Three new rules for managing crises in a social world
Crisis response times have shrunk in the digital age, and companies now need to ensure they are engaged and responsive when issues blow up, says Brian West
Qantas: Needed to adapt to social media challenge
If you wait until you know everything, you will never say anything. New Zealand dairy producer Fonterra is one of the latest companies to be caught out by this time-tested maxim, failing ‘the need for speed’– one of the three new rules for managing crises in a social world.
Asiana Airlines broke all three of the new rules of crisis management when its plane crashed at San Francisco airport earlier this year, guaranteeing a big hit to its brand reputation andthe destruction of company value. Its stock price dipped by a sharp 6.2 percent the day after the crash – a three-year low – and has not recovered.
The first photo of the crash was tweeted 30 seconds after the incident and the first photo from a passenger having exited the crashed plane was uploaded, with commentary, just 18 minutes after the crash. Asiana took more than four hours to update its Twitter and Facebook pages and another two hours to issue its first statement, failing the speed of response test.
When Qantas suffered a catastrophic failure of an engine on its A380 aircraft in November 2010, the airline was flying blind in the social media space. Qantas did not even have a Twitter account let alone a social media listening tool – the second rule in a social world. Managing Director Alan Joyce admitted this fact at a press conference in February 2011, three months after the incident.
"We first noticed a problem when our share price started to collapse, and that’s because [of] these reports coming out of Twitter. They were reported by one mainstream media outlet on the basis of the Twitter reports that the aircraft had crashed in Indonesia and that started to obviously cause a problem with the share price," Mr. Joycesaid at the time.
Companies need to invest more management time and resources in preparing, updating and testing crisis response plans to take into account the rapid changes arising from social media. It is staggering that companies are yet to understand and prepare for the demanding requirements of the new crisis paradigm. To do this effectively, there are three things – at the very least – that they need to be doing right now.
• First, they have to recognize that if they have not updated their crisis response plan in the past 12 months, it is now useless. In fact, it is a dangerous document.
• Second, social media has to be at the heart of their crisis communications response strategy, along with a social media listening tool working 24/7 globally in at least 190 languages.
• Third, companies need to train and delegate authority to the first responders to a crisis, empowering both in-country and frontline staff.
The days where companies can use centralized crisis command and control are over – especially when incidents occur in another time zone.In this new social world, detailed crisis response plans, Initial Public Statements and the tools needed for managing a crisis in the first few hours have to be shared with frontline staff and in-country personnel – the third and final rule of managing the new crisis paradigm.
When a crisis is measured in tweets per second, these first responders need to be given the authority to react immediately and without waiting for head office. Furthermore, companies can’t be taking the time to educate head office on the cultural and social-geo issues specific to a country. This works both ways – West to East for companies like Apple, with its recent misstep in China, and East to West for Asiana Airlines.
The key to success is having a detailed plan that covers the initial hours of a crisis – the so-called ‘golden hours’ – when you can exercise some control over the situation. You also need a team and a strategy – a longer-term guiding light strategy.
If companies follow these rules, they can ensure their company value and brand reputation are not being defined by someone else’s 140 characters.
Brian West is FleishmanHillard’s global lead for Crisis Management. He has more than 30 years’ experience in corporate & public affairs in Asia Pacific and globally, and has managed the communication and stakeholder relations programs for governments, NGOs, media, unions, customers, employees and local communities during some of Asia’s highest profile incidents.
Asiana Airlines broke all three of the new rules of crisis management when its plane crashed at San Francisco airport earlier this year, guaranteeing a big hit to its brand reputation andthe destruction of company value. Its stock price dipped by a sharp 6.2 percent the day after the crash – a three-year low – and has not recovered.
The first photo of the crash was tweeted 30 seconds after the incident and the first photo from a passenger having exited the crashed plane was uploaded, with commentary, just 18 minutes after the crash. Asiana took more than four hours to update its Twitter and Facebook pages and another two hours to issue its first statement, failing the speed of response test.
When Qantas suffered a catastrophic failure of an engine on its A380 aircraft in November 2010, the airline was flying blind in the social media space. Qantas did not even have a Twitter account let alone a social media listening tool – the second rule in a social world. Managing Director Alan Joyce admitted this fact at a press conference in February 2011, three months after the incident.
"We first noticed a problem when our share price started to collapse, and that’s because [of] these reports coming out of Twitter. They were reported by one mainstream media outlet on the basis of the Twitter reports that the aircraft had crashed in Indonesia and that started to obviously cause a problem with the share price," Mr. Joycesaid at the time.
Companies need to invest more management time and resources in preparing, updating and testing crisis response plans to take into account the rapid changes arising from social media. It is staggering that companies are yet to understand and prepare for the demanding requirements of the new crisis paradigm. To do this effectively, there are three things – at the very least – that they need to be doing right now.
• First, they have to recognize that if they have not updated their crisis response plan in the past 12 months, it is now useless. In fact, it is a dangerous document.
• Second, social media has to be at the heart of their crisis communications response strategy, along with a social media listening tool working 24/7 globally in at least 190 languages.
• Third, companies need to train and delegate authority to the first responders to a crisis, empowering both in-country and frontline staff.
The days where companies can use centralized crisis command and control are over – especially when incidents occur in another time zone.In this new social world, detailed crisis response plans, Initial Public Statements and the tools needed for managing a crisis in the first few hours have to be shared with frontline staff and in-country personnel – the third and final rule of managing the new crisis paradigm.
When a crisis is measured in tweets per second, these first responders need to be given the authority to react immediately and without waiting for head office. Furthermore, companies can’t be taking the time to educate head office on the cultural and social-geo issues specific to a country. This works both ways – West to East for companies like Apple, with its recent misstep in China, and East to West for Asiana Airlines.
The key to success is having a detailed plan that covers the initial hours of a crisis – the so-called ‘golden hours’ – when you can exercise some control over the situation. You also need a team and a strategy – a longer-term guiding light strategy.
If companies follow these rules, they can ensure their company value and brand reputation are not being defined by someone else’s 140 characters.
Brian West is FleishmanHillard’s global lead for Crisis Management. He has more than 30 years’ experience in corporate & public affairs in Asia Pacific and globally, and has managed the communication and stakeholder relations programs for governments, NGOs, media, unions, customers, employees and local communities during some of Asia’s highest profile incidents.
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