Crisis Intervention

Crisis is defined as an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs, in particular, those with a distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome. A serious online business crisis could affect either or both of the following - the company’s reputation and the goodwill that it commands from partners and clients and/or the company’s revenues, net income, and stock value.

Types of Crisis

Based on the circumstances, a crisis for online content can be constituted by any of the following: breach of security through viruses, data theft/modification or access loss/restriction and so on.

Need for Crisis Intervention

Crisis intervention is necessary to control the potential damage that could be caused by these situations, prevent any further disruption of operation, and plan for a smooth functioning of the business in the future. The failure of planning for a crisis or its prevention/ management could have serious consequences, in some cases even leading to the loss of the entire business.

Modes of Crisis Intervention

Crisis intervention can be executed in the following two ways:

• Preventing a crisis which is about to occur

• Managing a crisis that has already occurred

Crisis Management

Management of the crisis once it has occurred involves understanding the nature of the event, trying to proceed in a manner which will minimize the damage caused, and recover critical data. If the reputation of the company is at stake, crisis management should also include measures to regain the image of the company through strong public relations.

Online reputation is important for any online business and accordingly, any malicious content related to the company’s data or employees appearing on the internet will have serious consequences for its business. This content may be in the form of blogs or websites critical to the business.

Crisis Management Plan

The Crisis Management Plan should contain procedures to be followed in times of a crisis (ideally a Business Continuity Plan), the team (Crisis Management Team) that will work to control the impact, and list of external resources (partners, clients, stakeholders) to be communicated with in these times. The Crisis Management Team should understand the Business Continuity Plan and its responsibilities with regard to its execution. The Crisis Management Plan should have an approach to provide a holistic response for any probable crisis.

Methods of Online Crisis Intervention

• Simulating the crisis situation and planning for its avoidance

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for websites and blogs and creation of an ‘SEO shield’ to preserve the company’s reputation

• Initiation of pay-per-click campaigns, wherever appropriate

• Creating ‘dark’ websites which can be activated immediately after the occurrence of the crisis

• Training employees to launch new blogs in support of the business to tackle the crisis situation

• Maintain amiable media relations to mitigate the damage caused to the company’s reputation

Efficient crisis intervention strategies of a company will minimize damages to assets, assure clients and stakeholders of the robustness of the business, and provide an edge over competing companies.