Session 8

Crisis day monitoring and ongoing reporting

Crisis day monitoring and ongoing reporting are essential for managing incidents effectively, ensuring clear communication, and making data-driven decisions in real time. Below is a structured approach to handling crisis situations through monitoring and reporting.

Crisis monitoring is essential to crisis management and communication. It encompasses a series of activities that aim to identify, monitor, analyze, and anticipate unusual or abnormal events that may pose a risk to the survival, continuity, and proper functioning of a company, organization, or public or private collective system. Crisis monitoring allows for a more rapid and effective response in the event of a proven or potential crisis by mobilizing the necessary players and resources, which ideally should be defined in advance as part of a crisis plan. This preparation relies on various tools and sources of information, such as media monitoring, social media listening, strategic monitoring, risk management models, and networks of internal and external experts. It is a continuous process that involves iterations and improvements. 

The Usefulness of Crisis Monitoring

Crisis monitoring is a valuable tool for organizations and companies for several reasons.

Firstly, it helps to anticipate potential crises or bad buzz on social networks or in the media that could harm the organization's reputation, functioning, or even the sector's economy. This can be achieved through competitive intelligence, risk intelligence, monitoring potential stakeholders such as media, suppliers, customers, and regulatory bodies, and analyzing potential crisis scenarios for the organization. 

Secondly, it enables the detection of weak or strong signals that constitute potential threats to the organization through continuous monitoring of specific information sources, media, and social networks. 

Thirdly, feedback from the field and a network of experts can be collected, capitalized, and shared to improve response speed, capacity, and quality by defining the necessary resources, tools, and processes. 

Finally, post-crisis monitoring can be conducted to determine corrective actions and identify lessons learned from the crisis or bad buzz.

III. How to Do a Crisis Monitoring?

1. What Sources for Crisis Monitoring?

a. Specific Sources

When it comes to crisis monitoring, selecting suitable sources is crucial. These sources should be subject to precise ad hoc monitoring, meaning they should be a specific URL or account. Examples of specific sources could include specialized media in your sector, the Twitter or TikTok account of an NGO, a journalist, an activist, or a news site.

For instance, laboratories in the pharmaceutical industry may monitor journals specializing in pharmacy and drugs that have already published articles and lists of high-risk medications. To establish a list of specific sources, it is essential to consider the culture of your sector and identify a certain number of crucial sites and resources that need to be capitalized upon.

b. Twitter

Twitter is a compelling channel for crisis communication due to its potential for rapid amplification of information, even if the data originates from another social media or media channel such as blogs, forums, press sites, TikTok, or YouTube. The Twitter audience includes specialists, journalists, watchdogs, and activists, and the algorithmic functioning of the platform further contributes to its fast propagation. Therefore, monitoring various keywords, "at risk" accounts or information relays in your field, and hashtags is crucial. This monitoring must be scalable and responsive, as an ongoing crisis may spawn multiple hashtags and sub-themes that need to be captured and put under surveillance.

c. Facebook

Along with Twitter, Facebook is also a popular channel for crisis communication and monitoring. It is an excellent purveyor of news and information to the general public, particularly for consumer products. If you belong to the retail sector, potential crises or bad buzz may have already started on Facebook, such as recalls or reports of food products.

d. Forums

Despite being one of the oldest web formats, forums can be a challenging communication channel to monitor. Unlike other channels, there is no single API, format, or RSS feed. Instead, multiple forum architectures and scripts, such as HardwareZone, FeedSpot, and SgForums, differ in their structures. 

Therefore, monitoring all forums using a single tool might overstretch your data collection requirements. However, monitoring various targeted forums, especially in sectors such as health, video games, automotive, DIY, and software development, is crucial, as they can constitute up to 50 to 80% of the messages consumers post. Additionally, the Reddit "forum" is becoming increasingly influential in the USA and France since 2019.

e. Consumer Reviews

Consumer reviews are another vital source of information for crisis monitoring. These reviews can be found on various platforms, such as general consumer review sites like Google Reviews or eCommerce platforms like Amazon, Lazada, and Etsy. 

There are also highly specific review sites like TripAdvisor and Glassdoor that serve user-generated information related to an industry, such as travel and recruitment respectively. These reviews can have a significant impact on public opinion. They may be shared on social media platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn, making them a critical channel to monitor for potential crises or bad buzz.

f. TikTok

While TikTok was once known primarily for music videos, consumer hauls, and fashion package unboxings, the platform now boasts millions of short videos on a wide range of topics. These include user-generated content on science, economics, news coverage, and even activism. 

