In our world today every hour brings a new crisis—be it political, celebrity, climate, natural disaster, or some other flavor of a red flag—trying to get our attention. You know what I’m talking about, right? The constant alerts on our phones, the steady stream of “unprecedented” news from the White House, the continuous reminders of all the news on all the other myriad media we consume… Life is one constant crisis and our fight-or-flight response mechanisms are overtaxed. We’ve been on the threshold of panic for so long, it’s sometimes hard to tell what’s a crisis and what isn’t.
I feel a bit guilty about devoting an entire post talking about the one thing we can all agree there’s just too much of. But as communications professionals and self-confessed news junkies it’s not like we can stop paying attention and shrug it all off with a giant “Whatever.” It’s just not in our DNA.
And it’s clear from our readership data that you communications professionals are definitely interested in how measurement can help you avoid and manage a crisis. “How do you measure a crisis” is probably the one question I get asked most often. So, as much as I’d love to snap my fingers and turn into an ostrich, we’ve decided to embrace the times and the topic and provide a few solutions to the problems that measurement faces in our era of constant crisis.
Here are our best posts on how to prepare for, survive and measure the impact of a communications crisis.
- How to measure what didn’t happen: Measuring the ROI of the Crisis You Avoided.
- A guide to the kinds of crises you’re most likely to confront in 2025 and what it will take for you to respond effectively: Your Inevitable Next Crisis: What It Could Be and How to Respond
- Choose Your Own Adventure: A dozen Do’s and Don’ts depending on the type of crisis you’re facing
- The basic ABCs of Managing a Crisis
- How to Rebuild Trust After a Crisis
If you’re just looking for some good metrics to use in a crisis, here are our favorites:
Crisis Measurement Options
| Goal | Definitions of Success and/or Key Performance Indicators |
|---|---|
| Keep negative messaging to a minimum | % of stories containing negative messages represent less than X% of all coverage |
| X% of coverage contains one or more key messages | Positive messages penetrate or are present in more than 1% of coverage |
| There are as many neutral stories as there are negative ones by the end of the crisis | Ratio of desirable coverage (positive + neutral) vs. negative |
| We make the bad news go away as soon as possible | Time to neutrality — the number of days it takes for coverage to return to “normal” or “neutral.” |
| Our side gets as much visibility as their side | Share of quotes for the opposition vs. our spokesperson |
| We suffer minimal reputation damage | % of stakeholders viewing the company as high on reputation indexes stays level |
| We don’t lose the community or customers trust | % decline in trust score % decline in followers on social media. Minimal impact on events or goals in web analytics. |
Measure on!
