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.

Purpose and crisis management

The corporate world and its values are changing. Until recently, maximizing profit was a legitimate business purpose. Today, this alone often no longer represents a raison d’être. Instead, purpose has become the order of the day: Companies that want to survive in today’s business environment need a long-term vision. This purpose should go beyond increasing profits. It should have a connection to society and make a positive contribution to society’s development. Purpose, however, does not only serve the sustainable viability of a company. Especially in crisis situations it can act as an anchor for a company and become a compass for crisis management.

Combating disinformation

The corona crisis has clearly revealed the penetrating power of digital disinformation. More and more often, one comes across fake news & Co online or reads about people who are firmly convinced of the false information. Against this background, the correct handling of digital disinformation is becoming increasingly relevant – especially for companies. In this article, we therefore give you five helpful tips on how to handle misinformation and disinformation in a corporate context.

Chatbots in crisis communication

In times of crisis, a fast and reliable flow of information is essential: Inquiries from customers, employees and the press become more frequent. Service staff and crisis teams then quickly reach their limits. The various stakeholder groups often ask recurring questions. At this point, a crisis chatbot can help to accelerate internal and external communication, relieve employees and successfully master crises. In this article we give you 5 tips on how to successfully use chatbots in your crisis management.

Crisis communication in stress tests

It lurks behind small faux pas, critical decisions or rash statements: the communication crisis. The horror of every communications and social media team. Once the crisis has taken hold over your company, the alarm level is set to “red”. An avalanche of outrage rolls over your channels and is almost impossible to stop. Social media in particular has made this circumstance much worse. The result: a possible loss of reputation and potential financial damage. This makes it all the more important to minimize the risk factors of a communication crisis and to create skills for dealing with it adequately – for example, with a crisis communication exercise. After all, you may not be able to stop communication crises like firestorms completely, but with inappropriate communication, crises are usually fired up. If, on the other hand, you react quickly and adequately in an emergency, the crisis can be mitigated and successfully managed.

Risk factor “deepfakes”

Artificial intelligence poses a new threat to companies. Not only the IT security of companies is affected by this threat. So called deepfakes also pose a significant threat to the reputation of individuals, institutions and companies. Criminals take advantage of the technology to gain access to sensitive data, spread false information and thus damage the reputation of your company. In this article we explain the risks of deepfakes for you and your company and explain how you can protect yourself from them.

Public relations in a new light – the evil sibling of PR

Have you ever been the target of online criticism from a former customer, employee, business partner or competitor? If so, you know how painful that can be. Today, when companies or entrepreneurs become the object of manipulated disinformation and increased media coverage, which damages their image and reputation, it could well be so-called “dark PR”. Dark pr measures are designed by e.g. competitors and a respective dark PR agency. Because there are not only the ‘classic’ PR firms that want to present organizations or authorities to the public, but also PR agencies that specialize in destroying rather than enhancing corporate reputation. So if a company does not manage to make its mark in the traditional way, it is possible at present to defame, damage and destroy a business rival through covert dark PR activities.

The flood of digital information

Did you hear that…? I read on Social Media that …. Many of our conversations start out that way or something like that. We exchange ideas with our friends, our families and our colleagues. We share information, we discuss and we evaluate. And we do this day after day. Because: We are being overrun. Overrun by information – increasingly via social networks. And these social networks have an enormous influence on our news consumption. Because: In 2020, 37 percent of people in Germany obtain information via social media – in 2013 it was only 18 percent (Reuters Institute 2020). According to these figures, the Internet has become the most widely used source of news in Germany alongside television.

After the US presidential election campaign in 2016 at the latest, we should all be aware that digital opinion making, online smear campaigns and targeted manipulation are no longer science fiction ideas. As digitization progresses, it is becoming increasingly easy to discredit one’s competitors and thus gain access to the top – and this is not only true for politics. Companies, too, increasingly have to deal with the dangers of so-called dark public relations or dark pr. When it comes to digital character assassination, dark PR companies are increasingly focusing on discrediting themselves through outrage.

Reputation is one of the most important assets for companies today. Companies with a strong reputation perform better, attract qualified employees and increase their overall success. But as valuable as reputation is for a company, it is also fragile: in the digital age, one’s own missteps, inappropriate communication or targeted attacks from outside can destroy a company’s reputation in a very short time. Appropriate reputation risk management helps to prevent these threats and minimize potential damage to a company’s reputation.

In this article we explain what reputation risk management is and how you can integrate reputation as a factor in your risk management.