The recent tragedy at Virginia Tech was a wake-up call to many people for many reasons. For designated crisis managers, it was a graphic reminder about the changing, light-speed nature of modern communications. The dramatic camera-phone footage on YouTube as the siege unfolded, the desperate MySpace and chat board postings, the disturbing perpetrator video posted on MSNBC that passed throughout the web, and all the related blog and forum commentary – this and other recent disaster scenarios have sent thousands of existing crisis plans to the nearest shredder.

An Ounce of Viral Protection
Let’s say you’re one of those executives poised over the shredder, old crisis management plan in hand. What can you do next?  How do you manage a future disaster that moves at the speed of light? Or camera phone?  

The short answer is planning . . . define the potential hazards and use the same high speed viral media to respond, inform and manage the situation. Here’s where to start:

• Plan for the worst – Collect your peers and brainstorm potential disasters that could happen to your organization. When the lists are completed, you’ll find that they fall into a few definite categories. Outline and script a response scenario for each of these categories.

• Muster Your Forces – Once you’ve established crisis categories and outlined your general response, suggest terms for each, identifying outside resources that may be needed. 

• Prepare Your Web Assets– Develop your online response prior to a disaster occurring by creating lists of potential keywords that might appear during a search for particular kinds of disasters. Your press releases, online video statements, paid advertising and blogs can easily incorporate these.

• Do Some Advanced Optimization – Begin optimizing your current sites, PR, blogs etc., to include certain benign keywords that might be searched in a future crisis. This will prevent delays in achieving a position on those terms.

• Develop and Test Some Campaigns – Conceptualize likely scenarios in your major categories and develop creative campaigns for an on- and offline response. Test them with a focus group audience and archive your best campaigns in each category so you can roll them out at a moment’s notice.

• Map Your Social Media Landscape – Your PR department should have a handle on the search engine marketing industry analysts, key reporters, online marketing publications and bloggers to be reached in a crisis. It’s equally important to know the social media sites, chat rooms and directories where potentially damaging material may appear.

• Create Video B-Roll – Background video (B-Roll) of a company during a news story can leave a lasting impression. News media stuck with deadlines and decreasing production budgets may welcome the footage. Maintain a good B-Roll library. It will also aid the rapid production of crisis video news releases or statements.

The Bigger Picture
Clearly, there’s a lot more to creating a crisis management plan than what we’ve sketched out here. To get a more comprehensive feel for the task, click here to download Oneupweb’s new  white paper entitled Principles of Crisis Management in a Viral Age.

As an internationally recognized thought leader in integrated online marketing, Oneupweb authors and maintains an extensive library of original white papers, articles and research. For questions about our services or other resources available at Oneupweb, call us toll free at 877-568-7477 or email info@oneupweb.com. We look forward to hearing from you.