In light of recent events I found myself inescapably absorbing the news of the Boston Bombing via the internet as I worked. I often wonder how much the way I deal with the outer-world has changed simply because my main consumption of media happens to be via the computer and mobile, rather than the Television. In other words, what has become more important to you or I as newsworthy material compared to only a couple years ago…

Finnish Websites Go Dark to Support a Fair Copyright Law | TorrentFreak

From torrentfreak.com – Today, 12:11 AM

TorrentFreak Finnish Websites Go Dark to Support a Fair Copyright Law TorrentFreak During the first three months little over 27,000 people have supported the initiative, and to get more people to sign up several websites are participating in a…

Our Global online community feels a lot smaller, more connected, more important even though this is news from overseas. The ripple effect this makes me think about is than one small event in Finland, could affect the way online laws are developed here in the US. Remember last year’s drawn out campaigns over SOPA? Which inturn flared up into a big social media crisis for a certain BigDaddy of the internet?

The current campaigns seem to be focused on turning your website “dark” as a measure of showing support, getting attention, or even crisis management…

Dark Websites as a Social Media Crisis Management Strategy

From www.melissaagnescrisismanagement.com – April 17, 1:31 AM

A dark website is a pre-developed site that is not set live until your corporation finds itself in the midst of a social media crisis. Pre-crisis, a dark website is equipped with the appropriate legal and other documentations that your corporation may feel will be needed, but not have the opportunity to acquire during an attack. In the event of a crisis, the dark site is set live and the appropriate information and details are added to it – such as communications to the public, as well as direct information and news concerning both the crisis and the brand.

 

Social Spikes: an Early Crisis Warning System | Business 2 Community

From www.business2community.com –Today, 12:36 AM

Keep your ear to the ground and catch the need for crisis management early on The earlier you detect a building crisis, the more effective your crisis

Juliana Payson‘s insight:

Jonathan Bernstein gives businesses a strong start with alert queues to look out for.

There’s no mistaking the impact of strong negative emotion with which your stakeholders followers will identify.  In a social media incident, that immediately escalates the would-be incident to a crisis level. I say there’s no mistaking it, but really, this critical red flag is mistaken – or just plain missed – quite often.

by – Juliana