Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Creating A Crisis Communications Plan

Creating A Crisis Communications Plan

By Jerri Perry


There are going to be times wherein a company or a corporation would have a situation wherein their public image will be at risk. Because of scandals, rumors, and other types of destructive happenings, the public could actually have a bad view of the corporation because of this type of situation. Now the only way to handle this well would be to make a crisis communications plan to be able to send a message to the public.

When making these kinds of plans, it is very important to include what kind of medium one would be using in order to deliver the message. The mediums could range from internet channels, the media, or simple word of mouth communication. As long as one is able to get the message to be viral, then he should already be successful.

Now the very first part of the plan that will be made would be an overview of the crisis and what exactly happened. Now the first part has to be a report of the exact happenings of the situation and of course the chain of events that actually influenced the situation. So basically, one will have to put some of the signals and warnings that the corporation saw.

Of course the next page would include some people who are sorting out this situation. Now the names people from the communications team and the public relations team will be listed here because these two teams are the ones who will spearhead the whole campaign. Of course the media contacts will be the weapons that will be used.

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.

Of course the next thing to do is create the message that will be shot to the target audience. The first thing to do would be to include a lot of facts that are relevant to the situation as well as some key words that the corporation would want to point out. Now a lot of corporations would actually make use of the five step model for message preparation to help them.

The very last part would be to explain in details how the management would communicate their message. One of the first things that they will be listing there would be who their target audience is and if there are specific people, their names should be listed there. Then the next thing to do is to put down who the helpers are like if the management would seek help from the media or the press.

So basically, that is a simple template for making a crisis communications plan. Now one thing to take note when addressing this type of situation is that it should be addressed as soon as possible. Advisably within a week so that the bad image will not stick.




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