Amid a chaotic start to 2025, one thing is abundantly clear: the pace of change is speeding up, so as communicators, we need to evolve quickly.
When every day appears to bring a new global crisis, it can be hard to maintain perspective. But there are opportunities for brands in the face of evolving risks. We take a look at the key areas to watch when it comes to managing your reputation effectively this year.
Crisis management goes 360, 365
As crisis management becomes more complex, taking it back to basics when it comes to being prepared is a given. However, the days of crisis management preparedness focusing on media relations and spokesperson training alone are long gone. Social media is the epicentre of crisis communications now, combined with internal comms, with media remaining important stakeholders to provide facts in a world of misinformation.
For brand managers and communications directors, this means taking a holistic approach to crisis management and interrogating your brand’s internal and external risk register as an essential step in crisis preparation and reputation management best practice.
Transparency is crucial to enable comms experts to do their job most effectively, and brands taking a bold, more proactive approach to owning their mistakes is something we’re seeing more of.
There is a huge opportunity now for communications to be firmly planted at the heart of organisations and in the boardroom – something that we have all wanted as an industry for a long time. Audiences expect transparency, empathy, and action and this is where PR plays a crucial role.
All stakeholders want real solutions and accountability and it’s this that builds trust and reputation. It’s what you do that counts, not what you say – this classic crisis management rule is more important than ever.
Community becomes even more powerful
We are continuing to see a shift towards two types of audiences: those who still consume their news via established media outlets, and those who only get their information on social media through their own specific communities, or groups.
Given the ongoing evolution of social channels, from the impact of TikTok’s apparent role in geo-politics to policy changes around fact checkers at Meta, and continued controversy about content on X, ensuring that your brand has a presence on the most relevant and appropriate platforms is crucial.
This also presents an opportunity to refresh your stakeholder mapping to understand who and where your influencers really are. Credible communities that share factually accurate content may change where and how they communicate now, which reconfirms how vital audience insight is.
Misinformation and monitoring
Misinformation creates an added layer of complexity in a crisis. While tools are becoming more sophisticated, there’s no gold standard yet when it comes to tech stacks and smaller brands without huge budgets or expert knowledge will be increasingly limited in tackling this manually.
The surge in the use of AI has also led to deepfake content becoming more sophisticated than ever before and we can expect this trend to continue. This could mark a tipping point back to a renaissance of legacy media and old-school journalistic values, which are increasingly necessary to cut through the noise with facts.
Despite where the future is headed, human interpretation and analysis remains essential when it comes to context and never more so than in a crisis.
The world is evolving but so can we. Crisis management in 2025 demands preparation, perspective, and technology combined with behavioural understanding that will enable us to confidently provide support across every industry.
Regardless of which sector your brand or organisation operates in, crisis management is fundamentally all about human decisions, emotions and behaviours. As the world employs more artificial intelligence than ever before, being more human will truly come into its own.
Struck a chord? To discuss any of the above topics or speak with a member of the Tigerbond reputation management team, contact us here.
