How to ensure you capture meaningful data to inform your crisis response

When a crisis hits, and you don’t have a measurement strategy in place, you’re going to have a hard time capturing accurate, actionable information.

The problem isn’t that the data is hard to come by, explains Nicole Moreo, senior vice president of analytics for Ketchum and chair of the North American chapter of AMEC. Data is everywhere—but knowing which data to pay attention to requires expertise and a bit of forethought.

And the chances are good that your organization hasn’t done its homework on preparing ahead of the next crisis. “Only 30% of marketers and PR pros conduct a threat assessment for their brands once a year,” Moreo says—and failing to regularly update your planning, benchmarks and more will give you an incomplete picture when you try to measure an acute event.

The framework

When thinking about measuring your crisis response, Moreo says it is essential to go beyond the easy numbers. She offers three ways people tend to think about measurement:

Mistakes to avoid

When looking to measure your crisis communications, Moreo warns against several big errors: