Corporate Crisis Management Blog

Communicators generally have been slow to adopt new technology – an observation confirmed by a survey published by the PRSA last June.

We are in the season for crisis preparedness planning, a perfect opportunity to make sure you are reflecting state-of-the-art technology in your plan.

There’s been lots of discussion in crisis management circles over the past year about whether the nature of the task has really changed as much as it might first appear.

It is an interesting and credible point of view.

What has changed is the context of how a crisis unfolds.

As digital technology has evolved to make our lives easier in countless ways, there is one area in which innovations such as social media and live-streaming video have created incredible challenges: corporate reputation management.

Wow! 2017 year has been a wild ride for crisis managers.

It began with an unprecedented threat faced by companies who scrambled to put a plan together should they be named and shamed in a tweet by the then new US President.

It is ending with an equally unparalleled and deeply disturbing wave of accusations of sexual misconduct, and worse, aimed at famous names representing large and well-regarded organizations.

A late 2016 survey of business continuity professionals found that 81 percent expected their organization to make changes to the way it manages business continuity during 2017, either by updating their business continuity software, by revising their BCM plans, or through other initiatives.

It seems that social media becomes more important in people’s day-to-day lives with every passing year. Not long ago, sites like MySpace and Facebook were simply ways to keep up with family members and reconnect with long-lost friends. But today, social media yields unprecedented power over people’s opinions, on everything from political candidates to brands and products. These platforms even stand to help organizations like yours survive an otherwise devastating digital crisis.

Well, that was quite a year.

The ramifications of the changes that took place in 2017 are not going to be entirely clear for some time.

The US political environment was one factor. However, it took place against a backdrop of significant shifts in US culture, society and business.

Consider some of the significant issues that companies faced in the year that brought them increased scrutiny from the media, consumers and pressure groups.

Why Consumer Product Companies Need Stronger Crisis Planning

You have probably seen the video for Dove soap that caused a social media firestorm in early October.

The first frame shows a dark-skinned woman in what appears to be a bathroom, a bottle of Dove body wash in the lower right-hand corner of the frame.

In subsequent frames, the woman reaches down and lifts up her shirt (and apparently the rest of her skin/costume) to reveal a smiling white woman.

In our fast-moving, technology-driven age, digital crises can hit at any time. And when they do, they spread quickly, traveling through social media and online news sites more rapidly than ever before. When something goes wrong at your organization, millions of people could hear about it within a matter of minutes. It’s no wonder there is more of a focus on digital crisis management with every passing year.