Is your company prepared for a crisis? Tips on communicating during tumultuous times.
Crisis Communications
This year has featured many PR nightmares that have surfaced in the media, creating negative reputations for companies across the globe. As one adverse scenario leads to another, the overall culture, mission, and values of businesses rapidly become destroyed as information is interpreted (or misinterpreted) by the public. Crisis communication is the “dialog between the organization and its public(s) prior to, during, and after the negative occurrence. The dialog details strategies and tactics designed to minimize damage to the image of the organization.”
Crises can be classified into three major types:
- Crises of the physical world, including natural disasters and failures of technology, such as nuclear power
- Crises of the human climate, including confrontation with adversary groups and malevolent acts of governments, groups and individuals
- Crises of management failure, arising from mismanagement, skewed values, deception and misconduct
Crisis communication can look different for each company. Nearly 84% of organizations have an emergency communication plan in place, according to the Business Continuity Institute. Additionally, 55% use three or more emergency communication processes.
It’s apparent that technology can trigger crises. Cybercrime, for instance, is a great example of how technology could lead to a crisis unfolding. We saw this on October 4, 2021 when Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp went down for six hours and three billion people were affected from all corners of the world. Facebook went down for a bit on Thursday, October 8 as well. Security experts pointed to a Domain Name System (DNS) problem as a possible source of the issue. Around 1 pm ET, Cisco’s internet analysis division ThousandEyes said on Twitter that the outage was a result of an ongoing DNS failure. The DNS translates website names into IP addresses that can be read by a computer. It’s often called the “phonebook of the internet.”
Technology outages are also common. More than 3.5 billion people around the world use Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp to communicate with friends and family, share political messages, and market their businesses.
“With Facebook being down we’re losing thousands in sales,” said Mark Donnelly, a start-up founder in Ireland who runs HUH Clothing, a fashion brand focused on mental health that uses Facebook and Instagram to reach customers. “It may not sound like a lot to others, but missing out on four or five hours of sales could be the difference between paying the electricity bill or rent for the month.”
How We Can Help
The following are a few preventative strategies that can be implemented to solve ongoing PR crises and strengthen corporate messaging:
- Employ a gatekeeper
- Keep your social statements brief
- Honesty and Explanation
More and more brands have become aware of the importance of crisis communications. Moreover, having a crisis communications plan with your PR agency is like having a life insurance policy for your company. Negative press can have detrimental effects on a business and has the power to damage its reputation. As Milldam Public Relations President Adam Waitkunas mentioned in the past blog Time for Social Media Influencers and Celebrities to Adopt Crisis Communications Planning , as social media influencers continue to flex their muscles through TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms, developing a comprehensive crisis communications plan has become more important than ever.
The accuracy, speed and consistency of the response is important and can help mitigate the loss of reputation, money, followers, and sponsors. How influencers navigate their social media and interactions can have an enormous impact on their audience, fans, and sponsorships.
Milldam’s Crisis Communications Service
While we never start the day expecting a disaster to unfold, it’s inevitable that a crisis will arise at some point in the future; whether it’s a downtime event, security breach, or something completely out of our control like a weather event of some kind. How your organization communicates during this tumultuous time can shape your company’s reputation in the industry for years to come. With locations in Los Angeles and Boston, Milldam is well equipped and has decades of experience to provide crisis communications services throughout the country.
Milldam is here to help with:
- Creating crisis communications plans & support
- Implementing crisis communications strategy
- Crisis management
- Content creation
- Social media management
Get started on your organization’s crisis communications plan today!