The content posted on TikTok can often challenge a brand, company, political party, or economic model. With its rapidly growing audience and high virality (TikTok videos can be easily reshared on other social networks), this social media is becoming increasingly imperative to monitor for potential crises, even more so than Instagram or YouTube.

g. YouTube

With stiff competition from TikTok, YouTube faces challenges in the short-form video category, prompting the launch of YouTube Shorts. As content creators are bound to leverage more than one social media to expand their network and increase their monetization of content, most can be found to publish their content on multiple channels. To ensure effective crisis monitoring, it is essential to monitor targeted brand channels and influential content creators on the platform.

h. LinkedIn

LinkedIn has seen a substantial increase in its user base over the years. While the platform's content is mainly geared toward businesses and organizations, there has been a recent surge in critical opinions about sizeable multinational energy and food companies. To keep abreast of industry developments and stay ahead of the competition, it's essential to monitor comments on the accounts of companies, their leaders, and even their rivals in your sector and ecosystem.

i. Instagram

Instagram is not typically the platform for coisogenic content, as it tends to feature more positive content than TikTok. The content on Instagram is generally less inclined towards critical and activist editorial acts, so it is not usually the first platform to publish such content. However so, it still does not strip away any potential risk. Brands who have identified key detractors in a community, may want to consider monitoring individual profiles, in this case, for the purpose of keeping tabs on their commentary activities.

j.  Online news sites and the press

Online news sites and press outlets should be monitored according to the severity of the information they publish about your organization. Suppose the report is published on high-traffic media outlets such as The Straits Times, Mothership.sg, or AsiaOne. It may already be too late, as these are among the top 10 most-read media outlets. Other journalists often pick up their content, ensuring its virality and widespread coverage.

2. What Are the Tools for Doing Crisis Monitoring? 

There are several crisis watch tools: monitoring, alerting, steering, and communication.

a. Surveillance

These monitoring tools monitor multiple sources of information and social networks to detect coisogenic messages and content. 

These are :

Social listening tools designed to keep pace with the fast-moving and viral nature of social media and online discussions. These powerful competitive intelligence tools can identify weak signals, leverage information, and promote collaborative sharing among experts and field feedback to analyze media noise, i.e., the media impact of current topics.

b. Alerts

The use of alerting tools is essential for the quick and efficient dissemination of alert messages to all relevant stakeholders involved in crisis management, such as crisis units, task forces, communicators, employees, partners, and customers. Alerting tools, such as Everbridge, Fact24, Retarus, and Gedicom, can help ensure that the right people are notified promptly in any crisis. However, it's important to note that alerting tools differ from the functions integrated into social media listening tools.

c. Management Tools

Management tools help to coordinate and facilitate the actions taken during a proven crisis based on pre-established crisis plans or possible scenarios. They can aid in managing resources, information, and communication to ensure a swift and effective response. Examples of management tools include Iremos and RSA Archer.

d. Communication Tools

These tools can segment mailing lists according to target audiences, create and distribute critical messages, and choose appropriate communication channels. Examples of such tools include Mir3, AtHoc, and Microsoft Teams. Some companies may also use more specialized crisis communication platforms like crisis hotlines, social media management tools, or incident reporting systems.

1. Pre-Crisis Preparation (Before a Crisis Hits)

• Establish a Crisis Response Team (CRT): Define roles and responsibilities of key personnel (e.g., communication lead, operations lead, technical team, legal team).

• Create Communication Protocols: Define internal and external communication workflows, escalation procedures, and reporting structures.

• Set Up Monitoring Tools: Use social listening tools, media monitoring platforms, and operational dashboards.

• Develop Crisis Playbooks: Document response strategies for different crisis scenarios.

2. Crisis Day Monitoring Framework

A. Real-Time Monitoring

• Incident Logging: Document the crisis trigger, time, location, and affected areas.

• Operational Status Updates: Track the impact on business functions, infrastructure, or employees.

• Social & Media Monitoring: Capture public sentiment, news coverage, and social media trends.

• Customer & Stakeholder Feedback: Monitor inquiries, complaints, and concerns.

