Using Meltwater for Crisis Management

Learn how to prepare, listen and measure the media when in times of crisis

Robert B. avatar
Written by Robert B.
Updated over a week ago

Dealing with a brand crisis? We are here to help! Follow our three steps below in addressing your crisis head-on:


Prepare

Take time with your team to put a plan in place for potential Crisis which may occur for your business or industry so you have a 'go to guide' ready.

To help you in the preparation process review our Ebook, Using Media Intelligence to Manage Brand Crisis, and our Webinar as an introduction to Crisis Management to how others have done it before you.

Additional crisis resources to review include our webinar: Crisis, Not Catastrophe: Minimize Damage When Trouble Hits


Listen

To ensure that you're the first to know of a crisis, you'll need to set up alerts so that you are always searching for early warning signs.

Check out this product tutorial which will help you set up an alert!

Make sure you are also setting up alerts and paying attention to your competitor brands and industry news. Sometimes a crisis will hit you by association and it is important to keep track of how your industry is perceived.

To learn how to set up your searches, read this article here.

To learn how to set up your email alerts, read this article here.


Measure

Once a crisis has hit, it is time to measure the reach of the issue that is circulating. Practice smart listening so that you can check the media's pulse and your communities reaction as a crisis unfolds.

Our tools will help you gather real-time insights so you can mitigate damage to your brand and avoid something similar from happening again.

If you have your searches set up and are ready to export the results, read this article here.

Make sure you are using our Widgets and Dashboards when you are measuring the results of your crisis. Some key things to report on are:

  • Media Exposure-Traditional News vs Social Media

  • Media Exposure-Traditional News

  • Media Exposure-Social Media

  • Potential Reach-Traditional News Only

  • Share of Voice by Volume

  • Top Publications

  • Mentions

  • Geographical Spread

  • Sentiment/Net Tonality


Respond

Step 1:

Never lose sight of your goals as things escalate and get yourself prepared to move fast. The first step in responding is to know who you’re talking to and how to best reach them.

Different people care about different things-Customize your message and the channels you use to reach each stakeholder group.

Step 2:

Amplify your 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, you’ll 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.

Step 3:

Address the crisis with urgency, be transparent, and be relatable. People want immediate results so acknowledge the problem quickly and deliver updates as you address it. Get ahead of the crisis by sharing what you know and by being open about your commitment to a solution, and try to make it easy for people to find and understand the information they need to know.

Our tool will help you indicate if your message is sticking (reach), how people feel about it (sentiment), and if it’s being amplified (engagement).

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

Getting ahead of a crisis might just mean that you’re 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 public’s attention?


Thank you for reading. If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out to us via Live Chat!

Team Meltwater

*To read the full in-depth guide on Crisis Communications, download our E-Book written by Yariv Rabinovitch-Content Marketing Manager here at Meltwater.

Did this answer your question?