The internet is a fabulous invention. It offers all sorts of opportunities to the PR professional. Just look at that array of e-PR courses in the side bar. BUT, and it is a big but, it does offer a rapid platform to anyone wishing to mount a largely unregulated attack on any organisation’s reputation.

Work which you have built up over many years can be brought down in a matter of hours. Sometimes you may not even know about a cyber attack. It could have succeeded before you are even made aware of it. e-PR is a very fast-changing world indeed. As you can imagine, it can seriously damage your career.

The savvy PR professional will get ahead of this particular game. You have to be as fast on your virtual feet as the activists. You need to have established “listening posts” to monitor the chatter. You should have clearances in place that allow you to react fast. You should have established codes of conduct that prevent staff from reacting personally and muddying the waters.

And, above all, you must know what to do and how to set the tone of your response. Sometimes it may be better to say nothing at all. Sometimes it may be better to get someone else to fight your corner. But do you know when those sometimes are?

Online issues management is, of course, a brand new discipline. But its roots are in traditional crisis management. Its stem, foliage, blossoms and fruit, however, are very different indeed.

Don’t get left behind. There isn’t a second to waste when a cyber attack breaks out. Protecting our employing organisation’s reputation in the internet age is a minute-to-minute business.