LaughlinOutLoud

A crisis can occur at any time, at any place. It’s a serious situation. Something bad has happened to a company, community or individual that requires immediate attention and action. It can be a workplace injury; a shooting at a crowded mall; a fire at a restaurant; a chemical spill at a plant.  All of these situations can occur. We just don’t know when. So it’s important to be prepared for crisis communication. Preparation allows us to manage the situation and respond right away.

There are two key words in the last paragraph. Manage and respond. They’re part of the old school communication model and definitely part of the new school.

Social media, primarily Twitter and Facebook, has changed the way public relations professionals manage and respond to a crisis. It’s a critical part of planning now.

Sure, the fundamentals still apply and provide the foundation for responding and managing a crisis situation well. Social media adds another element though. Suddenly, employees, community activists and passersby, among others, can be sources of information for the media.

So how do you successfully incorporate social media into your crisis communication plan? And have you updated it recently to include social media? If you haven’t, now’s a good time to dust it off and give it a look.

Crisis Communication Guidelines 2.0

1. Does your company/organization have a Twitter feed or Facebook page? If so, who oversees it and how do you plan on managing the flow of information? If the company/organization is not active on social media, it’s time to participate.
2. Who on the crisis communication team uses and is knowledgeable about social media? If there currently isn’t someone, a person needs to be identified to lead the effort.
3. What employees or staff members have Twitter accounts and Facebook profiles? It would be good to know in advance. Often, they can be sources of information for the outside world and you’ll want to develop employee/staff guidelines for a crisis situation, so the message is controlled, consistent and factual.
4. What reporters do you know that are using social media? What media outlets? It’s imperative to round up this information and connect with them so you can provide timely updates and know what’s being said about your brand and the situation.
5. Developments can happen fast in a crisis situation and often information is disseminated on-the-go. Are you set up to be mobile? A good starting point is to have a laptop, Wi-Fi connector and smart phone available. If you don’t have a smart phone, is there one ready? Is it loaded with the proper apps and addresses? Is there an extra battery and charger set aside as well?
6. Are you set up to share information online and via social networks? In other words, posting written and video statements to the company/organization website, a newswire, PitchEngine.com, Twitter and Facebook?
7. Are you optimizing your online content? It’s important that this happens and a skilled professional who understands search engine optimization assist with it. The better this is done, the higher up you’ll be on search engine result pages. Who’s your go-to person to accomplish this?

These are just a few thoughts for incorporating social media into your crisis communication plan. If you haven’t done it or have not reviewed your plan recently, there’s no time like the present.

What else would you add to this list?

As a PR consultant, it is my job to tell my clients’ stories and garner publicity by getting them in the news.  I enjoy it.  And I think my clients appreciate my work.

From time to time though, there are situations that require “tooting my own horn.”  This is one of those times.  But not just my horn.  I’m going to toot Laughlin Constable PR’s horn in this space.  A recent event calls for it.

Hey, if we do great PR work for clients shouldn’t we do it for ourselves, too?

Outstanding work done for Laughlin Constable clients Wolverine, McDonald’s and Café Manna has recently earned our agency three Paragon Awards from the Public Relations Society of America.  We feel pretty good about that.  So we thought we’d share.

So, how did we treat such good news?

• A: Snuck on to the Miller Park field after the awards ceremony and ran the bases before being tackled by the Brat, Polish and Italian.  Not sure what happened to the Chorizo and Hot Dog.  They were asleep at the wheel on security detail apparently.
• B: Took the red-eye to Vegas, checked-in at the Palms and gambled the day away.  All the while carrying our awards around everywhere we went.
• C: Went straight home and got the mandatory eight hours of sleep, and were up early the next day ready to work.
• D: Took the Amtrak Hiawatha to Chicago, hit Rush Street ‘til 4 a.m. and worked out of our Chicago office the following day.
• E: Drafted a press release touting our achievements and hit the local pubs (that’s short for publications).  Although we have been known to hit a pub or two.

The answer?  We’re not saying.  But if you chose “C” you don’t know us very well.

Now that I’m done tooting, you can read the release here.