustained damage to a brand’s reputation, resulting in a loss of market share.
These results are possible in any crisis
and may also include loss of customer loyalty or investor confidence.
Adapting to Crisis Comms in the Digital Age
A strong crisis comms plan will work across traditional and digital channels, ensuring your messaging is presented to all audiences.
While traditional media plays a key role in amplifying your messaging during a crisis, digital media gives you more flexibility and control—but it also has drawbacks.
Challenges and Opportunities for Digital Crisis Comms
Digital media presents unique challenges and opportunities during crises that include the speed of information dissemination, viral misinformation, and the ability to directly engage with stakeholders through social media platforms.Together with the Zen Media PR team, New Cosmos chose to acknowledge the risks through a campaign emphasizing natural gas safety during the DeNova Detect’s launch at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The outreach plan was spearheaded by a comprehensive press release, targeted outreach to trade publications, newsjacking, and thought leadership opportunities.
Combined with consistent messaging and sustained momentum on social media, the results were incredible. The New Cosmos products emerged onto the CES scene with unmatched force, share of voice exploded to 689% and resulted in deals with multiple major big-box retailers, and the Las Vegas City Mayor’s Office honored the brand’s efforts by declaring January 6 as Natural Gas Safety Awareness Day.
Why Crisis Comms Is So Important
As explored above, crisis comms critically support brands and their customers in times of crisis. While you can do everything within your power to prevent a crisis, a variety of external factors might derail your plans.
If you’re still deciding whether to create a comprehensive crisis management plan, consider the long-term impacts on your brand and reputation if you don’t.
RIn the weeks following the data breach, customers have expressed concerns on social media and online forums over AT&T’s response. Some criticized the company for not doing enough to protect the stolen information years before it was leaked, while others were frustrated by notices of potential price increases to their services following news of the hacking.
AT&T did well to quickly share the news
and own up to the incident, informing authorities and those affected, but it still wasn’t quick enough to prevent the incident from happening altogether. This means the company has a long way to go in creating and rebuilding consumer trust. Cybersecurity best practices emphasize that cyber crime is a matter of when, not if, it will happen, and crisis comms plays a major role in relaying that message to customers.
Examples of Effective Crisis Communication
Each crisis is at least somewhat unique, so while there is no simple formula for effective crisis management, companies can learn from strategies used in successful crisis comms responses and adapt them for their own use.
Acknowledging Mistakes
Following the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the Federal Reserve issued a detailed report for the public. The report outlined the reasons behind SVB’s failure and the Federal Reserve admitted its own shortcomings, stating, “Federal Reserve supervisors failed to take forceful enough action.”
In addition to providing a detailed account of the steps it would take to strengthen its supervision and regulation, the Federal Reserve sent a message of assurance: “Our banking system is sound and resilient, with strong capital and liquidity.”
This approach didn’t gloss over or try
to minimize problems. Instead, it b2b telemarketing lead generation acknowledged them by clearly identifying issues and solutions in a publicly available report.
Related read: The SVB Collapse: How to Communicate with Stakeholders in Times of Crisis
Finding Opportunities
Even if your company isn’t directly involved in a crisis, can your products or services deliver a solution to the problem? Emerging as a solution is not only an effective way of raising brand awareness, it helps to build your brand reputation against future potential crises.
In one example, New Cosmos USA
the global leader in residential natural gas detectors, was preparing to launch a new line called DeNova Detect. Before its launch, New dy leads Cosmos noticed the risks impacting their industry, including 4,200 annual home fires due to natural gas explosions and the controversial political climate around natural gas appliances.