Last week, Jennifer and I had an opportunity to conduct a workshop on crisis communication at the Washington State Community Action Partnership Statewide Development and Marketing Conference. The goal of the training was to provide attendees with an understanding of the various types of crises and how to best prepare. We also spent time discussing social media and how it is changing the way organizations respond to crises today.
Developing a crisis communication plan is oftentimes dismissed by leaders: Preparing for a possible crisis seems a low priority when faced with limited resources and more immediate challenges. However, preparation is really the name of the game when it comes to effective crisis management.
By being prepared, an organization will be able to alert the right people, gather all the facts, create the materials, and ensure a spokesperson is trained and available to respond in a timely and appropriate manner.
It also is important to remember that the tone of the editorial coverage surrounding a crisis will often be set when the first news reports are published.
During a crisis, organizations and their spokespersons need to be concerned, show concern, speak concern and always tell the truth. It is critical the organization does not speculate on the cause, cost, or parties responsible; instead it should provide information about what is known. Ultimately, the company and its representative need to act with totally honesty and sensitivity during and after the crisis.
The day after delivering the training, I heard the following analysis on NPR surrounding BP’s crisis response to its devastating oil spill in the gulf. In her segment, Crisis Communication Requires ‘Common Sense,’ Host Lynn Neary spoke with Patrick Kinney of Gaffney Bennet Public Relations to secure his perspective on BP’s early response to the oil spill.
Kinney stated, “I think they’ve really improved their communications efforts, but they refer to the first 48 hours after a crisis incident as, you know, the golden hour. And what you do then sort of sets the stage for, you know, how it’s going to play out from that. I don’t know if they can recover from how bad they did in that first 48 hours. But I do think that they are doing better now by giving frequent updates, giving the facts as they know them.”
Clearly, social media and user generated content has had a significant impact on crisis communication. It is important for communicators to be aware of these mediums and incorporate them into crisis communication plans.
Bellingham Fire Chief, Bill Boyd (@chiefb2) recently shared his perspective from the front lines of crisis communication on the impact of both social media and user generated content. In his post, “A Social Media Incident Commander’s Perspective” he offers some valuable tips including,
- Social media is not a “kid thing”. It is THE THING. Minimize the medium and you may be minimized.
- It is hard to give context in 140 characters. Choose your words and phrases carefully. Get it right the first time.
- If you don’t have a social media presence before the “big one,” your likelihood of social media success in emergency social media communications is just about zero.
- Be prepared for your message to go viral in a heartbeat. This means you need to be ready to keep the messages flowing and point readers somewhere to get detailed information.
- It is not OK to post nothing for a long time (a long time in the social media world is minutes – not hours)
- If you don’t get it right, correct it as soon as you can! Don’t linger, or the error will.
- Notice and correct rumors ASAP, especially if they are trending.
- You can convey compassion and sound human in less than 140 characters. “We are concerned” packs a punch.
There are numerous examples of organizations that have failed to successfully communicate during a crisis and experienced damage to their brand and oftentimes seen executives fired as a result. If your organization does not have a crisis communication plan we recommend taking the time to create a framework for how your organization will respond.