Crisis Management

Full marks to myspace today for removing the account of Tom Stephens from the public eye in response to the arrest on suspicion of the murders of five women in Ipswich, UK, this morning.

At around lunchtime today, there were links on most of the major newspaper sites to Tom Stephens myspace account. At the time the reports were written, he had 8 friends. By the time I visited, he had 7 - someone was on the ball and had distanced themself from him, fast.


Tonight, the myspace account relating to his ID is no longer available. However, undoubtedly journalists have taken screenshots of the myspace site, and followed up with those 7 friends to find out what they know about this part-time taxi driver, ex-Tesco's worker in Martlesham, and former special constable. These friends were based from Ipswich to Miami, to Hawaii (I think it was).

In the UK everyone, despite the media's best efforts, ought to be innocent until proven guilty. However, an association with this type of news story can be fatal for a business, and crisis management is vital.

Myspace have taken prompt action - I'd have had the account paralysed and invisible the moment the news story broke about his arrest because the media were onto his myspace account at least one day earlier and reporting on it in the Sunday papers but even so, good on them to move as fast as they could.

Trouble is, tonight the photos from his myspace account are all over the news, and whether or not this man is charged with murder(s) or not, myspace will now be inextricably linked in many people's minds as the source of the personal information.

How do you conduct crisis management, and when should you act? Does it require 5 murders to become aware of the need for crisis management, or should all website owners be aware of how to deal with a crisis, were it to arise, however serious or seemingly trivial the emergency?

A blog can allow instant response on the site without technical knowledge to change HTML etc. Being able to 'comment out' pages so they cease to exist can be done if the website is designed simply and logically. Keeping a regular eye on links to your website, and your server stats eg traffic to the site, can mean you spot any unusual activity very quickly and can deal with it. Checking your email regularly can mean you pick up on a breaking story that involves you and your business before the backwash drowns you.

It's no different than damage limitation in the old days, but news stories can break so fast these days and become global instead of just local within minutes or hours instead of weeks or days because of the Internet. You cannot afford to not watch your stats, email etc. Not just because these may indicate positive trends, but also because they may well forebode negative ones.

There are ways to make use of breaking news stories, eg write a blog story with some kewyords in the first paragraph, and put a link to a crisis management or web pr course with a paypal button on it to share your experience with others about how to grab headlines with the Suffolk Strangler or Ripper story and show that you know enough to get a top 10 listing on Google. (We've left the Paypal button out for now in respect to the Ipswich women who have died so tragically).

BUT if you need your site promoting, you need fast action, and a team who can make 2 plus 2 = many more visitors in order to get your website promoted whatever the news, you need Cybersavvy.

We wish the police good luck in solving these crimes in Ipswich, and hope that this arrest in Trimley, Felixstowe does bring the necessary results in finding the bastard who killed these women. Just because they worked as prostitutes doesn't devalue their lives. And it doesn't stop us working to show that life goes on. Because sadly, it has to.

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