Media Intelligence

for Crisis Communications

Table of Contents
So What Is a PR Crisis?
About the Author

Crisis in the Age of Social Media

Social Media Fuels Crisis
Crisis or Business as Usual?

10 Steps to Crisis Preparation

Step 1: Add Contingency Planning to Your Job Goals
Step 2: Search for Early Warning Signs
Step 3: Create a Crisis Management Workflow
Step 4: Establish a Notification System
Step 5: Have as Much Written Ahead of Time as Possible
Step 6: Finalize Key Messages and Update Corporate Talking Points
Step 7: Reset Your Benchmarks
Step 8: Update Your Contingency Plan and File Everything Away
Step 9: Recognize Heroes
Step 10: Keep in Touch with Key Influencers

5 Tips for Addressing a Crisis

1. Never Lose Sight of Your Goals
2. Know Your Audience
3. Get Your Message Heard
4. Measure Your Impact as You Go
5. Know When to Walk Away

Some Notes on Working with Legal

Dont Be Shy, Get to Know Your Legal Advisors
When to Go to Legal

In Conclusion

Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications

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Chapter 0

So What Is a PR Crisis?
Lets say you get 15 internal emails about one
Google alert. Is that a crisis?
When things go wrong, people start talking.
How you respond could affect your brands
reputation for years to come. In a world where
digital communications can be sent at the drop
of a hat, its important to have a
process in place and know how
and when to communicate as a
crisis unfolds.

A real PR crisis is a
negative story about
your brand that has
gained momentum, has
reached a critical stage,
and threatens the reputation of your business.
And as for that Google alert, keep
an eye on it. Although a single
alert isnt a crisis, if it gets amplified youll
want to move fast. This is why, in crisis communications, your most important asset is media
intelligence. The alerts youve set should ensure

youre the first to know that a crisis is building.

As the story unfolds, your PR and social media
listening tools are there to help you check the
medias pulse and your communitys reaction.
As the crisis subsides, the insights youve gathered along the way will shed light on how to
avoid something similar from happening again.
How we do all of these things is the
subject of this guide.
But before we get too far, lets
define media intelligence and the
role it plays in giving us an edge
amidst escalating chaos:
Mediaintelligenceuses data science
to analyze public social and editorialmediacontent.It refers tosolutions that synthesize billions of online
conversationsinto relevant insights
that allow organizations to measure
and manage content performance,
understand trends, and drive communications and business strategy.
Media intelligence will serve us well any day of
the week, but during a crisis it is indispensable.

About the Author

Yariv Rabinovitch is a content marketing manager at Meltwater. For the past 15 years, he has
written for and about technology companies in the Bay Areasome of which have changed the
world, and some of which are still planning to.

Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications

Chapter 1

Crisis in the Age of Social Media

Social Media Fuels Crisis

If youre a PR professional tasked with managing your companys reputation, its not news
to you that weve lost control of the message.
If youre a social media expert acting as the
real-time brand voice for your company, I
dont have to tell you how dynamic and chaoticyour channels can be. Our job today is to cut
through the noise and get in on conversations
that matter. Remember, these conversations
are happening whether were there to help
guide them or not.
Why does social media make us so susceptible to scrutiny? The obvious answer is because
its fundamentally changed the pace, volume,
and reach of news stories. But thats not the
only reason. Weve also integrated it into every
aspect of business activityfrom PR and marketing to customer service, employee recruiting, sales enablement, and the promotion of
workplace culture. Weve opened up two-way
communications, and any friction can spark a
crisis.

When crisis hits, our audience (which probably

just got a lot bigger thanks to online interconnectedness) expects us to respond with accountability, empathy, speed, and transparency. Given that we can all be reached at the drop
of a hat, theres no excuse for delays. Considering how much we all share about ourselves,
there is also very little tolerance for putting
up walls, responding in a dismissive corporate
voice, or blocking people out.

In a social media crisis,

theres no tolerance for
responding in a dismissive
corporate voice or blocking
people out.

Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications

Chapter 1. Crisis in the Age of Social Media

Example: Social media wildfires are now often reported on by journalistsand so are the measures we take
to put them out.
On April 28, 2015, in the midst of unrest in Baltimore
that erupted in reaction to the death of a man in
police custody, Whole Foods tweeted a pic of 5 national guard officers being served lunch courtesy of the
grocery chain.
The reaction was immediate. Tweets started pouring
in condemning Whole Food for feeding officers rather
than the local community. Whole Foods responded
that they were proud of their support for the national
guard. But as the press was quick to report, they also
took their original tweet down, issuing a statement to
ABC News that their post didnt adequately reflect the
full scope of their community involvement.

