Two of South Africa’s most admired communicators, Victor Dlamini and Mike Stopforth, have teamed up to create 48H, a social media crisis consultancy. The social media crisis consultancy will bring real world solutions to clients faced with an online crisis, and the offering integrates well into the existing agency model.
‘When you’re faced with a crisis, the first 48 hours are critical. It is during this time that it is vital to act smart and act fast. What we see more often than not is that brands exacerbate the severity of the crisis purely by their ill-advised responses. Damage can fall anywhere on the continuum of minor reputational risk to irreparable commercial damage. We’re there to make sure that in those first critical hours, brand stakeholders have objective, experienced partners who can walk them through mitigating as much risk and long term brand damage as possible,’ says Stopforth.
Dlamini adds that a social media crisis is more often than not something that many companies and brands are underprepared for. “Many invest for the good times – they focus on how many likes their posts garner, or how effective their influencer programmes are. They don’t adequately anticipate or plan for what happens when social media goes awry. Managing an online crisis is one of the most demanding issues faced by organisations. We have the skills to assist in managing a crisis,’ says Dlamini.
Dlamini and Stopforth possess a set of exceptional skills and experience in social media and crisis management that spans agency, B2B, B2C, media and the public sector. Clients will benefit from their combined set of unmatched insights.
The 48H model is unique in that clients will not pay a retainer, they would only reach out to 48H when they are needed. “We can guarantee a timely response to the client’s query, but because of the time sensitivity and the ‘fixer’ nature of the business, the traditional processes and onboardings need to be fast tracked. We can respond or work as fast as the client needs us to, and also serve as supplementary support to a brand’s existing PR, digital or social media agency,” Stopforth adds.
For more information about 48HR visit http://48h.co.za/
