Crisis Management

Why should I care about crisis management before a crisis erupts? 

According to a survey of over 1,300 industry professionals for our Marketer of 2025 report, only 31% of marketers believe they manage their brand's online reputation well. 

You’ll have heard of stories where celebrities have made negative comments about a brand and gone viral. Ronaldo’s famous “água” comment on arrival at a press conference preceded a $4bn fall in Coca-Cola's market value. But it's not just celebrities who wield enormous power when it comes to brand reputations. 

We recently explored the phenomenon of deinfluencing on social media – an act of influencing others away from buying more things – usually from specific brands. 

Deinfluencers pose a direct threat to the brands they actively discourage consumers from buying. 

On top of that, media outlets often seek out newsworthy consumer stories from platforms like TikTok, amplifying their reach and sending them trending within larger audiences. 

There are many ways brands can be thrown into disrepute, making it essential that marketers are proactive with planning, listen intently to what’s being said, and respond quickly when a potential crisis is emerging. 

The role of social listening in crisis management 

How can you quickly understand what’s bothering consumers and come up with an effective strategy to manage any potential negative reactions? 

The answer is: by monitoring and analyzing online discussions in real time and using the insights to guide your crisis management communications and response. 

Social listening can help brands spot emerging negative trends, learn where conversations are happening, and where those conversations are heading, making it one of the best tools for reputation management. 

It can include monitoring keywords related to key stakeholders, tracking changes in sentiment around products or services, and getting alerted to issues that require immediate attention. 

With platforms like Brandwatch Consumer Research, you can also seamlessly view and analyze TV, radio, and print data on a single platform, alongside social, news, and other data sources.  

By leveraging social intelligence as an early warning system, brands can stay informed on any potential problems coming their way and act proactively. 

How to approach crisis management 

Not every piece of negative feedback signals a crisis 

Social media has had a profound impact on the brand reputation arena. Today, consumers are able to easily – and publicly – hold companies and brands accountable and can gain significant traction by calling businesses out around different issues.  

This might be in the form of a public complaint about poor treatment on an airplane or a gross encounter in a fast-food restaurant. It could also be about a brand’s marketing practices, with consumers using terms like “rainbow washing” and “greenwashing” to highlight a lack of transparency and honesty.  

While not every negative comment on social represents a crisis, no business is immune to a potential crisis either. Understanding what is being said about your brand on the internet and how that information is being perceived and spread by consumers and commentators, is paramount. 

What constitutes a “social media crisis”?  

When a situation occurs unexpectedly that has the potential to negatively affect your brand and reputation, you should quickly identify the source of the information and how it’s being spread.  

Social Media Director Justin Clark from Mangold Consultancy explains how to understand what kind of situation you’re dealing with, saying: 

“If the situation is known only to those inside your organization, and people outside your organization:  

• won’t get to hear about it, or 
• won’t have a strong reaction if they do hear about it 

you’re dealing with an incident that doesn’t require special treatment. 

But if you can’t be certain any of the statements above are true, or  

• there is potential for the information to get outside your organization without your knowledge, and  
• the reputation of your organization could be at stake 

then you’re dealing with a crisis that needs to be managed internally and externally.” 

Read the full article by Justin Clark here.

Key focus areas for effective crisis planning 

Organizations need to focus on three key areas to effectively manage their reputation online.  

1. Setting up monitoring 
2. Creating a response playbook 
3. Continuous evaluation and improvement 

1. Setting up monitoring 

Setting up a system to monitor conversations relevant to your brand is fundamental to developing a strong crisis management strategy.  

Typically, brands engage in broad monitoring that’s focused on the organization and its brand name as well as any related products, services, or stakeholders.  

How to monitor social conversations effectively  

With the massive volume of social media conversations happening at any given moment, the right tool is needed to help brands process all these conversations effectively and extract meaningful insights.  

Solutions like Consumer Research make it easy to filter huge conversations, create customizable real-time alerts, and build a strong monitoring system as part of a crisis management strategy. 

So, the first step to monitoring is to come up with a list of keywords relevant to your brand, product, or service and build these keywords into a search query in Brandwatch. 

Next, research common industry or product-related issues and complaints, including known threats and recurring concerns. For example, a restaurant might want to make sure that any online mentions referring to poor hygiene are immediately flagged. Use these terms to set up automatic Alerts and Signals, which will warn chosen stakeholders of emerging negative conversations. 

The initial analysis of the data will likely prompt query iterations, and it’s perfectly fine to go back and tweak to make search results and alerts more relevant and as useful as they can be.  

Spotting early signs of a crisis with “threat-level” benchmarks  

In our recent State of Social report, we noted that some industries face higher levels of negativity online than others. Regardless of the industry, every organization should establish benchmarks to define a level of anticipated negativity online.  

Benchmarks should focus on brand-level conversations but it’s also worth following individual, smaller topics of interest.  

When the maximum negativity threshold level is reached, it signals to an organization that a conversation currently happening on social needs to be immediately investigated and potentially actively managed.  

