Crisis Management

The coronavirus has shined a spotlight on heretofore unheralded people and things. Cleaning and transport staff, fast-food and supermarket workers now are essential employees. Finally. Also essential are healthcare workers, some of whom have ascended… Continued

With reopening touching so many industries, there is no one-size-fits-all communications strategy. But communicators will be left holding the mic, responsible for over-communicating policies and practices to employees, customers and other stakeholders. Here are tips to help.

It never hurts to revisit crisis operating procedures, particularly as they relate to social media. (In fact, with so many projects on pause, now may be the ideal time to rethink your crisis response.) These tips should prove useful as you audit your internal social media processes to stay resilient amid a communications crisis.

Fake news is not a new phenomenon. Its proliferation during the pandemic, though, when life and death are at stake, has elevated the issue to a new level. As a result, Hill + Knowlton’s (US) new analytics chief John Gillooly believes verifying data will be hot after the pandemic subsides. He also thinks it’s important for people to laugh now. Even for data analysts.

With a homebound audience during the pandemic, it’s tempting for brands and organizations to flood the digital zone with endless rounds of messages. That’s a mistake, Evoke KYNE global digital chief Julie O’Donnell says. Instead, consider first whether your message is adding value or noise.

The coronavirus has prompted PR firms to create practices aimed at helping brands, companies and organizations work during the pandemic and make plans to emerge from it. Given the virus’s decimation of the economy, another… Continued

What to do when you have trouble communicating and there’s an important message to send? Qualification: You’re an ineffective communicator in the eyes of your 25-year-old daughter. And to make things more complex, you happen to be governor of the country’s coronavirus epicenter?

As stores and businesses suspended operations in the wake of the pandemic, many sent customers updates of new business hours, closures, delays and service suspensions. The question, though, is how to communicate such messages. Should you be an advocate or an apologist? Both approaches have merit.

It’s a useful coincidence that the PRSA chief also is a veteran healthcare communicator. After our initial visit with T. Garland Stansell during the very early moments of the coronavirus outbreak, we thought it was time to ask him how he thinks communicators are doing now, two months into the pandemic. The actions taken and message sent will linger in the public’s mind long after the pandemic subsides, he says.

Our crisis communications columnist Katie Paine assesses the responses to the coronavirus-related media attention from elderly care facilities and the cruise line industry. She finds the messages of both groups missed the boat.