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Yonder Launches Incident Management Solution to fill intelligence gaps for brand communication teams
What makes online content go viral? The founders of Yonder had the same question.
As former advisors to U.S. national security organizations, our founders pioneered methods of identifying how and why narratives go viral online. What they found is that most narratives often originate in agenda-driven groups called “factions” as coordinated propaganda campaigns, frequently aimed at recruiting for extremist and terrorist groups — and to impact public discourse.
In the past few years, the team has seen similar dynamics play out online against commercial brands and their values, executives, and spokespeople. Factions driven by political agendas, social issues, or foreign influence pull brands into their narratives and use them as platforms to amplify their impact and message. Unfortunately, this leaves brands caught in the crosshairs of these campaigns and finding themselves scrambling to act quickly to do damage control.
Yonder has launched its Incident Management solution to protect brands from agenda-driven groups and the potentially dangerous conversations they start and perpetuate. Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, Incident Management equips teams with the data needed to predict when a viral incident is coming — and whether and how to act.
Why Are Brands So Vulnerable to Agenda-Driven Groups?
While traditional social analytics tools are helpful, they only help brands understand when a conversation is already trending in mainstream channels. By the time brands see what’s happening in their social analytics dashboard, the frame has been set, the public believes the narrative, and the communications team is forced to react based on gut instinct. Instead of relying on data, companies are left to hypothesize about who is driving the narrative, how it spread, what the group’s motivations are, and what will happen next — and how it’ll impact their brand.
Traditional tools can tell what’s already happening but they can’t see what’s coming. Download our guide to see what’s missing in your tech stack.
Anatomy Of A Viral Incident
The recent incidents with online retailer Wayfair are a prime example of an authentic incident. Content about the brand was being created and amplified by legitimate accounts in real, organic ways. Unfortunately, those accounts belonged to members of conspiracy and right-leaning factions tied to QAnon. The narrative started with a post on Reddit that proposed Wayfair was enabling child trafficking through the sale of furniture items that were selling for thousands of dollars and named after allegedly missing children.
WAY FAIR IS TRAFFICKING CHILDREN IN FRONT OF PEOPLES FACES if you go to wayfair, search any item like throw pillows or cabinets, sort it from highest to lowest and you’ll see mediocre household items you could get on etsy, but these are
— ally (@alliiikayyy) July 10, 2020
This is not the first time child trafficking conspiracy theories have circulated online. In this particular instance, the factions at play simply used Wayfair and its brand to reignite the conversation. Months after the incident, mentions about Wayfair continue to live on in social media posts that are linked to ongoing conspiracy theories about child trafficking.
Tools like Incident Management enable brands like Wayfair to see narratives as they develop in real, or near-real time, in fringe channels (think: Gab, 4chan, and Parler). It empowers teams with powerful data, insights, and analytics to discern if narratives are authentic, or not, as well as enough context about the intentions of the participating factions to discern level of risk as teams perform regular on-going triaging of priorities.
Covering The Blindspots Left By Monitoring & Listening Tools
The primary challenge in staying ahead of these damaging narratives is that brands have gaps in their tech stack and blindspots in their social intelligence. To combat this, companies must invest in technology solutions like Incident Management. Software like this allows all teams — social, digital, content, comms, public affairs, executive — to know exactly when a virtual incident is imminent, which factions are behind it, what campaign tactics are at play, and of course, when a narrative has the potential to reemerge.
Staying ahead of a narrative means beginning to gather intelligence before a brand is in the middle of a viral incident and crisis. For brands in the middle of an incident, Yonder can be up and running in less than 24 hours, most often providing missing intelligence and background on the incident that gives the team vital details they need to align on a plan. A more standard engagement includes proactive implementation and monitoring of the brand and their most important topics before any damaging narratives begin to emerge. Being proactive means giving the brand the opportunity to own the public framing of a narrative and avoid the pain of reacting on their heels.
Building a More Resilient Brand
Ultimately, the goal of any incident management partner and software is to help brands become more resilient to virtual attacks. By combining intelligent technology with intelligent teams, brands will be better prepared to combat the new breeds of social crisis and digital forces – and win.
To learn how Yonder helps brands fight against harmful online forces, click here.
How can you make your brand less vulnerable to viral stories and misinformation spreading online?
