ST. LOUIS—FleishmanHillard has expanded its crisis communications practice with the launch of FH 2020, a digital media crisis management solution designed to help businesses prepare for, anticipate, detect and mitigate crises in real-time through a combination of people, processes and technologies.

“There has been a major paradigm shift in the way crises break in today’s digital age,” says Brian West, the firm’s Asia-based global crisis lead. “It is no longer just about managing your reputation in traditional media sources. It is also about managing and monitoring countless social media accounts, websites, platforms and forums to understand the social dialogue around your brand in order to prevent any crisis before it happens.”

By the end of 2014, around 40 percent of the world population, or 3 billion people, has an Internet connection. As a result, West says, “businesses today are faced with a different set of challenges, building and protecting reputation while moving at the speed of social.”

Designed as a digital media crisis management platform, FH 2020 comprises a distributed network of trained analysts based in key markets across the globe. These analysts work together to provide real-time, global, multi-lingual data integrated with a collaborative work space and a real-time content creation and distribution system.

In a crisis, FH 2020 can be set up within minutes, providing critical real-time data and business intelligence to put insights into the hands of key decision makers:

  • People. With a physical presence in 12 time zones and covering more than 20 languages, the FH 2020 network of more than 150 certified crisis counsellors ensures that FleishmanHillard can address local, regional and global crises immediately and on an on-going basis.
  • Process. FH 2020 uses proven and tested approaches for on-boarding, threat assessment and anticipation, reporting, and deploying the most effective mitigation and response tactics across our network.
  • Tools. FH 2020 uses best-in-class tools for monitoring traditional and social media, running crisis simulations, and establishing command centers, and can easily work within a client’s existing technology infrastructure.

 Adds Sam Huxley, global digital crisis lead: “While there is justified focus on the role social media can play as an accelerant in a crisis, it can also be a powerful mitigating agent. FH 2020 allows our clients to anticipate and prepare for crises before they happen and how and when to respond with confidence when they occur.”