Your quick crisis communication plan with Talkwalker

A global crisis can hit at any time, and even with the best marketing strategy in the world, you can’t stop it from impacting your brand. But you can mitigate the damage with an effective crisis communication plan. Here are our top tips to build yours.

Why do you need a crisis communication plan?

You never know when a crisis might hit. But when it does, you need to be prepared. A crisis communication plan, alongside effective crisis management, structures your comms so you can respond faster and more effectively.

Here are 10 reasons why you need to create a crisis plan now:

1. It mitigates damage to your reputation

A prompt and well-articulated response can limit the damage to a brand’s reputation. A crisis communication plan ensures that the organization responds swiftly and appropriately, preventing misinformation and speculation from tarnishing its image.

2. It ensures consistent messaging

Consistency in messaging is crucial during a crisis to avoid confusion and misinformation. A plan delineates the crisis communications strategy, ensuring that all stakeholders receive uniform and accurate information.

3. It preserves trust and credibility

Trust, once lost, is hard to regain. The presence of a proactive communication strategy fortifies the trust stakeholders place in the organization, demonstrating a commitment to transparency and accountability.

4. It enables a quick response

In the face of a crisis, time is of the essence. Having a predefined communication strategy enables organizations to act immediately, addressing the concerns of stakeholders and the public without unnecessary delays.

5. It streamlines internal communication

Clear and consistent internal communication is vital to ensure that all members of the organization are informed and aligned. A crisis communication plan outlines the protocols for internal communication, preventing the spread of rumors and ensuring employee well-being.

6. It’s a legal safeguard

A well-structured communication plan can also serve as a legal safeguard, helping to mitigate potential legal repercussions by ensuring that all communications are accurate, responsible, and compliant with applicable laws and regulations.

7. It sets recovery in motion

Post-crisis recovery is as crucial as an immediate response. A communication plan lays down the roadmap for rebuilding reputation and trust through sustained efforts and consistent messaging post-crisis.

8. It boosts consumer and stakeholder engagement

Engaging with the public and other stakeholders is essential during a crisis. A well-crafted plan outlines how to maintain open lines of communication and address concerns and feedback effectively.

9. It reduces panic and anxiety

Clear communication reduces uncertainty and anxiety among internal and external stakeholders, creating a sense of control and preventing panic from escalating the situation.

10. It enhances organizational resilience

Finally, having a crisis communication plan in place enhances the overall resilience of an organization, preparing it to face unforeseen challenges and emerge stronger.

In essence, a crisis communication plan is not just a tool for damage control but a strategic asset that enhances organizational resilience, preserves reputation, and fortifies stakeholder relationships in times of upheaval.

How to write a crisis communication plan

Writing a crisis communication plan is crucial for any organization to effectively manage and mitigate potential crises. Below are our 7 steps to help you create your comprehensive crisis communication plan.

 

Crisis communication plan - sentiment graph

A sudden drop in positive sentiment can only mean one thing - you need to crack open that crisis plan (or wine).

1. Identify your crisis communication team

This is essential before you go any further - especially if teams are disconnected when working from home. You need to know who will be making decisions, and who will be instigating them.

Determine your internal and external stakeholders, and find the chain of command they should follow for approval. 

In a crisis situation, you need one clear voice making decisions. If your positioning is split internally, it’ll appear disjointed to consumers. There should be one person at the top, whether that’s your CEO, CMO, or another member of the management team, who will make the final decision on all communications.

From there, the task force should be split into the people that will manage the workload. Create a list that targets customer-facing or consumer communications roles, such as customer service, marketing, community management, legal, PR, or HR.

Then, identify the chain of command. Who feeds into who? What will be the approval levels? How will that team keep aligned?

This team will be the foundation of everything your company does during a crisis. They must work together efficiently, or you’ll be building your crisis plan on unstable ground.

Overall, this should map into a smooth flow of communication. Starting from the top down, this will keep all members of the crisis communication team aligned, and messaging consistent.

You should ensure this isn’t a one-way communication. Team members should also be free to flow questions, insights, and analysis back up through the team.

2. Share your communications guidelines

Once you have your team defined, make sure your entire company knows who to go to for input into their role. You need everyone on the same page, or risk rogue employees (well-intentioned or not), potentially inflaming a situation.

You should start with a general external comms guide. This should be something employees turn to day-to-day, to ensure communications stay within your brand guidelines. Considering that misconstrued or inappropriate employee messages can spark a crisis, this type of guide can help prevent a crisis before it starts.

During a crisis, you should add a broad communication guideline that will manage the release of information to employees. This should cover the essentials depending on the situation:

  • Is there an official statement that the company is publishing?
  • Is there any official messaging, angle or tone that the company wants people to use in any external messaging?
  • What can/can’t you say to clients, to prospects, in response to journalists, on social media accounts, etc.?
  • Who should press inquiries be forwarded to?
  • Who should issues be escalated to?
  • Who will provide other important information?
  • When will there be another update?

This isn’t an extensive list and will change depending on the types of crises. That includes Internal crises (store closures, health and safety breaches), or external crises (natural disasters, global financial issues, pandemic).

The key to effective crisis comms is keeping people calm. And that includes employees. By providing timely updates, you can stop panic from rising internally and amongst stakeholders. And they can calmly provide information to consumers in a timely manner.