This crisis started within social media. Whole Foods responded to criticism by taking their original post down.

Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications

Chapter 1 - Crisis in the Age of Social Media

Crisis or Business as Usual?

While weve covered how vulnerable we are, its important

to note that not every customer complaint made on Twitter
or every rumor speculated on in someones blog constitutes
a crisis. The tools we use every day to keep up with whats
going on will also tell us when its time to panic.

The Curious Case of Brandjacking.

We all know that its relatively
easy for an individual to assume
anothers identity online. This can
happen to a brand as well. If an

A good media intelligence tool helps us identify crisis by giving us insight into:

interloper uses our companys

name and logo and makes no
attempt to distinguish them-

1. Top Influencer Participation: Sometimes the difference be-

selves from us, weve got a case

tween a crisis and business as usual is who is doing the talking.

of trademark violation. Another

Use media intelligence tools to track key influencers, both on

murkier possibility is that someone

social media and in the press to assess what stories are picking

creates a parody account or takes

up traction.

a branded hashtagone weve put

2. Trending Keywords: Word clouds can point us to the right

out into the world to spur engage-

answers for questions such as: Is negative chatter originating

mentand starts associating it to

from a small but vocal minority? Is it being picked up by tradi-

negative stories. When McDon-

tional media, or, vice versa, is a story in the press trending on

alds #McDStories was hijacked,

social?

the company changed their

3. Sentiment: As you assess negative sentiment, think about it

hashtag policy. Today when we go

from the point of view of key stakeholders. Who is most likely

to their Twitter channel, we see

to be affected by a negative story? How influential are they?

that McDonalds no longer brands

What are the paths for the story to grow? A good media intelli-

their hashtags. Instead of the

gence tool will deliver sentiment analysis in real time.

familiar Mc appended to a key-

4. Duration: We typically think of a crisis as an explosion (or

word or phrase, they use hashtags

implosion), at which time we encounter aftershocks of negative

such as #LovinSimpleSweeps and

sentiment. But a crisis can also take a slower trajectory, perme-

#SampleWholeGrains. Presumably

ating associations to your brand over time and building gradu-

this decision was made so that if

ally. Keep track of the trajectory of negative sentiment and test

a hashtag gets jacked and goes

the impact of your ongoing responses.

viral, the association to the brand

isnt so immediate and they can

Its also important to note that social media and traditional

media amplify each other, which means we have more stories to keep on top of and more relationships to cultivate. A
comprehensive media intelligence tool lets us do both.

avoid crisis. The lesson here is to

carefully monitor keywords and
phrases to make sure they arent
being used against you. To learn
what you can do to protect your
trademarks on Twitter, the company has published guidelines.

McDonalds lost control of the narrative on this one.

Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications

Chapter 2

10 Steps to Crisis Preparation

Be Strategic, Not Just Tactical
Preparing for a crisis requires getting out of the mindset that keeps us busy all day executing and
measuring our tactical goals. Just because we have a social media manager who can push your
message out in 140 characters or less several times a day doesnt mean that we have a mechanism to handle a full blown crisis.
This chapter breaks crisis preparation down into 10 strategic steps.

Step 1: Add Contingency

Planning to Your Job Goals

Amidst your daily routine, you might not be

able to design a protocol for every potential
crisis right away. Pace yourself. Map out two
or three crisis protocols per quarter. And make
sure that accomplishing this goal is part of
your performance review.

TIP: Modern media intelligence tools

allow you to measure your performance
based on the exposure your communications receive, their reach, quality of
coverage, quality of influencers, analyst
mindshare, sentiment, and share of
voice. Add contingency planning to your
list of measurable quarterly goals.

Step 2: Search for Early Warning

Signs
A powerful media intelligence tool doesnt just
monitor your brand mentions. You can use it to
set up searches on any number of topics and
keep on top of them in all your channels.

Start by making a list of the kinds of messages

youve already put out that have met resistance. At any point, this same resistance might
come back, get amplified, and take on a life of
its own. Youll also want to talk with your sales
reps, customer support, and legal counsel on
issues that theyve encountered. Once youve
made a list of crisis triggers, create news and
social searches for them.

Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications

Dont get caught off

guard. PR pros should
add crisis contingency
planning to their list of
measurable quarterly
goals.

