Sneak Peek: Rapid Response Communications

Client Type: Nonprofits, foundations and philanthropic organizations protecting communities and vital services against federal attacks and an unpredictable media cycle
Industry Relevance: The nonprofit sector advancing equity and justice across a wide range of issue areas (e.g. community safety, education, climate, health equity, housing, income inequality, racial justice, LGBTQ rights, immigrant rights, etc.)

The Wakeman Agency helps mission-driven causes and socially responsible companies leverage the power of strategic communications to fight for a better future.

The Scenario

With current economic and political instability, plus attacks by the federal government on the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors as a whole, an increasing number of organizations are functioning in crisis mode —needing to understand the media landscape, reading the market signals, reacting to what’s unfolding in their sector and planning to stay ahead of the news cycle. It sounds overwhelming and sometimes it can be. Today, we want to share with you what rapid response encompasses when you are working with The Wakeman Agency as a communications partner. One of the main proactive components of this rapid response offering —which positions organizations to address risks and opportunities early on— is monitoring and analysis through constant media surveillance of keywords, topics and salient narratives that are indicative of changing events, fluctuating risk, or unpredictable audience dynamics. In this period of profound change on all levels, effectively navigating a heightened level of uncertainty and threats is essential for the survival of equity-centering organizations as you work to educate your audiences and orient powerful social narratives.

Scanning for What Comes Next

In a time when narratives can shift rapidly and public safety nets are under attack, this service helps clients anticipate what is coming. Our work is grounded in a framework that combines real-time risk monitoring, audience insights, narrative analysis, and scenario planning. This allows us to help organizations identify vulnerabilities before they escalate and understand how cultural and political dynamics may affect perception and organizational positioning within a field of work. And while much of this work is about risk mitigation, rapid response monitoring also offers a lens through which to see opportunities. Timely counsel of this kind from The Wakeman Agency can lead to immediate actions on short timeframes, or careful planning of the most strategic next steps for longer time horizons.

The items that are picked up by this rapid response monitoring include, but are not limited to:

  • Negative or antagonistic publicity toward leadership, staff, board members, or partner organizations that can appear on blogs, social media, traditional media outlets or other online platforms.
  • Viral social media posts with monitoring of ongoing impressions to observe and act quickly if a threat grows.
  • Shifts in the association of your organization with other questionable or inaccurate entities which could spark viral campaigns targeting your work.
  • Notification of newly released stories implicating your industry, organizational leaders or major programs, which can also help to provide a window into what uninformed audiences may come across when learning about your organization’s work.
  • Trends in new media phenomena or impacts of technology, such as AI, on the ecosystem of stories that are relevant to, or even directly about your organization or your sector.
  • Shifts in language and the way narratives are being shaped around specific issues.
  • Evidence to support how to position an organization’s thought leadership in an evolving landscape.

Monitoring and rapid response is offered as a standalone service or as part of our PR and crisis engagements. In either scenario, rapid response monitoring allows The Wakeman Agency to function alongside our clients while co-observing the evolution of the media landscape. We share our insights in real time and help clients evaluate their positioning through a more comprehensive understanding of the media environment, and capitalize on foresight that our team can extract from this form of monitoring.

The guidance that we provide with this form of monitoring speaks to the key dynamics of your organizational environment in real-time, while scanning for key intersections in narratives on adjacent social or political issues. It allows teams to put out fires early before they spread, flags items for additional lists of “what to watch,” and ensures you’re covering the known —and sometimes previously unknown— factors that could develop into important stories. You benefit from the strategic analysis, interpretation and guidance of seasoned crisis communications professionals deeply familiar with the philanthropic and nonprofit ecosystems, as well as social and political dynamics relevant to mass communication.

If your organization would benefit from strategic guidance to assess and flag risk and opportunities in the unpredictable and ever-evolving media environment, get in touch for a private consultation.