Over the past two months, we’ve once again been working hard on the OS for crisis communication, and that has resulted in a number of great new features that we’d like to present here.
🚨 Real-life situation, drill, test, demo, or training
Some of you may have already noticed: when you submit a situation report, you’ll now need to specify what you’re using FirstRing for. Is it a real-life situation, an exercise, a test, a demo, or a training session?
That distinction may seem minor, but it’s important. Of course, FirstRing isn’t only used during actual crises and incidents. It’s also used extensively for drills, testing, and training. Until now, your crisis overview didn’t show what kind of situation it was after the fact. That’s about to change. In your crisis overview, you’ll soon be able to see at a glance which situations actually occurred and which were part of, for example, an exercise or training session. This is especially useful if you also use FirstRing as a logbook. When you look back months or even years later, you’ll know right away: this was a real crisis, this was an exercise, and this was a test.
This creates a more organized and reliable archive of the crises and incidents in which FirstRing was actually deployed.
🔎 A huge step forward in public sentiment assessment
We’ve taken a major step forward in FirstRing’s “ public sentiment assessment .” The news and social media search has been completely revamped, both technically and in terms of its look and feel. As a result, FirstRing finds many more relevant online sources, and you have more control over which posts are included in your analysis.
The news search has been significantly expanded. Regional media are now much easier to find, and international news sources are also better incorporated when they are relevant to the situation. The social media search has also become much broader. Whereas FirstRing previously searched primarily on X, it now also finds posts from Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms.
For every article found, you’ll immediately see a short summary. This lets you assess at a glance whether a news article or social media post is actually relevant to your analysis. FirstRing makes an initial selection, but you remain in control: using the sliders, you decide which posts are included and which are excluded.
In addition, you can now select a time window for a second, third, fourth, or fifth “ public sentiment assessment ” of a crisis. Only automatically collected media and social media posts within this window are analyzed; the analysis also identifies trends compared to the previous analysis.
The result is a much more comprehensive and relevant set of sources to serve as the basis for your public sentiment assessment. And that is reflected in the quality of the analysis itself. For example, in a matter of minutes, you can create a detailed public sentiment assessment based on what’s actually trending in the news and on social media at that moment.
🎤 Press Inquiries
How can you quickly prepare a leadership or spokesperson for the tough questions journalists might ask? To help with that, we’ve added a new feature: Press Questions.
FirstRing generates a list of critical questions that a leadership or spokesperson might be asked on camera. In doing so, FirstRing considers not only everything currently known about the situation, but also the public sentiment assessment. What questions are already being asked by the public? What concerns are people having? And which topics are receiving a lot of attention in the news and on social media? That information is also used to determine which critical questions you can expect.
For every press inquiry, you’ll immediately receive a suggested response tailored to the current situation. This way, within just a few minutes, you’ll have a complete preparation guide that you can print out and go over with your leadership or spokesperson. This is especially useful when there’s little time to prepare, but you still want to ensure someone is well-prepared to handle the situation.
This makes "Press Questions" a great complement to our AI interviewer. With the AI interviewer, you can practice an interview in real time, including spoken questions and answers. With "Press Questions," you also have the most important critical questions and possible answers at your fingertips in a single overview.
📣 Already communicated
During a crisis, one communication often follows another in quick succession. That is why it is important for FirstRing to know not only what is happening, but also what the organization itself has already communicated.
With "Already Communicated," you can now easily add this information to FirstRing. You can do this, for example, by adding the URL of a live blog or web page, posting a link to your X account, or pasting previously communicated information directly into FirstRing.
FirstRing then incorporates this information when creating new output. This ensures that what you have already communicated is taken into account, allowing new texts, recommendations, and other output to build on that foundation.
This helps ensure consistent communication during a crisis, prevents unnecessary repetition, and ensures that new communications align with what has already been communicated.