Chapter 2 -10 Steps to Crisis Preparation

To help you get started, here are some examples:

Executives: Journalists, analysts, and sometimes even customers pay attention to what high-ranking executives say and do.
And so should you. Keep on top of their Twitter and Facebook
feeds, what videos and blogs they post, and how everything
they are putting out into the world is received and amplified.
Competitors: Pay as much attention to competitor brand
mentions as you do your own. Their crisis could easily
become yours. And if a competitor decides to come after
you, youll want to know about it first and respond before others have a chance to amplify their message.
Industry news: Sometimes a crisis will hit you by
association. By keeping track of how your industry is
perceived and any events that might impact it (such as
natural disasters or newly introduced legislation) you are
prepared to address these issues as an industry leader.
Events: Keep track of trending topics related to the event to help prevent
speakers and reps from getting caught with their guards down.
Controversy: A media intelligence tool enables you to keep track of any number of business and political keywords. Youll know when hot-button topics are
trending and get ready to explain your position on them before you are equated
with the fallout theyve generated.
Complaints: Make a list of their complaints and keep an eye out for them in
your search results. Once an influencer amplifies customer concerns, they can
be cemented as expert opinion, and your credibility can suffer longstanding
damage.

TIP: Set up thresholds for search results you want to get immediate
alerts on. These could include your most sensitive topics or most important influencers. As part of your day-to-day activities youll want to
delve deeper, but these are results you want to make sure to look at in
real time as they come in.

Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications

Chapter 2 - 10 Steps to Crisis Preparation

Step 3: Create a Crisis Management Workflow

Start by outlining the steps you need to take within your company that lead up to releasing a public statement. Then assign stakeholders where relevant. For example:
1. Assess the situation Hopefully your company has got some feet on the street to report back on your
crisis with first-hand insights, but use media intelligence to understand the full scope of the communications landscape and all of the points youll need to address.
2. Assign duties within your team When youre engaged on multiple fronts, youll need to man various
stations. Decide who will manage influencers, keep the executive team informed, serve as liaison to
other key stakeholders (including partners, customers, members, etc.), and record every detail, action
taken, external response, and resolution.
3. Identify key advisors A crisis may require technical information or strategic insight that youll need
to get from leaders in IT, accounting, HR, or elsewhere. Identify all relevant functions specific to a
given crisis and how to contact them quickly.
4. Draft your statement The head of PR may be responsible for doing this, or it may fall to the agency
that the head of PR should already have on speed dial.
5. Initial review Its always a good idea to have the head of marketing review your statement (or the
agencys), as he or she will undoubtedly be asked to defend it.
6. Legal review Any statement you make during a time of crisis should be reviewed by counsel to assess
its legal consequences and minimize damage should legal action be taken against the company.
7. CEO review During a crisis, your CEO (likely your companys primary spokesperson) must be kept in
the loop

Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications

Chapter 2 - 10 Steps to Crisis Preparation

Step 4: Establish a Notification System

Break down your audience, both internal and external, into key stakeholders and list the best
channels to reach them. Chapter 3 explores in detail how to communicate with and engage your
audience as you respond to a crisis.

TIP: When a global crisis takes place, such as a devastating earthquake, global companies will sometimes stop all activity on their social channels as a show of respect and solidarity. If youre a smaller brand you may want to do the same for crises that affect where
you live and operate.

Step 5: Have as Much Written Ahead of Time as Possible

Because social media moves so quickly, it can hurt your brand to wait for executive stakeholders
to approve detailed statements. Having something preapproved that acknowledges your awareness of the problem without saying too much will go a long way in putting your audience at ease.
Dont forget that how long it takes for you to get your initial response out could be a detractors
next headline.
Here is a fill-in-the-blank statement that can be used in any number of situations:

A ___________________ at ____________________
involving __________________ occurred today at
_________________. The incident is under investigation and more information is forthcoming.1

TIP: As the crisis unfolds, youll probably be writing a lot of tweets. Gain some time
by having the basic ones readyand load them into your media intelligence platform,
already pointing to the contacts and channels that need to receive them.

This statement was drafted by Northern Illinois Universitys NewsPlace.org within their recommended Crisis Communication Plan.

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Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications

Chapter 2 - 10 Steps to Crisis Preparation

Step 6: Finalize Key Messages

and Update Corporate Talking
Points

Once the worst is overbut before you reach

for a beer and put it all behind youyoull
want to craft your final word. Explain what
your company learned from the crisis and how
youve adapted your processes, policies, or
products accordingly. Remember, people will
want to know youve taken action, not just paid
lip service. You can then update any relevant
company-wide talking points.