While what to look out for often depends on factors such as industry, risk tolerance, and channel usage, here are some things to watch out for when analyzing your brand’s social data: 

• Continuous rise in mention volume around high-risk keywords over time. 
• Sudden spikes in volume (brand or keyword mentions).  
• Sharp sentiment shifts from positive to negative that mention related keywords and revolve around a single issue. 
• Growth in media coverage.  
• Competitors or similar brands being drawn into high-profile debates. 
• Mentions from high-profile or highly influential individuals like celebrities, social media personalities, politicians, journalists, or key industry influencers. 

Often, these social signals can correlate with offline indicators such as customer service inquiries, contact from the media, or internal stakeholder concerns. 

2. Creating a response playbook 

Speed of response on social is very important. A slow or inadequate response, such as ignoring complaints or a poorly worded reply are common reasons for an isolated negative conversation to turn into a crisis.   

Organizations with a well-defined crisis management plan are more likely to effectively manage a situation and prevent it from turning into an actual crisis. So, if a crisis erupts, all plans can be enacted swiftly to curb negative feedback and minimize any potential damage.   

However, not all organizations feel good about how they manage their brand’s reputation. The importance of creating a solid crisis management response playbook is clear.  

Set up your team 

Well in advance of any crisis, you’ll want to set up a dedicated crisis management team or appoint an individual who'll be responsible for managing online communications in times of crisis. Know in advance who needs to be involved in approving communications, so the publication of communications isn’t slowed down when you might need to be acting quickly.  

A vital part of this team is a single source of truth as the crisis develops, which might take the form of a dedicated team or stakeholder responsible for brand monitoring. They should have the tools necessary to deliver insights and enable the appropriate teams to act swiftly. 

Planning for crises: Crisis simulation 

Each crisis will require specific resources and communications to manage the issue from A to Z. Crisis simulation exercises help organizations prepare by testing strategies, plans, and systems in place. They also reveal gaps and weak points that need to be improved for when a real crisis strikes. 

A crisis simulation works best when it is based on real-world issues that your organization might face. Identifying the most likely scenarios and those posing the greatest threat will help with realistic preparation.  

Without stress-testing your crisis management response through simulations, your organization will have to learn from scratch during a real crisis, making it harder to handle the situation effectively.  

You can start by simply writing a list of “what if X happened,” and then continue by asking how the issue could play out, its day-to-day impact, and how it’s going to affect brand reputation as well as customers and staff.  

Tip: Use these scenarios to create alerts, since they’ll include potential keywords someone might use in a social media post. 

3. Continuous evaluation and improvement 

Crisis management starts well before a crisis emerges. Having the right tools and plans in place, with automated monitoring handling most of the work, will make all the difference. 

Savvy organizations actively use best practices in monitoring, segmenting, and planning.

For example: 

• Social insights directly inform key decisions. 
• All sides of the conversation are proactively monitored. 
• Clear, real-time communication keeps all employees informed and prepared for potential crises. 

Most importantly, successful teams learn from previous crises – what went well, and what the company hadn’t planned for – to be better prepared next time. They can learn from competitor crises too, seeing how certain moves calmed or exacerbated the situation. 

How to manage crisis communications: A step-by-step manual 

So, it’s happening, and a crisis has erupted. What should you do first? 

1. Research 

When you first spot an emerging situation on social media – for example, a significant increase in mention volume, rapidly deteriorating sentiment over a particular topic, or a spike in harmful mentions – the first step would be to gather more information.  

Here are some questions to consider for your research: 

Mentions and volume: 

• How significant is the increase in mention volume from your average or norm? 
• How is the volume changing over time? 
• Are negative mentions restricted to one channel, or did they start on a single channel and are now spreading to multiple online platforms? 

Sentiment and perception: 

• Is the sentiment positive or negative? 
• Why is this conversation happening?  
• What’s the potential impact of the issue on your customers and other external stakeholders? 

Stakeholders and sources: 

• Who are the key stakeholders driving the conversation? 
• Who is the source of this social activity (eg an influencer, disgruntled customers, bots, reposts, syndicated articles, or automated content sharing)? 
• Is the organization being mentioned directly or indirectly? 

Information accuracy: 

• Is the information in mentions true, based on facts, or are people making assumptions and/or spreading lies about the issue and your organization?  
• Assess the accuracy of information. Who can verify the accuracy of the mentions, news, or images shared on social? 

At this point, it may be worth tweaking your social listening searches to add any specific keywords or hashtags that are associated with the crisis so you don't miss a mention going forward.  

This process requires ongoing iteration. While it may not be perfect initially, using the answers to these questions will give you a strong starting point to understand how the conversation is progressing.  

2. Get organized internally 

Here’s where prior preparation will really pay off. If you’ve got an existing, tried-and-tested crisis management plan in place you’ll know who needs to be involved and what actions to take next. 

You don’t want to be left asking “who should we involve?”, “do we have any policies or guidelines that can help here?” or “where do we keep our templates that address this issue?” 

