Covid-19 conspiracy theories in the business context

The Covid-19 pandemic came with many new challenges. These include misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories surrounding Covid-19. Since the start of the pandemic they have been shared in private – but even in the workplace, gossipers and conspirators are increasingly started spreading their “alternative” truths about the virus. In addition, postings in social media, in the official team chat or the private messenger groups of colleagues are increasing as well. This confronts managers with a new question: how to deal with employees who repeatedly spread false or even dangerous theories about the Covid-19 pandemic?

In this article we provide you with five tips on how to deal with conspiracy theories in the office.

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world has been overwhelmed by a wave of fake news and disinformation. Conspiracy theories mingle with false health advice, misinformation seeks to prove that the corona virus does not exist, and creates uncertainty and doubt about governments, institutions, and policymakers. And this has real-world consequences. While disinformation is not a new phenomenon in this context, the Corona crisis shows the penetrating power that coordinated disinformation campaigns can have, taking on enormous relevance especially in view of upcoming elections or economic developments. In this article, we take a closer look at the fake news surrounding Covid-19 to show the danger posed by targeted false reports – in both a sociopolitical and an economic context.

Anyone who is active on the Internet today as an individual, company or institution has to be careful: Behind every post or comment lurks the danger of becoming the focus of an avalanche of outrage. No matter how harmless the post may be, there is no longer any guarantee that it will not trigger a social media crisis. Because in addition to cat videos, outrage on the social web in particular generates enormous click and interaction rates. It seems as if a real outrage economy has developed today, in which the reach and attention of content is measured by its outrage potential and outrage on the web has become collaborative user entertainment. In this article, we take a close look at the outrage economy of social media.

Flame wars, hate speech, fake news – social media nowadays poses many risks and dangers to companies and institutions. This makes it all the more important to develop appropriate social media communication. This is especially true for crisis situations: Regardless of whether you are dealing with a traditional or a purely digital crisis, social media crisis communication is essential today. In this article, we explain how social media crisis communication works and what matters in flame war management.

Everyone is talking about digital progress – it is creating unimagined opportunities and accelerating global innovation. But digitization is also taking its toll: cybercrime is on the rise. Find out here which digital risks could affect your reputation management.

• Around 90% of all crimes on the Internet are not reported – and therefore not prosecuted

• 3 out of 4 companies have been affected by data theft, industrial espionage or digital sabotage in the past two years

• Approximately 250 billion euros is the annual damage caused by cybercrime in the EU

• 74% of companies surveyed say cyberattacks have increased a lot or tended to increase in the last two years

A manual for social media crisis management

The crisis manual is the heart of every crisis management. This manual usually contains all the important processes, responsibilities, tools and communication elements. However, many crisis manuals currently still have one weakness: the handling of social media in crises is not explicitly regulated. In our experience, this is fateful, because crises today are always digital as well. Accordingly, there also needs to be a comprehensive regulation for social media crisis communication. Therefore, it makes sense to create a social media crisis manual as a supplement to your regular crisis manual. In this article, we explain what such a social media crisis guideline has to include and how you can create it.

Factors of success of social media crisis communication

Social media has its own special features that need to be taken into account when communicating – especially in crisis situations. Aspects such as empathy, speed or authenticity are particularly important. At PREVENCY®, we have summarized these and many other aspects into two success factors for Social Media Crisis Communication: what we call the Social Media Care Factor and the Social Media Speed Factor. Anyone who is familiar with both and takes them into account in an emergency knows the basis for managing social media crises professionally and mastering them in the best possible way. In this article you will learn everything about our Social Media Care and Speed Factors.

4 facts why crisis management training is important

• Around 70% of insolvency causes are the result of management errors

• Two-thirds of surveyed companies rate the effectiveness of risk management in limiting potential damage as high

• Approx. 44% of surveyed companies cite a lack of transparency and communication as the reason for failure in crises

• Almost half of German companies have experienced a crisis situation within the last 5 years

Dealing with Fake Reviews

Google My Business, Trusted Shops, Amazon, Kununu or GoLocal – the list of rating platforms on the Internet is long and could probably go on forever. Online reviews and ratings are now indispensable and have become powerful digital reputation drivers – in many different areas. The right way to deal with negative reviews therefore needs to be mastered. But what happens when negative comments accumulate and tell of purchases or service experiences that never took place? In most cases, these are fake reviews. Fake reviews are now a widespread method of deliberately maligning companies, causing reputational damage and collapsing sales. In this article, we explain what fake reviews are, how to recognize them, and how best to deal with them.

We all know and say phrases like “Everyone makes mistakes!” and “No one is perfect!” – especially when it comes to our own missteps or those of our loved ones. It’s actually pretty clear to us that these phrases contain quite a bit of truth. Yet, the digital public seems to be forgetting about this more and more often these days. Particularly when it comes to celebrities, politicians or companies, the public’s tolerance for mistakes seems to be steadily decreasing. In the context of so-called cancel culture, small mistakes, but also long-ago missteps quickly unleash an avalanche of indignation in this context. This then rolls through the web, triggers calls for boycotts, brings politicians to their knees or tears down entire careers along the way.