No matter what size your organization is, news of your crisis can be around the globe within 20 minutes, making your first statement more important than ever before. In the early stages of most crises, reporters are happy to take information from a company representative regarding the situation. That includes information in your initial response: [...]
This article is the first of a series that will examine how a Crisis Communications Team Leader keeps his or her team effective in the heat of a crisis. As our videographer, John, unloaded a third camera from his SUV, I asked why he brought so much equipment to our media skills training course. After [...]
Anyone who has been interviewed about a crisis would like to tell the reporter everything is okay. It’s natural to want to minimize the situation. However, sooner or later the truth comes out and the situation develops another storyline: Your organization doesn’t tell the truth.
Normally the holidays are a time of slow news. Aside from the predictable live reports showing crowded airports, shoppers stampeding through stores and lousy weather there’s usually not much else going on. However, that wasn’t the case on December 20 when ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer interviewed three of the nation’s top intelligence officials about [...]
How many times did you see or hear this during the recent 2010 mid-term elections? The reporter is frustrated after interviewing a candidate. Turning to the camera he says to his colleague in the studio, “Well, that wasn’t very insightful. She wouldn’t discuss anything not on her talking points. When she did answer questions she [...]
This article discusses the process of building an effective crisis communications plan from concept to finished resource. A crisis communications plan is one of the three critical components of an effective crisis response. Together with a clearly stated crisis communications policy and periodic crisis exercises and drills to practice implementing the plan, they are your [...]
This article discusses three lessons learned from crises over the last seven months. Steps to avoid these missteps should be included in your crisis communications plan. Over the past seven months the media have relentlessly covered major crises ranging from a superstar athlete’s fall from grace, a massive vehicle recall because of safety problems, two [...]
In a fast-breaking crisis, communicating early and often can link your stakeholders with your messages and establish your organization as a reliable source of verified information. However, traditional communications channels quickly become clogged with speculation, conjecture and rumors about your organization and how it is handling the crisis. That’s why the Crisis Communications Team Leader [...]
To fine-tune your crisis response skills, we’ve advocated watching other organizations and practitioners handle real-life traumas and analyze their emergency strategy and tactics. For example, the ongoing Toyota recall crisis has provided a bonanza of crisis management lessons, all of which belong in your crisis communications notebook, if they’re not there already. If you haven’t [...]
One of the most important components of crisis response is effective communications, but to whom should you be talking and what should you be saying? That depends on which stage your communications efforts are in: Initial Stage Primary Stage Recovery Stage Let’s take a look at communications in these three stages. Initial Stage Making a [...]
