More social media for crisis management: a framework

1.     Monitor

Before the Crisis:

·      Establish weekly social media monitoring to complement existing media monitoring reports

·      Reports should include analysis of discussion, topline charts or visuals, and clip sheet of the most relevant “hits” across social media

       After the Crisis:

·      Expand weekly monitoring reports to daily or hourly reports

·      Include response recommendations to take action against

2.     Cultivate

Before the Crisis:

·      Create an influence map to know where your promoters and detractors live online

·      Consider influence engagement campaigns during non-crisis times to develop relationships that could be revisited if needed

       After the Crisis:

·      Engage influencer in your rapid response efforts as needed: be personal

·      Monitor pre-identified detractor sites and apply messaging strategy to determine appropriate response

3.     Prepare

Before the Crisis:

·      Develop crisis messaging and adapt it to social media venues

·      Identify and train marcom staff for social media

·      Set up online crisis collaboration site

·      Design and build a crisis dark site

       After the Crisis:

·      Turn on dark site or messaging on home page, and use collaboration site to communicate around the crisis in real time

4.     Response

Before the Crisis:

·      Develop your brand’s presence & voice on the social web-a corporate blog, Twitter handle, Facebook page, YouTube channel

      After the Crisis:

·      Actively update home page or dark site

·      Consider using video to deliver a human message

·      If corporate, use social web platforms to respond-these are most effective when they are well established and active prior a crisis

5.     Promote

Before the Crisis:

·      Build list of keywords (negative and positive) to use for SEO/SEM (Search Engine Optimization/ Search Engine Marketing)

·      Explore leveraging or creating online advertising

·      Identify potential multimedia responses (photo, video) and key players necessary to create them

   After the Crisis:

·      Deploy a keyword buy across major search engines

·      Create and optimize a variety of multimedia content to help tell your story in multiple ways

·      Advertise online with crisis messaging