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For a long time, those of us in crisis manage- ǚ,W WDNHV \HDUV WR EXLOG
ment relied on the old-fashioned “phone tree” DbUHSXWDWLRQ DQG ɮYH PLQXWHV
and teams of callers to track people down. For- WR UXLQ LW ,I \RX WKLQN DERXW WKDW
tunately, today there is technology – offered
by multiple vendors for rent or purchase – that \RXǘOO GRbWKLQJV GLɭHUHQWO\ Ǜ
can be set up to automatically start contacting Warren Buffet
all stakeholders in your pre-established data-
base and keep trying to reach them until they about you to others not on your contact list,
confirm (e.g., by pressing a certain number on so it’s up to you to ensure that they receive
a phone keypad) that the message has been the messages you would like them to repeat
received. Technology you can trigger with elsewhere.
a single call or email.
Intelligence gathering is an essential com- 7. Develop Holding Statements
ponent of both crisis prevention and crisis re- While full message development must await
sponse. the outbreak of an actual crisis, “holding state-
Knowing what’s being said about you on ments,” messages designed for use immedia-
social media, in traditional media, by your em- tely after a crisis breaks, can be developed in
ployees, customers, and other stakeholders advance to be used for a wide variety of scena-
often allows you to catch a negative “trend” rios to which the organization is perceived to
that, if unchecked, turns into a crisis. be vulnerable, based on the assessment you
Likewise, monitoring feedback from all conducted in Step 1 of this process. An exam-
stakeholders during a crisis situation allows ple of holding statements by a hotel chain
you to accurately adapt your strategy and with properties hit by a natural disaster, before
tactics. the organization’s headquarters has any hard
Both require monitoring systems be esta- factual information, might be:
blished in advance. For traditional and social “We have implemented our crisis response
media, Google Alerts are the no-cost favorite, plan, which places the highest priority on the
but there are also free social media tracking health and safety of our guests and staff.”
apps such as Hootsuite. There a variety of paid “Our thoughts are with those who were in
monitoring services that provide not only mo- harm’s way, and we hope that they are well.”
nitoring, but also the ability to report results in “We will be supplying additional informa-
a number of formats. Monitoring other stake- tion when it is available and posting it on our
holders means training personnel who have website.”
front-line contact with stakeholders (e.g., Cus- The organization’s Crisis Communications
tomer Service) to report what they’re hearing Team should regularly review holding state-
or seeing to decision-makers on your Crisis ments to determine if they require revision
Communications Team. and/or whether statements for other scenari-
os should be developed.
6. