How the dynamics of social media has changed the game for crisis management

“The secret of crisis management is not good vs. bad; it’s preventing the bad from getting worse.” – Andy Gilman, president & CEO of Comm Core Consulting Group

Crisis in a corporate world can erupt any time and it usually arrives without any warning. One should not press the panic button in such times, but act rapidly to douse the fire in a systematic manner. Thus, for handling a crisis, it is important that the corporate teams must put in place a robust plan and process that needs to be followed to minimise the damage.

In today’s business ecosystem, with crisis exploding rapidly due to social media and various online media, news spreads fast and dilutes the equity of a brand very quickly. In the earlier days, there was certain process that was followed by the PR agencies by setting up a core committee and monitoring it very closely so that the news does not flare up beyond a certain point. However, with user generated content now easily available, any consumer can, at the tap of a button, speak negatively about a brand if he/ she has had a bad experience. Thus, it is important for organisations to be well prepared and be on their feet to manage any crisis in today’s digital world.

The Maggi noodles and Cadbury’s worms in chocolate incidents are still fresh in many people’s memories. For an MNC like Nestle, it totally shook the brand and restoring its equity was a huge challenge. However, the brand happened to avert the crisis with some responsible communication. When the Maggi crisis had erupted, social media had just started but had not penetrated deep across the country. But today, when any crisis happens, the news spreads fast, therefore, brands need to act quickly and follow the right strategy to handle the crisis. Social or digital media is only a channel. As a PR team, you still need to pro-actively think and show tons of patience and have a focused plan to douse the fire with a proper crisis plan by bringing the client into confidence.

In the earlier times, a crisis management team was formed only when a crisis episode happened. Today, the teams from both the PR agency and the client need to be more prepared, organised, agile and keep their eyes and ears open all the time as digital has transformed the media environment. You need to be proactive with a responsible communication program and should have a well drafted crisis plan to encounter, keeping in mind the power of digital, which can erode the equity of brands. This is where online reputation of brands needs to be viewed differently and monitored on an hourly basis to avert any untoward incidents or negative story being posted. While technology will also play a key role, but what is more important is that agencies should adapt to these changes and avert situations by minimising the damage to the brand. The rules of managing crisis have changed ever since the media dynamics shifted online. Going forward, with digital going to be the frontline channel, one can expect only more crises to happen.

The communications sector has always been agile and hyper-responsive. Nitin Mantri, Group CEO, Avian WE, noted, “Most big PR firms have specialised teams to handle crises. The team is almost always created out of specialists from different verticals – who not only have deep skills in managing crisis & reputation, but also possess exhaustive knowledge of diverse industries and practices. Their job is to develop contingency plans to reduce the impact of future emergencies on people, clients, customers, and communities. But just ensuring intellectual preparedness is not enough in this digital era. Crisis teams continuously monitor and review evolving situations and update their responses as the nature of ongoing risks and potential risks shift.”

Adding further, Mantri said, “There is a thin line between a best-case and worst-case situation. In an era of increased digitisation, where everything is recorded, where the audience has multiple sources of information and unfortunately, even misinformation, about how brands are behaving, the rules have changed. Organisations can no longer control the message; a crisis can strike at any time and reputation is always at stake. The only thing our clients can control is what they say and do. The modern consumer wants authenticity, clarity, empathy, and consistent communication from brands.”

According to him, in order to withstand the current climate – tumultuous news cycles, rapid-fire social media responses – brands must first ensure their own organisations are in order, prioritise employee well-being and local community engagement. Then they must build on, not away from your core promise. Long-term single-issue investment is the way to build credibility and reputation. “As communication advisors, we help companies define and convey their purpose in a meaningful way for society.  Consumers who believe in a company and its purpose trust it to be responsible and courageous, making them less likely to believe lies about it,” Mantri added.

