A case study on the methods for correctly assessing the impact of social media on crisis management strategy and identifying priority concerns with the most relevant metrics and KPIs.

Reputation management is a key concern for any brand and customer feedback is not only important in peer influence - it’s a primary driver of sales. In this regard, the importance of a social listening tool in crisis management is apparent. However, the management of an online branding crisis requires a precise methodology:

1. Selecting relevant KPIs for analyzing the impact of strategies  
2. Managing reports and dashboard to ensure incoming data is understood
3. Employing automated processes to improve the efficiency of crisis intervention
4. Evaluating the relevance and importance of themes within collected data sets

Given the complexity of effective crisis management solutions, the following article will outline a client case study which touches on all four of these points.

The Business Challenge

A Digimind client found one of the top brands in their portfolio, a well-known German supermarket chain, dealing with an online brand reputation crisis. More specifically, a famous French TV news broadcast aired reports criticizing the working conditions set for the chain’s workers. Consumers quickly reacted to the broadcast online, and our client recognized a large number of negative mentions occurring across social media. 

A sample crisis management dashboard featuring trends in negative mentions and share of voice by social platform, via Digimind Social.

The Project

The agency had been using Digimind Social to monitor the brand reputation of their clients with the following tools:

• Social dashboards to easily view all metrics of interest
• Real-time alert systems to constantly monitor relevant developments
• Automated indicators to assign brand mentions and conversations to the relevant crisis intervention teams, including PR, social media, and customer service

The Solution

Choosing the most relevant KPIs to track can be intimidating, especially in a crisis situation where negative brand mentions must be intercepted as quickly as possible. Taking the time to plan KPIs ahead of time is a valuable organizational tool; below are the key metrics and KPIs chosen by this our client:

• Sentiment analysis by social channel to highlight the platforms on which the majority of negative feedback is occurring
• Trends in average volume of mentions and share of voice to gain a clear understanding of consistencies in customer feedback
• Audience potential and level of involvement by author to refine PR actions and track influencers
• Brand mentions by social account and commonly used hashtags in order to identify opportunities within community management strategy
• Key concepts related to the brand in order to define key points for messaging and communications
• Comparison of these indicators before and after the broadcast in order to benchmark the effects of the negative press

A graphic illustrating volume of mentions over time, via Digimind Social.

The Results

Defining a clear data-driven crisis management strategy enabled the agency to accurately identify social insights and do the following for their client:

1. Identify interventional priorities by media channel, social users, and key issues
2. Evaluate the consequences of negative press by social media platform
3. Refine the response strategy based on the most commonly discussed issues