A proactive approach to crisis management enables the enlightened organization to anticipate and, ideally, prevent or minimize the impact of crisis situations, as well as effectively and efficiently manage and recover from those crisis situations that confront it.
During times of crisis, social media can be a blessing and a curse. While social media provides an information dissemination platform that an organization can effectively and efficiently utilize to communicate with its stakeholders during a crisis, the fact that anyone with access to the Internet or social media can package and disseminate information about the nature or scope of a crisis and an organization’s actions or inactions can result in the dissemination of information that is inaccurate, confusing, or misleading.
It is therefore imperative that an organization skillfully use social media throughout a crisis to ensure that stakeholders receive information that meets and, ideally, exceeds expectations.
While it is obvious that a proactive crisis plan should incorporate the use of social media, in the heat of crisis it is easy to delimit one’s focus to information prepared and disseminated by the organization. It is imperative, though, that personnel be assigned to monitor social media in the interest of revealing information that needs to be corrected.
The importance of proper research and preparation in advance of communicating with organizational stakeholders is well recognized. This often means that the initial information disseminated may have to be general, with more specific information released as it becomes available and is verified.
The assignment of qualified personnel to the preparation and dissemination of information is of utmost importance. The sources of information must be knowledgeable representatives of corporate management or designated subject matter expects. Experienced, skilled PR pros must craft the message. While this is similar to preparing for more traditional information dissemination, the uniqueness of social media demands that those crafting the social media message, initiating that message, or responding to other social media users have the in-depth understanding of the organization and its operations, and the nature and impact of the crisis.
While this article is focused on social media during a crisis, it is important to recognize that traditional and contemporary information sources must be aligned to ensure that a cohesive and consistent message is disseminated.
3 Steps to Successful Crisis Management
There are three phases to successful crisis management from a communications standpoint. The first involves embedding an appropriate multi-channel communication strategy into an organization’s crisis plan. It is important to ensure this plan properly defines and assigns responsibilities during a crisis, including roles and responsibilities related to information dissemination. The value of rehearsing the plan through exercises should be obvious.
The second phase begins when the crisis occurs and demands immediate attention.
The third phase involves a review of the success of all crisis management activities.
The following suggestions will enhance your success in preparing and disseminating information during a crisis:
- Commit to fully meeting and, ideally, exceeding stakeholder expectations for information dissemination.
- Recognize the need to ensure that accurate, professional and timely information is disseminated.
- Ensure that consistent information is being disseminated through traditional and social media.
- Prepare information for dissemination through social media in a format that is suited to this technology.
- Develop social media and email contacts organized by stakeholder categories in advance of a crisis situation.
- Practice your communication strategy and crisis plan regularly to ensure its effectiveness and efficiency and that all participants fully understand and are prepared to enact their roles and responsibilities successfully.
Monitoring, Responding to Social Media
The following will contribute to success in ensuring that social media posts of others do not result in inaccurate information being received by organizational stakeholders:
- Recognize that, since anyone can create and disseminate information via social, not all of it will be accurate.
- Develop a procedure for monitoring and responding to social media posts during a crisis.
- Define roles and responsibilities for personnel assigned to monitoring posts.
- Assign appropriate personnel to monitor and respond to posts based on skills and knowledge.
- Implement social media communication activities in accordance with the overall crisis communication strategy.
- Fully document all relevant internal and external information dissemination during the crisis, as well as the implementation of planned activities under the crisis plan.
- Conduct a post-crisis review of the effectiveness and efficiency of all crisis communication activities with an emphasis on ensuring a consistent and accurate organizational message and verifying that stakeholders were provided accurate information by the organization throughout the crisis.
- Recognize that crisis communication is an ongoing activity throughout and often beyond a crisis.
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