Crisis Communication: Strategies and Best Practices

Posted on Sep 14, 2024 in Other subjects

TEMA 5

1. Special Spaces

• Earth (the open spaces of wandering nomads)
• Territory (Humans plant crops and claim land)
• Commodity (most recently, we have lived in the industry)
• Knowledge (the new space, which is created by the pervasive digital network)

2. Convergence Forms

• Technological convergence: functional convergence, trade-off advantages, and disadvantages.
• Regulatory convergence: deregulatory strategy to avoid media monopoly
• Media industry convergence: Horizontal and vertical integrations, synergy for business operations, mergers, and acquisitions.

TEMA 6

1. Types of Crisis

Product issue, service, financial, HR (discrimination or harassment), Employee misconduct, executive misconduct, board misconduct, facilities issue, natural issue, mistake, accident, injury or death, protest, coordinated external campaign.

2. The 5 Stages

• Denial: Maybe it will blow over.
• Anger: How dare anyone criticize? We’re the victims.
• Depression: What will this do to our brand?
• Acceptance: We accept that our lawyers will draft a heartfelt non-apology.

3. Crisis Communication Plan

• Are not disaster response plans:
  • Do the right thing.
  • Utilize established operational and emergency response protocols.
• Are never final:
  • Continually adjust to meet current realities.
  • Set a schedule for regular reviews and updates.
  • Quarterly or biannually.

2. Anticipate

Key Terms

• Risk Tolerance: The amount of acceptable risk.
• Risk Averse: Someone that does not want to take risks.
• Risk Factors:
  • Probability of occurrence.
  • Range of possible outcomes (impact or amount at stake).
  • Expected timing of the event.
  • Anticipated frequency of risk events from that source.

Use the Six Risk Management Processes

• Plan Risk Management.
• Identify Risks.
• Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis.
• Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis.
• Plan Risk Responses.
• Monitor and Control Risks.

Threats Analysis

• Brainstorm areas of threat:
  • What is likely to happen?
    • Typical/expected issues within your organization.
    • A negative outcome of your day-to-day operations.
    • Issues you, your counterparts, or your competition have experienced in the past 10 years.
  • What is the worst thing that could happen?
    • Areas of big risk.
    • Show-stoppers.
• Monitor Areas of Risk:
  • Incorporate discussions of threats and brewing situations during regular internal meetings.
  • Add as a standing topic on management meeting agendas.
• Listen:
  • Traditional media.
  • Google Alerts, RSS feeds.
  • Social media: Facebook, Twitter.
  • The employee and customer grapevine.
• Manage Issues (before they’re crises):
  • Minimize threats:
    • Proactively pursue solutions to potential issues.
    • Make changes to preempt potential problems.
  • Address problems quickly and directly:
    • When issues arise, address them directly and immediately.
    • Follow organizational policies and procedures to the letter.

3. Prepare

Emergency Protocols

• Establish, document, and communicate emergency protocols:
  • Ensure internal teams know and practice processes and procedures in the event of emergencies.
  • Document protocols to ensure clarity and help educate teams on proper processes.
  • Documented protocols, signed by staff and volunteers, support communication efforts later.
• Ensure Crisis Communications Protocols dovetail with Emergency Protocols.

The Crisis Communications Team

• Whom do you need on your team to manage communications around the potential threats?
• Define their roles (not their titles!)
• Define their responsibilities on the crisis communications team.
• How will you reach them?:
  • Relevant contact information.

Crisis Communication Command Centers (ONLY READ ON POWER)

Communication Policies & Procedures

• Media Relations and Social Media Policies & Procedures:
  • No informal conversations or communication about the crisis via email, text, or other types of writing.
  • All communications reviewed by legal.
  • Only designated spokesperson(s).
  • NO “off the record”.
  • Define procedures for press conference updates.
  • Establish procedures for the Social Media Lead to feed information into the team about only conversation.
• Inbound Inquiry Protocol

Communication Resources: Lists

Update lists, contact information, and details:

• Manage Phone Trees.
• Media Lists.
• Employee Distribution Lists.
• Communications Consultant Contact Information.
• Legal Consultant Contact Information. Monitoring Services

Communication Resources: Templates

• Media Statement Template.
• News Release Template.
• Fact Sheets: for likely issues.
• Fact Sheet Template.

4. Respond

Scope Assessment

• Develop a list of questions that will help quantify a crisis situation when it happens:
  • How many people are involved/aware?
  • Is the media already covering the situation?
  • What is the financial impact?
• Establish quantitative thresholds that distinguish between “issues to watch” and “full-blown crises”:
  • How many online impressions warrant a response vs. quietly monitoring?
  • Remember: sometimes an aggressive response on your part can make a minor issue a larger crisis.

Crisis Checklist and Worksheet

• Develop a literal checklist for the Crisis Communications Lead for any situation:
  • What steps should you take in the moment?
  • Develop your to-do list when you are able to thoughtfully consider and outline important steps.
• Develop a Fact-Gathering Worksheet:
  • A list of facts you will need to confirm to assess the situation.
  • Simple but comprehensive, the list can span dozens of questions.
  • Start with: who, what, when, where, and how.

Logs

• Track your communications:
  • Who’s made inquiries.
  • What was said.
  • By whom.
  • When.
  • How.
  • To whom.
• Be deliberate in your communications:
  • Don’t allow the way you communicate to worsen the crisis!