Navigating Crisis in the SNAFU Era: Why Proactive Threat Management Matters
In today’s world, disruption is no longer the exception; it’s the rule. From misinformation campaigns to AI-generated deepfakes, the threats organizations face are emerging faster and in places many leaders aren’t even looking. What used to feel like a once-in-a-decade crisis is now part of a constant backdrop of unpredictability.
This is the SNAFU era – Situation Normal: All Fouled Up. In this environment, traditional crisis communications alone won’t protect your brand. It’s time for organizations to move from reactive response to proactive threat management.
Why the Old Playbook Doesn’t Work Anymore
Only 20% of organizations actively monitor online conversations about their brand.
Negative narratives spread six times faster than positive ones.
Threats now originate on TikTok, anonymous forums and even the dark web – long before they hit the press.
Threat Management Is Here
We have developed a threat management suite of services designed to meet the wave of challenges facing brands and executives. This is about proactively identifying, assessing and mitigating risks to a brand’s reputation and stakeholder trust. Consider the active threats across social media, such as coordinated misinformation, negative sentiment spikes or viral criticism – managing inbound issues, from customer complaints and press inquiries to tracking potential exposures on the dark web, could compromise sensitive information or intellectual property. By combining active listening, real-time monitoring, rapid-response protocols and strategic messaging, we ensure emerging threats are addressed quickly and effectively, minimizing reputational impact and reinforcing confidence among audiences and stakeholders.
By the time a crisis has gone public, most organizations are already on the defensive. And once you’re on defense, you’ve lost valuable time, trust and control.
What Threat Management Looks Like
Proactive threat management is more than damage control. It’s about creating systems that allow you to spot risks early and neutralize them before they escalate. At Hart, we see three critical shifts organizations must make.
Listen Beyond Marketing Dashboards
Tracking likes and sentiment is not enough. True threat listening means identifying signals of escalation, hostile actors or disinformation campaigns that could compromise reputation, safety or leadership credibility.Connect the Right Teams
Threat management isn’t just a communications problem. It requires alignment across legal, security, data and executive leadership to ensure a fast, coordinated response.Practice for the Inevitable
Running scenario planning and tabletop exercises builds muscle memory so your team knows how to respond to everything from a deepfake video to a safety threat targeting an executive.
How Ready Is Your Organization?
We created a quick Threat Management Checklist to help you assess your current level of preparedness. A few questions to consider:
Do you actively monitor social, news and dark web chatter for early signs of risk?
Do you have a clear escalation protocol that connects comms, legal and security?
Can your team tell the difference between digital noise and a real threat?
Are you prepared to address AI-driven risks like deepfakes or disinformation?
If you hesitated on any of these, your organization may be more vulnerable than you think.
Your Next Step
The most resilient organizations aren’t the ones that respond best to crises, they’re the ones who prevent them from happening.
At Hart, we help brands build resilience by moving from reactive to predictive with social listening, monitoring and cross-functional crisis planning.
👉 Schedule your tailored Threat Analysis Profile to uncover vulnerabilities before they become tomorrow’s headline.
