A New Crisis Every Day Seems to Be Our New Normal

Crisis. Even the word strikes fear in the hearts of corporate executives, board rooms, financial services leaders and government officials. In 2020, it seems, there’s a crisis every day and the current seismic events are not one-day wonders, but rolling, long-term landscape changes. An active volcano comes to mind.

Communications departments, corporate affairs and public relations firms have been working overtime to not only stay on top of quickly unfolding events, but to determine their own company or client positions and then ensuring any public responses carry the right message and the right tone. The health, race and political turmoil we witness affects all organizations, large and small in every city and small pocket of the country. Crisis plans – and actions – must be dynamic as never before.

Reputational risks are more than elevated. Reputations that took years, decades or even centuries to build, are now being confronted with a hailstorm of uncontrollable events. Corporate chief executives are resigning every week and even high-ranking editors of the nation’s most influential media have fallen victim to their own headlines or phrases because they were out of step or out of tune. 

And for the rest of this year, and perhaps for years to come, dealing with constant crises is the “new normal” and only a portion of that is pandemic related. All the while, technology continues to evolve as media consumption is reaching all-time highs. And along with that comes not only continued splintering of media, but an added massive force: mis- and dis-information campaigns.

At the same time, the first and most lasting impression of any company or organization will be made when clients, employees, vendors or partners hit the search key on their phone or laptop. Now that search results are, indeed, content, what does your organization appear to be or stand for?

While news coverage, social media sentiment and Twitter trends all remain critical for professional communicators to monitor and potentially modulate, search results top them all for immediate impact.

Any organization’s online presence must be not only attuned to the ever-changing crises, but companies still need to still sell their products or services, investors need to be attracted and informed, supporters need to be garnered and reinforced, and employees need to be advised and reassured.

Professional communicators must ensure they cover all bases: news coverage, social media activity – and search results. After all, every conduit with the public and stakeholders is dynamic on a minute-by-minute, even second-by-second basis. Constant analysis of your search results must be a part of your plan. 

The Lightbox platform is the only technology we’ve discovered that displays why search results appear in the order that they do, providing insight as to what steps must be taken to better control them, and even how a corporate organization or executive reputation can vary from country-to-country, city-to-city, or even zip code-to-zip code. Lightbox even provides a score and historical benchmarking of the components that comprise an online reputation.

We built Lightbox to ensure you or others in your firm or department can maintain vigilance over one of the most critical aspects to online reputation. While there are a host of very sophisticated tools to monitor relevant media and social activity, only Lightbox provides vital “behind the curtain” insights to ensure that first and lasting impression remains current, in tune and resonant with ever-changing dynamics of the political and societal pressures of the day – or even the hour.

Take a look behind the curtain of your current online reputation and request a complimentary analysis here.