Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Making A Crisis Communications Plan

By Jerri Perry


There are times wherein a corporation would undergo a certain situation wherein their whole name could be spoiled. Scandals, rumors, and other types of bad situations involving the corporation could really destroy the sales of the corporation which is why when these things happen, they have to react quickly. The best thing for management to do in this situation would be to come up with a crisis communications plan.

Now the very first thing to do when making these types of plans would be to determine the medium that the management would want to use in order to blast the message. Now he may choose from a wide array of channels such as the internet, the press, the media, or even just viral rumors. As long as the message gets to the target audience then it is a success.

Now when making these plans, one must first start with an overview of what the crisis was and how it happened. There must be a detailed report of the crisis as well as what happened before the said event and the happenings that led to it. In other words, one should include the warning signals that the corporation experienced before the whole event took place.

Included in these types of plans should be the people that were involved in the aiding of the whole issue. Basically, the communications team would have to be mentioned as well as the public relations team because they would be the most help during this time. Also, media contacts as well as other third party contacts will also be added there.

After that, one should include how the situation was assessed and what the possible solutions that were used in the situation. Now one should also put there the roles of the people who were involved in the entire management of the situation as well as the things that they did. It is also recommended to add an action matrix in the plan.

Now the next part would be involving the message of corporation to the target audience. This would include a whole sheet of facts that could be used in the message, some key messages that the corporation would want to get across, and the people who were involved in this whole situation. Most corporations would also use a five step model for message preparation.

Now the last part would be to now come up with the details on how exactly the management would want to present the message. Now when a corporation would want to target a specific audience, then they should show a list of people that are in that audience. From there, the media contacts, press contacts, and of course some third party contacts would be listed in this part and how they are going to be used to blast the message.

So if a corporation has to make a crisis communications plan, then try to follow this template. One thing to always remember is that a crisis has to be addressed as quickly as possible. It actually should be in a week otherwise the bad image stays.




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