Tip: To create a final report on the crisis, export the media intelligence dashboards you
used (including the high and low points in
coverage sentiment, geographic reach, and
share of voice), add some context to each
one, and create an illustrated timeline that
shows: the crisis being triggered, your reaction to it, and whats been done to ensure it
wont happen again.

Step 7: Reset Your Benchmarks

A crisis will throw your goals out of whack. Go

back and look at where your sentiment, media impressions, key themes, and reach were
before the crisis and ask yourself: Is the goal to
get back to where you were before things went
wrong? With your new visibility can you turn
bad press into good press and up the ante on
your brand?

Step 8: Update Your

Contingency Plan and File
Everything Away

Fine-tune your contingency plan for this crisis

so that things go more smoothly if anything
similar happens again.

Step 9: Recognize Heroes

Determine the best and most appropriate

means for recognizing the heroes involved in
the crisis situation.

Step 10: Keep in Touch with Key

Influencers

During the ordeal, you identified influencers

who showed you that they really care about
what your company says and does. As vocal as
they were when things went bad, they could
also become your next champions. Media intelligence enables you to keep track and stay
in touch with
them with messages that will
resonate. You
may want to wait
a while before
reaching out, but
a follow-up story
a few weeks or
months down
the road might
do your company
some good.

When all hell breaks loose, youll want to be able to refer to a clear document crafted during
times of relative quiet. It will help you regain your bearings, stay organized, and enforce due
process. Download a media intelligence worksheet for crisis management to help you spot
early warning signs and be prepared should a crisis hit.

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Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications

Chapter 3

5 Tips for Addressing a Crisis

1. Never Lose Sight of Your Goals

As things escalate, get yourself prepared to move fast. One of the first steps is to know who youre
talking to and how to best reach them.
Keep in mind that youll be measured on:
Speed: Even in the best of times, people want results fast. Acknowledge the problem quickly and
deliver updates as you address it.
Transparency: Its getting harder and harder to keep secrets. Getting ahead of a crisis means
sharing what you know and being open about your commitment to a solution.
Relatability: You will also be judged by how easy you make it for people to find and understand
what they want to know. Your media intelligence tool will indicate if your message is sticking
(reach), how people feel about it (sentiment), and if its being amplified (engagement).

Example: Getting ahead of a crisis might just

mean that youre the first to reveal it. When a
Southwest Airlines flight to LaGuardia Airport in
New York skidded on the runway and landed
nose first, the airline posted news of the accident
on Twitter and Facebook within minutes, promising updates. Within minutes, they received thank
yous for their openness. If a crisis is going to come
out either way, and you already know about it,
why not get credit for having the integrity to bring
it to the publics attention?

Southwest Airlines was first to report the story and was commended for getting ahead of the crisis.

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Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications

Chapter 3 - 5 Tips for Addressing a Crisis

2. Know Your Audience

That said, different people care about different things. Customize your message and the channels
you use to reach each stakeholder group.

Stakeholder

What to Look For

Customers

Customers are usually most directly aected by a crisis. You need to

understand to what extent the crisis has negatively impacted them
and how many customers are unhappy.

Investors

A crisis can have a negative impact on your companys stock price.

Find out how the financial community is reacting, taking this into
consideration when you communicate with investors.

Employees

Employees act as representatives, or brand ambassadors, for your

company. Its important to provide them with corporate-approved
messaging and monitor their public-facing communication regarding
the crisis.

Influencers

Influencer has come to designate bloggers, social celebrities, analysts,

and journalists. Among the first two, some might be established advocates for your company, and some detractors. Media intelligence lets
you know who is likely to be on your side.

3. Get Your Message Heard

Media intelligence also allows us to find the best ways to amplify our message. Earned, owned,
and paid media each play a unique role in making ourselves heard:
Earned media: Go to your social media channels to communicate directly to your followers. If
your message affects them, you can count on them sharing it with their community. At this point
journalists may be paying attention to these channels too. If your message resonates, youll get
more positive earned media through them.
Owned media: Your website and emails are both great ways to provide information. Make sure
that the scale of the crisis is reflected by the prominence you give to it on your site. Ask yourself if
it merits a home page banner or just a mention on your company news page.
Paid media: On social, you can consider whether to replace scheduled paid media (like sponsored posts on Twitter) and use those slots to address the crisis. Paid media can help you target
your crisis communications to the people who are most affected or most vocal in their criticisms.

