By reading ReputationUP Coach’s guide on crisis management. You will discover what it is and how to create a step-by-step plan for your company or brand [GUIDE 2021].
What is a reputation crisis?
A reputation crisis is an adverse event that causes damage and harm to a company’s image or personal brand.
The company may master crisis management through operations such as reputation monitoring.
This type of event can affect all business areas: financial, commercial, managerial, etc.
What is an online crisis?
The Cambridge Dictionary defines the concept of crisis as:
“Experiencing a period of great difficulty, danger or suffering.”
If we adapt this concept to the digital world, crises negatively affect the online public sphere of a company or individual.
Today, brands perform most of their business online; therefore, online reputation is closely linked to digital activity on the Internet.
Definition of crisis management
Crisis management is the set of tools and actions implemented by a company or brand to face a reputational crisis.
The crisis management team’s job is to create and develop a strategy that will be implemented before a crisis happens.
Companies must keep in mind that crises are more commonly due to professionals willing to purposely harm a brand’s reputation.
65% of CEOs say their companies have experienced a crisis in the last three years.
What is the first rule of crisis management?
We have already revealed the first rule of crisis management: have a plan.
Businesses should avoid negative scenarios by preparing a crisis plan.
As a result, it is crucial to draw up a strategy and successfully resolve the issue.
How do I manage crisis communication?
We will learn when and how to handle crisis communication in the next section.
We’ve mentioned throughout this post that the finest tool for dealing with an adverse event is a crisis management plan.
The company’s priority is to develop a strategy and train the internal staff in charge of it.
The strategy-focused crisis management team relies on the more technical incident response teams.
How will the entire staff know if the procedure was successful?
By perfectly fulfilling the following guidelines:
- Quickly and efficiently implement the action plan.
- Ensure team security and privacy.
- Be present when a crisis occurs.
- Maintain consistent internal communication.
When is it appropriate to handle crisis communication?
The crisis communication plan should be implemented when a crisis happens.
However, there is one step you should take before implementing a crisis plan: risk assessment.
How can users prevent a breakdown in communication?
They should use real-time risks analysis tools to monitor brand sentiment.
Google offers its free Google Alerts tool to scan the Internet and receive notifications by email every time someone talks about your brand.
ReputationUP Coach uses two software: RepUP Monitoring Tool and Reputation Score.
Combining Big Data and Artificial Intelligence allows users to know what people say about a company or personal brand.
This software measures the sentiment score of mentions and detects any reputation crisis.
Furthermore, Reputation Score provides an accurate and certified report on the companies’ regulatory compliance.
How do I write a crisis management plan?
When creating a crisis management plan, follow these steps:
- Risk analysis: the nature of risk varies by area. A communication error, a computer attack, a court controversy, and so on could all be part of it.
- Consider the consequences for your company, including the potential impact on various business areas.
It could result in a decrease in income, a rise in costs, or a negative impact on your reputation, among other things.
For instance, AML compliance breaches are likely to lead to legal troubles, as well as a negative influence on customers’ perceptions and the company’s financial reputation.
- Define actions for any risk by identifying the steps required.
Anti Money Laundering (AML) may raise legal and reputation issues that businesses should handle.
The company must monitor everything said about them to develop a direct communication strategy with its customers.
Therefore, listen to what is said and give a direct response to both positive and negative comments.
- Create a risk management plan by defining a practical strategy and relating risks to concrete actions.
As a result, you should make a list of all potential undesirable circumstances and their solutions.
- Build the team and its functions: assign duties to all team members.
They must be thoroughly familiar with the crisis management plan and know what to do, when, how to proceed and with whom you can share it.
- Rely on an outside team: putting together a crisis management plan is challenging. Fortunately, some companies specialize in cyber intelligence.
ReputationUP Coach employs cutting-edge software to assess and mitigate present and future risks associated with a corporate or political undertaking.
- Update the crisis management plan: keep it up-to-date by predicting potential hazards that may arise and amend it as needed.
What is the first step of online reputation crisis management?
The first stage of online reputation crisis management is risk assessment.
Then, you may proceed as follows to get started with online reputation crisis management:
- Develop a crisis management plan.
- Start the strategy by considering any further actions that may be required.
- Create and release positive brand content.
- Remove harmful and defamatory content from the web.
- Constantly monitor the web, social networks, blogs, etc.
What is a crisis management team?
A crisis management team consists of people in charge of managing the situation, from creating to implementing the plan in all its stages.
Who makes up the crisis management team?
The teams are divided into:
- Crisis management team.
- Incident support team.
- Regional incident management team.
- Field response team.
As we may see on the infographic, teams on the top of the pyramid do strategic work while the lower section does a tactical job.
What is the goal of a crisis plan?
The plan aims to reduce the effects of a crisis on a company and respond to minimize the consequences.
A crisis management plan and an expert team working on a specific strategy are essential.
ReputationUP Coach is a company of online reputation professionals tasked with managing and monitoring a company’s image.
Conclusions
Through this text, you have discovered what crisis management is and how to develop a step-by-step plan.
We can draw the following conclusions from this article:
- Crisis management is the set of tools implemented by a company to deal with a reputational crisis.
- Preventing adverse events and having a crisis plan are essential conditions.
- Monitoring is the leading solution to avoid hazards and predict a crisis.
- The strategy aims at minimizing the effects that an adverse circumstance can produce on a company.
ReputationUP Coach is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) service company. Its real-time monitoring tool allows users to keep track of a brand’s online reputation.
Its software helps them achieve the main objective of crisis management, preventing detrimental effects that could threaten your company’s future.