At the end of October we met at the IBM Forum to revisit our understanding of crisis management. In an age where crises are more frequent and virulent than ever before communicators need a better understanding of how they can adapt to these changes. Recent examples include VW falling victim to a virulent online attack by Greenpeace, Egyptian activists using the web to mobilize support against Moubarak and IBM anticipating a social media crisis. No company, individual or government is immune to this new challenge.
Whilst at the event, I asked fellow speakers what they thought was the best way to tackle a social media crisis. Caroline Sapriel said ‘to put out a social media fire, you need social media water’. In other words, you cannot hope to handle, let alone manage a crisis in social media if you have no understanding, presence or engagement in social media. Aurelie (of ash cloud fame) talked about her personal experience at Eurocontrol and her recent experience with the European Council – where crisis management is a daily occurrence without using the word crisis. She believes the ability to adapt during a crisis is the key to success. Philippe Borremans shared some tools to cope with an online crisis and said he believes every communication team needs to be prepared and ready to act. Incidentally, one of his favorites tools is the use of wikis to collaborate and share information as well as blikis, a blog that is also a wiki. I confess I had not heard about blikis before.
Hi Philip,
I certainly agree that a change of mindset is needed by communicators but it’s not a total paradigm shift. The principles of good, sensible communication, still apply.
Here are my top tips for managing an online crisis, I hope it is helpful: https://www.adamlewis.info/wp/2011/06/slideshare-8-tips-for-online-crisis-management/
A
Adam
Hi Adam,
I checked out your blog and I agree with you that some basic principles remain the same. However my point about ‘paradigm shifting’ doesn’t mean that it these principles are not sound, however if you don’t shift perspective (paradigm) you will miss some key signs of change and respond with an a set of actions that could be counter productive. The example of VW’s reaction to the greenpeace campaign illustrates this (my colleague Helen Dunnett wrote about it on our blog https://blog.zn.be/2011/marketing/greenpeace-strikes-back-at-volkswagen/). The point is that paradigm shifting can, and is mostly, an evolving process where small changes force you to look at things differently. I think by now these small changes amount to a barely recognizable media landscape, so the thinking needs to shift. But as these changes continue to happen, and even increase, so does our ability to shift our perspective need to accelerate.