Crisis communication plan - virality map

Consider how far a story can spread. This virality map demonstrates how one negative news story was shared across social media.

The next stages of the plan are actions you should consider in times of crisis. Add them to the crisis to-do list now so you don’t forget them when the chaos hits.

3. Reconsider all ongoing projects

Cancel everything!

No. Wait. Take a breath first, and take the time to review all upcoming projects before you take any action.

Yes, there’s a crisis communication plan in action. But there’s a business to run too. And when you come out of this on the other side (which you will), you want the company to still be working efficiently.

First, see what you have in the pipeline. This could include:

  • Blogs, reports, and other digital content.
  • Email campaigns.
  • Social media scheduled posts.
  • Advertising (online and broadcast).
  • Partnerships, sponsorships, and promotions.
  • Events
  • Product launches.
  • Etc

Then, look at each element, and consider it through the eyes of your crisis. Is it:

  • Contravening the communication guidelines?
  • Likely to inflame the crisis?
  • Inconsiderate or tactless when relating to the crisis?
  • Adaptable to help resolve the crisis, or to turn it into an opportunity (again, if only done with full consideration and respect)?
  • All okay to proceed as is?

For example, if there’s a travel crisis, a report on the airline industry would be considered ill-timed and thoughtless. Don’t make the mistake.

And that goes for any scheduled content. If you have all your social media messaging set up and ready to go, review all the content that you have planned.

A tweet about the best banks could have been fine a few weeks ago, but if you’re in the midst of a financial crash, best case, you’ll get laughed at. Worse case - another crisis on your hands.

4. Careful what you share

Content from within your business may be under control. Now, you need to make sure you’re qualifying any content you share.

This can be an issue if you’re facing a brand crisis. Or just navigating a social crisis happening around you. Either way, there’s always a temptation to share or engage with external content to show your relevance.

As a brand, you want to be relevant, and share the latest information and trends with your audience.

Just be careful what you share.

Fake news, disinformation, even the right information misinterpreted, can cause more damage than good. Don’t assume everything you see online is true and accurate - before sharing anything through official channels, ensure it has passed through a credibility check. If you share a lot of content such as this, look for a solution that allows you to check content credibility automatically.

Don’t forget, that the rise in AI-generated images can add to this confusion. Photographic evidence shouldn’t be trusted unless it can be verified.

The Pope's puffer jacket went viral until people discovered the image was AI-generated.

5. Monitor, monitor, monitor

Use the data you have at hand to understand the tides and changes of the crisis. An issue can develop daily - if not hourly - and you want all the relevant information on hand in real-time. To help you make data-driven decisions.

Instinct means nothing. Especially in a crisis. When you make a decision, make it count. Create a crisis dashboard to help you monitor the situation, and incorporate data such as:

  • Social media sites. This helps you track social opinion of a crisis, and see if the global opinion is changing. See how consumers are reacting, if there are certain trending topics related to the issue, or if your brand specifically is taking a reputation hit.
  • Competitor analysis. What are your competitors doing? Are they producing content you’re missing, or reaching an audience you haven’t? Did they face a similar crisis in the past, and how did they deal with it?
  • Financial data. How’s the market handling the crisis? Will that have a direct impact on your strategy, and will you need to adapt to suit?
  • Consumer data. How are your clients talking to you about the issue? Are you getting an increase in complaints, and what do those complaints entail?

Ensure all the data you think relevant is available through a command center, then give all people who need it access. That may be the whole company. It may just be your crisis comms team.

 

Crisis communication plan - map of crisis

A crisis can impact you differently across the globe. Look at your data at a regional level, to create targeted responses for different audience needs.

6. Adapt your comms to what is being said, not what you want to say

Let’s take one step further. Monitoring is about watching the metrics and the conversations. If you really want effective crisis communications, you need to actively use those insights.

During a crisis, proactive use of social listening can be a powerful tool to help you manage the situation effectively. Here's a step-by-step approach to using social listening proactively during a crisis:

Craft targeted messaging: Use the insights from social listening to craft targeted messaging that addresses the specific concerns and sentiments of your audience. This will help you communicate effectively and build trust during the crisis.

Engage with your audience: Actively engage with your audience on social media platforms, responding to their concerns and providing timely updates. This will show that you are listening and taking their feedback into account.

Monitor sentiment and adjust strategies: Continuously monitor the sentiment and social conversations surrounding your brand throughout the crisis. Adjust your strategies and messaging based on real-time insights to address emerging concerns and maintain a positive brand image.
Remember, social listening is not just about monitoring conversations, but also about taking action based on the insights gained. By proactively using social listening during a crisis, you can effectively manage the situation, protect your brand reputation, and restore stakeholder confidence.

7. Respond, react, engage

Keep the conversation going. You can’t hide during a crisis. In fact, you need to be more visible than ever before. Be active on social, respond to queries, and keep communicating as best you can. 

If you don’t have an update - tell people that. It’s better than being left in the dark.

Better still, see if you can create content that will help your audience further - to strengthen that brand relationship, and show support during a time of need. This goes back to the monitoring section mentioned above - find the conversations that your consumers are a part of, and be part of them whenever you can.

7.1 Don’t panic

Remember. No crisis will last forever. Be logical, strategic, and thoughtful, and you will get through it.

Bring your crisis management A-game

To discover how Talkwalker can help you during a crisis, we’ve further resources on our crisis management page. 

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