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Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications

Chapter 3 - 5 Tips for Addressing a Crisis

4. Measure Your Impact as You Go

Dont forget to gauge how your updates are being received. A

media intelligence platform enables us to track how people are
responding and how sentiment is shifting.
When used well, media intelligence can provide us even more granular views. As your crisis
takes hold both in social media and in the press,
you can use your media intelligence platform to
compare by keyword and sentiment whats being
said on social vs the press vs other key players who are trying to
shape the message (for instance, your competitors or government officials). Doing so can help you target your own communications and customize them further by channel and audience.

Tip: During a crisis, communicate with your audience using the same
channels you always do.
Centralizing all relevant
information on your
website even though your
audience is used to hearing from you on Twitter
or YouTube will inevitably
leave them hanging and
dissatisfied with how you
handled things.

5. Know When to Walk Away

There is no such thing as shutting down a crisis thats being

played out on Twitter or Facebook. As weve seen, your audience
will demand that you engage in dialogue. Blocking them from
the outset from posting to your feeds will only drive them to
others, where theyll be sure to comment on your strong-arming
tactics. But its also important to know when to leave the conversation. If youve made all the points you can make, but there
is still a vocal minority of detractors who are saying the same
thing over and over again, any response you give them will just
add fuel to the fire. Stepping away removes the target and gives
them less to react to.

Earned, owned,
and paid media
each play a
unique role in
making yourself
heard during a
crisis.

TIP: Prior to social media, companies often got away with the mindset of Lets
issue an official statement and be done with it. This approach is no longer a viable
go-to strategy. However, at some point, it may become your best option.... Thats
why monitoring the conversation to understand whether its a good idea to keep
it going is critical. Facebook has provided a set of crisis management guidelines.
While they encourage dialogue, they also provide instructions for deleting posts and
blocking users. These are drastic steps in an age of transparency, but they can be
effective (and warranted) as a last resort.

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Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications

Chapter 4

Some Notes on Working with Legal

Crisis can leave your brand open to attack. It can also leave your business open to legal consequences.

Tip: Getting to know

your legal team can
lead to interesting
conversations about
questions that marketers sometimes struggle
with, such as Whats
the difference between
defamation and someone just having an opinion? Try it: its a great
icebreaker.

Dont Be Shy, Get to Know Your Legal

Advisors

As mentioned earlier, youll want to build a bridge with your legal

team as part of business as usual, so you dont have to start from
scratch when things get hectic.

Marketers sometimes feel that legal

would like for us not to say anythingever. And this might
(justifiably) be the case
during a lawsuit. But
an experienced lawyer
knows that marketings job is to promote
the businesses, and
during times of crisis, this means safeguarding its
reputation. Working with counsel during a crisis will
help you find the best way to ensure that your audience
feels heard and that you are taking responsibility without
opening yourself up to a lawsuit as a result of your PR and
marketing activities.

Marketers, get to
know your legal
team. If you ever find
yourself in a crisis,
you want them on
your side.

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Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications

Chapter 4 - Some Notes on Working with Legal

When to Go to Legal

Here are some guidelines for when to consult legal, whether youre in a time of crisis or just trying
to make sure that nothing you say or do will cause one.
Go to legal when:
Your company has been accused of doing something illegal.
You believe that your company could be accused of doing
something illegal very soon. Remember, any statement you
make about events or circumstances relating to this legal action (including internal emails) could be used in a lawsuit.
Your communications are directly targeting a competitor and
shedding negative light on them.
You are making claims about your products functionality or the
breadth of your services. For instance, while describing how great
your product is would typically be construed as opinion (and
therefore not a legal liability), if youre listing product features,
counsel may want to cross-reference what youre saying with any
contracts customers sign to ensure the lists match.
You are making factual claims about your product that you know are difficult to prove.

Tip: As tempting as they may be, using certain words can open
you up to unwanted scrutiny and even the threat of legal action.
Here are some examples of words to avoid: always,
guaranteed, unlimited, proven, 100%, and never fails.
As marketers, we can find creative ways for touting our products
without making factual claims we cant actually prove, thus
sidestepping a potential crisis.

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Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications

In Conclusion
After reading this guide, you should have a thorough understanding of how modern media intelligence can shape our communications programs during a crisisand help solve it.
Although our world is already inundated with nonstop information, a crisis situation opens up the
floodgates like nothing else. Zeroing in on the best nuggets of business knowledge to help us craft
and measure our efforts is well within our reach if we have the right tools and the right methodologies. The great news is that one media intelligence tool can help all of our programs.
If youd like to learn more about running smarter social media programs when crisis hits, please
hop on over to some of our resources:

Meltwater Marketing Blog

Meltwater Insights

Follow us on...

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Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications