BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

While most companies have demonstrated a mastery of the blogosphere, Facebook, Twitter, and myriad other social media platforms when it comes to marketing their products and brands, most remain a full Internet-generation behind when it comes to bringing these tools to bear in crisis.

As United Airlines, Apple Computers, Amazon.com, Domino' s Pizza, and countless others have learned in just the last year, the Internet has fundamentally changed crisis management. The days when companies could wait 24 hours for the stone tablets of traditional media to alert them to crisis are gone. Today, negative reports can ravage brand loyalty and stock price in a matter of minutes. To adapt to this reality, crisis teams must be in constant contact with their marketing brethren to ensure that they fully understand the tools at their disposal and how they should be utilized as a prophylactic and at bet-the-company moments.

This is just one of many points I' ve outlined in a three-part series of articles published by TheStreet.com that underscores the importance of social media monitoring and engagement in the Digital Age. In a time of instant and lasting impressions, knowing the strategies and tactics that bulletproof a company' s online reputation is a crisis management imperative.

I invite all of you to check out all three pieces:

The Speed of Crisis in the Digital Age

How Your Company Can Embrace Social Media

Troubleshooting Your Companies Web Presence

Richard Levick is President and CEO of Levick Strategic Communications and a contributing author to Bulletproof Blog.