Many brands and organizations are beginning to realize the value of the social web in developing their crisis communications plans. These new tactics and strategies can seem daunting, but they all amount to one singular goal:
Build your network before you need it.
It’s easy to get bogged down in new terms and unfamiliar territory, or to become obsessed with metrics to the point of analysis paralysis, but when it comes to crisis, it’s not about dark sites and blogger outreach so much as using the tools to create a trusted network that can be reached in good times and bad.
Trying to gain people’s trust while you’re on trial is the wrong way to do it, social media or not. Establish a link of trust and transparency over the long term, and you’ll insulate yourself against crisis by enabling your organization to get your side of the story out before it’s delivered through the filter of the media.
[Update: Doing some New Year's reading, I realized that I may have inadvertantly plagiarized the title of this post from a post by Jeremiah, who I read regularly. If you're going to steal, it might as well be from those who are smarter than you, I suppose.]
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