Crisis? What crisis?

I was asked recently at a conference how to define a ‘social media crisis’.

There is no such thing.

A crisis is a crisis.

When was the last TV crisis? Radio crisis?

Or luxury magazine crisis, for that matter?

Regrettably, the term continues to live on in the popular imagination.

There’s certainly plenty of interest in the term on Google:

What then is a crisis?

There are many definitions. Steven Fink believes a crisis can only be classified a crisis if it satisfies all four of these questions:

• Is the situation a precursor that risks escalating in intensity?
• Does it risk coming under close scrutiny?
• Will it interfere with normal business operations?
• Will it jeopardise our public image or bottom line?

This is an excellent way to approach the question.

If a crisis can be summed up in one word, in my experience it would be ‘Paralysis’. Organisational paralysis, that is, at the most senior level.

The massive majority of so-called ‘crises’ sloshing around in social media are problems, issues and incidents of one sort or another, not crises.

Pin pricks and jabs, not paralysis.