Priya Patankar, Head of Corporate Communications, PhonePe, remarked, “In the current hyper connected business environment, I think the artificial duality of the Client and PR Agency is changing. Both have to be seen as a single, holistic and networked entity that has full alignment on strategic as well as tactical communications. This ensures that when a crisis strikes, there is no room for any ambiguity and the PR partner and the internal team are one voice. Continuing further she said that to that end we make sure our PR agency is involved in the company’s communication planning exercise right at the strategic and decision-making phase, and they don’t just come in at the execution leg of the plan. Also, every quarter when we do a detailed review, we make sure we are able to anticipate the likely scenarios which will need some amount of crisis handling and get our playbooks in place proactively.”

She pointed out that today, news travels fast and wide and due to digital channels. The world no longer has any barriers on how news gets picked up, interpreted, and shared. “To this end, we have augmented our traditional PR tracking efforts with a host of digital tools which not only track news in real-time but are also able to give us a high-level sentiment and reach analysis helping us decide on what to say, how, where and when. I think the biggest learning in any crisis is putting the customer at the heart of any communication, while making sure we are able to mitigate any concerns they may have about using the product and offering,” she added.

With the rise of digital media, there is no place left to hide. According to

Sheena Sharma, Chief Officer – Issues & Crisis and Client Studio, BCW India Group, “Consumers and shareholders are becoming increasingly discerning and hence, question more and demand an instant response. However, the fundamentals of crisis management haven’t changed, even though the complexities have. We still look at these three aspects of crisis management – Preparedness, Response and Recovery.”

Elaborating further, Sharma said, “With many of our clients, our engagement begins from the Preparedness stage. We help them with extensive training, mapping vulnerabilities, aligning stakeholder and more. When the crisis happens, the Response phase kicks in. If the crisis preparedness plan is already in place, we focus on monitoring and responding—rapidly and authentically. The speed and agility really work well in that case. But if there isn’t a plan, we have to get into mitigation from the ground up.”

Speaking about her agency, Sharma highlighted that their Live! Newsroom helps set up a command centre (these days more virtual than physical), to constantly monitor the situation, the sentiment and the influencers who are with or against the brand. This is critical, real-time data that doesn’t just inform our response messaging as well as tactics, it also helps the agency with predictive analytics on which way the crisis seems to be moving. “Once the crisis passes, Recovery begins, where we analyse whether the situation has been resolved, the changes institutionalised and the morale restored. Overall, even though digital media has made crisis more complex, it has also given us tools that analyse better, help us respond faster and more accurately,” she added.

In the last few years, the communications industry has witnessed a major disruption in terms of format, platforms, and speed of news delivery/ movement. Sharing her views, C Lekha, Director - Corporate Communication & Brand Reputation, Indigo, said, “The digital era has brought in a major paradigm shift in how we plan communications. Businesses need to be present across the digital landscape to effectively reach their target audience and address issues as well as concerns immediately. Today, crises are more likely to go viral with extensive digital penetration. However, PR has always enabled us to communicate the right messages at the time of crisis. Our collaboration with the PR agency is integral as we collectively bring all protocols to action in order to address issues or manage crises. We also have a ready reckoner – Emergency Response Manual – that we have created in case of a crisis to outline our plan of action and clear responsibilities.”

Continuing further, she said, “As  an organisation, we have indeed succeeded in turning many challenges into opportunities through this approach. For instance, recently when we got stuck by the pandemic, it was crucial for us to let our customers know that we are ready with our clean, hygienic, and safer flights, we drove our messaging around our lean, clean flying machine campaign. We also showcased our on-ground staff including pilots and cabin crew as corona warriors which were brilliantly portrayed by media through personal stories of their journey from pre-pandemic to post-pandemic era. Our special initiates helped connect emotionally with our customers.”

Along similar lines, Rohan Kanchan, Managing Director, Weber Shandwick India, commented, “In a digital world, time is the one currency we don’t have, but the fundamentals of crisis management are still much the same. Sound situational assessment, mapping real-time chatter and studying news cycles is critical in developing an evolving content strategy. Scenario planning, objective prep and all-round team training is the only arsenal for real-time execution capability in a digital environment. An experienced crisis advisory team and a seamless client process for quick turnaround is the key to successfully managing crisis today.”