Crisis Communications

The Agency’s Guide to Crisis Communications.

Contents.

Introduction

Crisis communication plans: What you need.
Crisis comms dos & don’ts
Resources

When you think of crisis communications, what comes to mind? Is it the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010? Or maybe the Travis Scott Astroworld Festival disaster of 2021?

PR can be a high-stakes game. It requires strategic thinking, not Kleenex and band aids or cupcakes. We all remember the failures. Good crisis management can help you reduce the noise and impact of a situation, while directing the narrative in your company’s favour.

All crisis management situations have one thing in common – the result depends on how prepared the organization is to deal with it. The best way to prepare is to create a crisis communications plan.

What goes into a great crisis communications plan? In this guide, you’ll learn how to create a crisis communications plan that will save time and potentially your company’s reputation.

1. Crisis communication plans: What you need.

Risk Assessment.

The first step to creating a solid crisis communications plan is to perform a risk assessment. Evaluate your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Routinely review your risk assessment document to ensure that it still reflects the current state of the business and any possible crisis situations that could arise.

Sample Responses.

Step two is to write responses for a variety of scenarios, audiences, and mediums. Creating prepared answers ensures you have thoughtful and professional responses that reflect your company’s values when you need them. If you wait until a crisis occurs to craft your responses, you may make mistakes because your team will be under significant pressure and time constraints. Remember to tailor the response to fit the specific crisis situation.

Social Media Management.

Social media is the public forum where conversations happen about crises and breaking news. Ensure your social media team has the information, training, and processes in place to appropriately manage conversations on the company’s social channels.

A social media process to manage these comments can include specific guidelines on how and when to engage with individuals.

Providing social media posts that respond to comments and direct people to offline support, like a designated email to address concerns privately.

Having pre-approved, prepared social media posts help the business address misinformation or questions on social media as they arise.

And finally, remember to cancel scheduled social media posts during a crisis.

Contacts and Media Lists.

If a crisis situation occurs, you must have a limited list of key personnel who need to be involved and in-the-know. This list should include the CEO, VP of Communications, your PR agency and legal counsel. Your organization must also assign key spokespeople – and this role may be allocated differently depending on the situation. These spokespeople must be media trained and aware of the crisis communications plan.

To save time, update your contact lists – including media and other important contacts – regularly. The contact list should include local, national, and industry contacts. You won’t need to contact the full list for a crisis, but you should have it on hand since every crisis is unique and different media outlets will be interested depending on the situation.

Holding Statement.

A holding statement is the first notice released in a crisis and includes just enough details to get the message across until more information can be shared. Issuing a timely statement during a crisis is crucial. It allows your organization to provide facts, limit misinformation, and control the narrative. As time is of the essence, your external communications team should draft a series of “ready to go” statements to cover different scenarios, with placeholders to be filled in appropriately on the day of.

Internal Communications.

It’s best practice to inform employees about a crisis situation. Whether the statement is sent by email or uploaded to the company’s intranet, the communications team should provide facts about the situation and remind employees not to share any confidential information on social media or with the press, unless they are a designated spokesperson.

Stakeholder Communications.

Different stakeholders will be more affected than others in certain situations. A great way to ensure you don’t miss any stakeholders in your crisis comms plan is to prepare a list of the various groups associated with your company.

For each crisis scenario, prepare messages for every stakeholder group to make sure those impacted receive the information they need. Example: if there’s a leak at a factory, the company’s suppliers, employees, vendors, board of directors and regulatory authorities will require instructions and/or details that apply specifically to them. Depending on the situation and public safety, the general public might also need to be alerted.

Crisis Communications Drill.

Test your communications crisis plan. A crisis drill will help you identify any missing elements of your plan and to make adjustments without real-life repercussions. Performing regular drills also prepares a team to work under pressure and build confidence. Different drills for various scenarios should be performed to ensure the most effective outcomes .

2. Crisis Comms Dos & Don’ts.

1. DO address the issue immediately – After discovering a crisis, provide information to your audiences within an appropriate window of time. Sometimes that’s almost immediately and other times it’s within 24-48 hours, depending on the situation. Addressing the issue promptly allows your company to drive the narrative.
2. DON’T underestimate the power of assumptions – It’s important to provide accurate information before the media and public can make assumptions or jump to conclusions. The risks of staying quiet during a crisis go beyond a damaged reputation – your silence could impact public safety or the environment, depending on the situation.
3. DON’T ignore comments on social media – It may feel easier to ignore comments on social media during a crisis, but doing so will only fuel the fire. Instead, prepare a few sample responses and include them in your crisis comms plan and make sure to adjust them accordingly.
4. DO have a team of people who can work together to create messaging – Two heads are better than one, especially in times of crisis. It’s always good to have a sounding board to run your messaging and responses by before you push anything live.
5. DON’T keep talking about the crisis after it has blown over – Most news cycles last 24 hours or less, a week at most if it’s a massive world affair. Remember the acronym KIS – keep it simple. Use KIS in all of your crisis comms situations to help you respond to the incident as simply and quickly as possible and then move on. Don’t beat the “dead horse.”
6. DO remember that this too shall pass and no crisis is insurmountable – When you’re in the heat of a stressful situation, it seems like you, your brand, and your company will never recover. However, when dealt with professionally and with empathy, a company can emerge from a crisis stronger than before. Hang in there!

3. Resources.

Here are some additional resources to help you create your organization’s crisis comms plan:

About The Agency.

The Agency is a strategic communications agency that has supported 200+ start-up and scale-up organizations in technology and affiliated sectors. We work directly with innovators to understand their unique needs and nuances of their products, services, and situations.

Don’t wait for a crisis – contact us for a tailored crisis communications plan that will address your specific scenarios and provide a roadmap for overcoming them.