Crisis Communications

If your organization had a crisis today, would you be prepared to handle communications around the event? If you read through this week's articles, you'll find many tips for preparing for and making it through a crisis with your business and reputation intact.

The basic steps of effective crisis communications are not difficult, but they require advance work in order to minimize damage. (Item #1)   When events are unfolding and everyone is searching for information, it is in the organization's best interest to use as many of its employees as possible to support the crisis communications effort. (Item #2)   Here are some crisis communication tips that your brand can take from some experts in disaster relief. (Item #3)  

How can you best help your organization communicate effectively in a crisis? (Item #4)   The best thing possible is to get in front of a crisis so that you can define the narrative. (Item #5)   The short story: ultimately, social media's role in a PR crisis is a support role to corporate communications. (Item #6)  

As always, we look forward to hearing your comments & insights regarding business continuity. If you have a topic you'd like us to cover, email me at [email protected].

Bob Mellinger, President
Attainium Corp

1. Every organization is vulnerable to crises. The days of playing ostrich are gone. You can play, but your stakeholders will not be understanding or forgiving because they've watched what happened with

Every organization is vulnerable to crises. The days of playing ostrich are gone. You can play, but your stakeholders will not be understanding or forgiving because they've watched what happened with Fukishima, Penn State/Sandusky, BP/Deepwater and Wikileaks. If you don't prepare, you will incur more damage.
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/articles/10-steps-of-crisis-communications.pdf

2. Crisis Communications in the Network Age

Crisis communications have become tougher than ever and Google, Facebook and Twitter are to blame. Google has shortened our patience thresholds and made waiting for information unbearable. And thanks to Facebook and Twitter with their ticker-like activity streams, we expect new information every time we refresh the screen. Everything else is stale.
http://socialmediatoday.com/ericschwartzman/1584621/crisis-communications-network-age

3. Ten Social Media Lessons about Crisis Communications

As many brands have learned since plunging into social media, it is critical to have a plan to respond to crises that relate to your business. When issues arise, both big and small, having a chain of command and response matrix available can help thwart an issue before it gets worse.
http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com/blog/2013/03/10-social-media-lessons-about-crisis-communications/

4. Analysis: effective crisis communication tips

The way you handle internal communications if disaster strikes can make all the difference to employee engagement and the speed at which the dust settles. Crisis communications expert Mark Ferguson shares his tips on calming the storm.
http://headlines.uk.com/analysis-effective-crisis-communication-tips/

5. Lessons Learned from the Crisis Communications Blunders of 2013

Paula Deen. Anthony Weiner, A-Rod, Bob Filner. This summer was filled with public relations disasters. It's not just politicians and celebrities who face PR disasters, businesses do as well. Think about Carnival Cruises, BP, and Toyota. Each faced a major crisis that became larger each day, because they failed to have in place a proper crisis communications plan. Any company regardless of size may find themselves facing a major disaster. Yet most companies have no basic crisis communications in place and that is fatal.
http://alisterpaine.com/2013/09/16/lessons-learned-from-the-crisis-communications-blunders-of-2013/

6. Who's on First? | Social Media Crisis Communications Strategy

Usually, social media and PR pros have the same goal: to get people talking about the brand. However, crisis communications strategy is one of those rare times wherein the marketing objectives of these two job functions may be at odds. Social media is a dialogue marketing model that seeks to engage a social community in conversation, and PR's job is to make sure that the right message is getting across to the right people. In crisis communications strategy, you will be part of a crack response team with PR, and your role is to inform: you will most likely be sounding the alarm, informing the communications strategy, and then informing the community with that message.
http://www.meltwater.com/social-media-blog/social-media-crisis-communications-strategy/