Bring your crisis team together and get them up to speed fast on what’s happening. 

3. Identify key messages to communicate 

Pre-planning gives you a real head start and saves valuable time, but it only gets you so far. 

So now it’s time to take those prepped response documents out and decide what key messages need to be added in, taken out, and refined in your response. Keep it simple – have no more than three main messages and communicate them clearly. 

While this is done, your social media accounts can be useful channels. Any communication must be handled carefully but acknowledging that you’re looking into an issue can help quell demands for immediate action.  

Sometimes, just being acknowledged and knowing someone is doing something is enough to quiet fears and can stop repeat mentions (as long as that action sounds sensible and proportionate to the seriousness of the problem).  

4. Inform internally 

Run internal briefings to all relevant teams, providing a detailed explanation of the situation and advising your staff on how they should respond if contacted. Effective internal communication is as important as opening up to the public with an official statement. Keeping key people briefed internally also speeds up their involvement should it be needed.  

5. Communicate early and often (in your brand voice) 

You have the information you need, and you know your key messages. Now it’s time to start talking publicly. 

Start the conversation by introducing the problem, current status, and proposed solution. It can be useful to commit to regular updates – this sets deadlines for your team and provides comfort for your audience. But, of course, be realistic. 

Remember to always gut-check your communications against your company voice. Communications in times of crisis that are overly formal, corporate, or robotic sounding, can come across as insincere, especially if your brand voice is more informal during peacetime. Keep the information at the front and refer to your brand voice documentation if you need to. It should have guidance on the tone to take in serious situations. 

Questions to ask when responding to a crisis 

• What does my audience (internal and external) need to know? 
• What information can we disclose and what needs to be held back? 
• In complex situations, how can we simplify our message to ensure it’s accessible? 
• When can we expect to update the audience (internal and external) on the next steps? 
• If relevant, how can people contact us, and where should we direct people for more information? 

Bonus Chapter: Influencer Crisis Management  

Working with influencers can pose additional risks for businesses and their reputation. Here's what to do when your campaign faces unexpected backlash.  

Step 1: Assess the situation  

Start by checking both names: your brand's and the influencer's. Set up focused search queries to track how the story is spreading. Tools like Brandwatch's Iris can help automatically monitor and flag unusual spikes or negative sentiment.  

Next, check audience reactions to see if they're linking the influencer to your brand, and how sentiment is changing. Then figure out where the conversation is happening – is it X, Reddit, TikTok, or all of the above? Remember, even if you're not tagged on the influencer's post, your brand can be pulled into the negative conversation by association.  

Timeline: Speed matters. Aim to complete this assessment within a few hours of becoming aware of the issue.  

Step 2: Evaluate your partnership’s exposure  

Consider several key factors: Is the influencer's content still up (posts or paid ads)? Is your partnership being directly mentioned in the conversation? What's the overall tone toward your brand? Are people defending you, criticizing you, or are they simply watching the story unfold?  

Also check your contract: Do you have termination clauses? Who controls content removal? This information will help you decide how to limit further damage.  

Step 3: Plan your next move  

Your response will depend on where the backlash is focused and the crisis type. Political controversies often require different handling than personal scandals or brand safety issues.  

• If the backlash is directed at the influencer, pause the campaign while you assess the situation. Draft a statement in case you need to go public and reach out to the influencer's team to make sure you are on the same page and to align on messaging.   
• If your brand is in crisis, give the influencer a heads-up so they don't accidentally post content that feels out of touch. (The now-infamous Fyre Festival comes to mind, where pre-scheduled influencer posts still went live after the event collapsed). Decide if their content needs to be paused, tweaked, or left as-is.  

Keep leadership and legal teams informed throughout. They may need to weigh in on public statements or contractual decisions, especially for high-profile partnerships.  

Step 4: Communicate with care  

Don't just ghost influencers. They're part of your extended team while your campaign is live. Keep your tone professional, but human. How you show up and how you communicate with your partners matters. If you don't have all the answers yet, be transparent about what you do know so far and outline how and when you'll be able to share more updates.  

For smaller influencer issues, direct communication may suffice. For major crises involving large followings, coordinate messaging more carefully and consider having legal review communications.  

Step 5: Monitor the situation in real time  

Keep an eye on both your brand and the influencer because public sentiment can shift quickly, and silence (such as not addressing the issue publicly) can be misread. Watch for spikes in negative sentiment or deinfluencing language and stay alert for any new concerns so you can respond before they escalate.  

Step 6: Reassess the partnership post-crisis  

The crisis is typically "over" when mention volumes return to baseline and sentiment stabilizes for 48-72 hours, but it may take more than a time, depending on the nature of the crisis. At this point, decide if the partnership still aligns with your brand, update your internal protocols based on what you've learned, and document lessons learned for future partnerships.  

The best way to manage influencer crises is to prevent one from happening in the first place. Learn how to build a strong foundation for influencer collaborations in our blog post, How to Build Crisis-Proof Influencer Partnerships.