• Regulatory & Compliance Alerts: Ensure adherence to legal and industry standards.

B. Key Metrics to Track

• Operational Disruptions: Downtime, financial losses, resource allocation.

• Reputational Impact: Media mentions, social media engagement (positive vs. negative), press inquiries.

• Customer Sentiment: Customer complaints, feedback trends.

• Employee Impact: Workforce availability, morale indicators.

• Crisis Resolution Progress: Number of issues resolved, pending actions, bottlenecks.

3. Ongoing Reporting (During & After the Crisis)

A. Immediate Crisis Reports (Hourly or Every Few Hours)

• Status updates on the crisis situation.

• Key events, escalations, and new developments.

• Actions taken and planned next steps.

B. Daily Summary Reports

• Overall progress and unresolved issues.

• Public and stakeholder response.

• Changes in risk level or scope.

• Recommendations for escalation or de-escalation.

C. Post-Crisis Analysis Report

• Incident Summary: Timeline of events, key decision points.

• Root Cause Analysis: Identification of underlying factors.

• Response Effectiveness: Evaluation of actions taken and gaps in execution.

• Lessons Learned: Insights for improving future crisis responses.

• Action Plan for Recovery: Long-term measures to prevent recurrence.

4. Tools & Technology for Crisis Monitoring

• Real-Time Dashboards: Google Data Studio, Power BI, Tableau.

• Media & Social Listening Tools: Meltwater, Brandwatch, Talkwalker.

• Internal Communication Platforms: Slack, Microsoft Teams, email alerts.

• Incident Management Systems: ServiceNow, Jira, Everbridge.

• Reporting Tools: Google Docs, Microsoft Word, automated email reports.

5. Best Practices for Crisis Monitoring & Reporting

✔ Keep reports clear, concise, and action-oriented.
✔ Ensure timely updates to stakeholders with verified information.
✔ Maintain consistency in reporting format across teams.
✔ Use data visualization for better decision-making.
✔ Conduct post-crisis debriefs to refine strategies for the future.

4. The Usefulness of Artificial Intelligence in Crisis Monitoring

The Artificial Intelligence capabilities of monitoring and social media listening tools can facilitate crisis monitoring across all phases. Specifically, Machine Learning and generative iA can help in the following ways:

• Collection: Machine learning can suggest keywords and expressions to monitor and actively monitor them.

• Analysis and Alerting: Machine learning can detect abnormal or unusual spikes in mentions in real-time and analyze the upward or downward progression of your brand, products, and social media publications.

• Generative iA: This technology can help you summarize the causes of unusual peaks and mentions from the data selected by the social listening algorithm.

• Classification and Qualification: AI can automatically qualify the sentiment and nature of messages, such as identifying negative feedback on product quality or very negative feedback on customer service. Automatic language processing, aided by machine learning, can label social media posts, tweets, or comments and save you the tedious work of reading hundreds of messages.

5. Which Queries and Filters to Use?

The iAs will assist you in building keywords and expressions to filter and classify the various messages and applications that may arise during a crisis. However, on what criteria should these mentions be classified?

One possible way is by theme. If the crisis persists and evolves, the initial theme will likely give rise to a tree structure of sub-themes. It will be necessary to classify these new subjects as finely as possible to assess their weight and risk of propagation relative to the original topic.

For instance, let's consider a health crisis in a food factory where a bacterium has been found. Subsequent developments, such as people being infected and seriously ill, insufficient control processes, or a factory previously questioned two years earlier, can significantly impact the crisis.

A crisis that was initially controllable and did not require a maximum level of response can become a nightmare for the organization if a new subject touches on sensitive themes, making it difficult to control because it impacts emotions. The human requests suggested by iA should allow for a satisfactory qualification of this level of emotion.

In the case of a crisis that revolves around a single theme, it's crucial to categorize mentions based on the type of issuer or channel. The nature of the transmitters, such as influencers or investigative journalists, can significantly impact the dissemination of messages. To effectively classify the mentions, you can request a categorization focusing on the issuer's source or social media account.

Another way to classify mentions during a crisis is by threshold. You can set specific keywords or phrases to trigger an alert, such as mentioning a risky ingredient in a beauty product. The alert can be activated once a keyword appears or once a pre-determined volume is exceeded within a specific time frame, such as per day or week. This allows you to identify and respond to potential crises before they escalate quickly.