In times of social media, fake news and the high flow of information, crisis management is an important issue for Communication and Public Relations professionals. And knowing how to react to the negative scenario by guiding actions by data is the most effective way to protect your brand’s reputation.

After all, with access to information just a click away and the large amount of people immersed in the most varied social channels, the image of brands lives on the verge of a crisis, whether caused by internal or external factors to the organization.

Inclusively, according to data from the 2019 Global Crisis Survey, developed by PwC, almost 8 out of 10 national leaders have faced some kind of crisis in recent years. 

Within this context of pressure from all sides, how can communication managers prepare for a crisis and what is the best way to face business instability scenarios quickly? This is what you will find out in this article.

Crisis management vs. negative brand sentiment

It is no longer a secret for PR professionals, communications professionals, or brand management teams that the internet is the environment where information travels the fastest. 

In addition to traditional vehicles – such as print newspapers, TV and radio – news portals and social media are currently the largest platforms for the dissemination and consumption of information for audiences of different generations.

Inclusive, according to data from a survey conducted by Cuponation, Brazilians spent an average of 5 hours a day on social media in 2020. And the top 3 channels were Whatsapp, Facebook and Instagram.

This means that a negative article, a wrong positioning of the spokesperson in the press or an institutional communication done in a wrong way can trigger a crisis, which under the lens of social media becomes an even bigger problem.

Therefore, speed of reaction is something that your communication team needs to have as a pillar for daily work. By the way, here is an important question: how does your team react to the arrival of a crisis and the negative feedback from the public and the press? 

Moreover, how can your team differentiate an anxiety crisis, for fear of negative brand sentiment on social media, from a true exposure crisis?

If the attitude in these cases is to follow your gut feeling, know that acting strategically, having a good plan and using data to make communication decisions are the first steps to get around turbulence with the least possible damage to a brand’s reputation. 

With this in mind, we have listed below the fundamental elements for an assertive Public Relations and Communication strategy for such a delicate moment as crisis management.

Read more:

>> Crisis management: 4 reasons for brands to position themselves

>> How to elaborate a communication strategy?

Monitoring is the key to crisis management

In a fire, the biggest challenge is to find the source of the fire. In an image crisis it happens the same way: you have to identify where the first spark appeared and follow closely how the situation unfolds, only then to start solving the problem.

But what would be the best way to follow so many vehicles on different platforms? Simple: using technology and building an effective monitoring strategy that covers the main sensitive points of a brand.

Although social media concentrates public opinion, the traditional press is an important ally in matters of serious and impartial information, which helps to provide the brand with data during the crisis.

By the way, monitoring manually is no longer feasible nowadays, and during a crisis this becomes an almost impossible mission. 

After all, in times of instability, the communication team needs to keep an agile and attentive eye on everything that is happening. And there is no time for guesswork, slip-ups, or information concentrated in silos.

To know that a crisis is approaching and have contingency actions up our sleeve, it is necessary to keep an integrated monitoring between traditional media and online media.  And what is the advantage of this for your team?

• Acceleration in crisis management plan and steps to contain negative brand sentiment.
• Ease in pointing the way forward and making better decisions.
• Ability to distinguish if the scenario is really a crisis or a negative point focus, which can be solved in a one-on-one contact with the customer.
• Identification if the focus of the problem can be solved only by the communication team or agency, or if the trigger is in another stage of the organization.

Without shying away from social media analysis at the time of crisis

When people want to get to know a brand, the first step is usually to access social media  to find out what the public has commented. 

And this is also valid for the moments when consumers want to complain or expose some problem in the relationship with the company. They go to social media.

Moreover, a recent study by All iN in partnership with Social Miner showed that 56% of people look at the brand’s channels to check the assessment of other customers.

Therefore, with the data collected on these networks it is possible to know the opinion of consumers through comments, likes, and even from the sentiment analysis, which is fundamental for the crisis management strategy.

The important thing is to understand that even if Instagram, Facebook or Twitter may be the place where the crisis started, they can also become valuable tools to solve the problem.

Thus, keeping continuous monitoring is one of the pillars to protect your brand’s reputation and optimize the work of your communication team.

After all, there is no point in running away from the networks when crises happen. You need to be active and present to be accountable, bypass the trigger and show that the brand is indeed aware of the fact and finding ways to solve it.

How to do crisis management with Knewin PR

It was thinking about the processes performed in a crisis management plan and in the daily routine of Public Relations professionals that Knewin developed Knewin PR.

With the solution, you can navigate in online reputation dashboards in the press and social media, track releases to measure the performance of the communication actions, receive clippings, alerts and executive reports to prove the area’s ROI and trace contingency steps with ease.

The interface also brings: 

Media dashboards with integrated media monitoring, exposure and reputation with valuation, sentiment analysis, competitors and Knewin Score by strategic themes.

Social network dashboard with analysis of competitors, influencers, potential reach and impact of earned media on engagement.

You also receive:

• Smart Report: Knewin PR report tracking releases and other public relations actions of the company to prove the ROI of the area.
• Monthly Executive Report: with news selection, exposure, reputation and quantitative highlights of the context.
• Daily newsletter: news with mentions of your brand sorted by Tier and with engagement of the news on social media (likes, comments, shares and followers).
• Automatic alerts: via Telegram, e-mail and the Knewin Alerts App

In other words, Knewin PR brings quality information just a click away and helps with a major challenge of crisis management: presenting numbers that are easily understood by the communication team as well as by the C-level and other sectors of an organization.

Want to empower your brand with all the news in one place? Get to know Knewin PR, a dashboard to optimize the crisis management process and the care with brand reputation.