Why this matters
Crises move fast. The teams that win are the ones that (1) have a dedicated monitoring brief already in place, (2) receive real‑time signal (not noise), and (3) can document decisions and outcomes as they happen. The goal here is simple: ensure you can identify, triage, and respond to emerging risks—then report impact clearly to stakeholders.
1) Create a Crisis‑Specific Monitoring Brief
What to include
Scope & scenarios: Define the types of incidents you’ll track (e.g., product safety, data/privacy, leadership & HR, supply chain).
Keywords & disambiguation: List core brand terms, product names, common misspellings, and context qualifiers (e.g., company, industry, geography). Pair includes with exclusions to reduce false positives.
Sources & coverage: Confirm the media types you will monitor (online, print, broadcast, podcasts, social), plus any premium sources required.
Roles & SLAs: Assign owners for triage, approvals, and external statements. Document time‑to‑first‑assessment for high‑severity items (e.g., 15–30 minutes).
Recommended CisionOne setup
Build separate Mention Streams per scenario (e.g., Crisis – Product Safety, Crisis – Data Privacy).
Test each stream using a short lookback to verify that includes/excludes perform as expected.
Helpful resources
2) Prioritize Real‑Time Alerts & Sentiment Tracking
Alerting
Enable Standard notifications to capture all relevant mentions for critical streams.
Add Spike‑in‑volume notifications to flag unusual surges (small/medium/large thresholds).
Route alerts to email, mobile, and your Slack/Microsoft Teams war‑room channels.
Sentiment & themes
Track automated sentiment and themes/keywords to understand if volume changes are harmful or neutral.
Watch for negative trend inflections coupled with rising volume—this is your escalation trigger.
Helpful resources
3) Identify Influential Voices During a Crisis
What to do
Use Leading Sources/Journalists widgets to surface who is setting the agenda in earned media.
Cross‑check recent author history to confirm fit before outreach or corrections.
Map social voices alongside earned coverage to understand narrative propagation.
Helpful resources
4) Document & Report the Crisis Timeline
How to structure
Timeline setup: Create a dedicated Instant Insights dashboard titled Crisis – Timeline.
Anchor charts: Add Coverage Volume Timeline, Sentiment Timeline, Leading Sources/Journalists, and Geographic Spread.
Decision log: Annotate exports with T0 spike detected → T+15m triage → T+45m holding statement → T+2h executive Q&A, etc.
Distribution: Export CSV/PDF reports for executive readouts and archive for post‑mortem.
Helpful resources
5) Collaborate Using Shared Dashboards
Best practices
Share dashboard links with view permissions restricted to your crisis team.
Use scheduled email reports (e.g., hourly or every 2–4 hours) for leadership updates.
Mirror key charts into your Slack/Teams channel for fast visibility.
Helpful resources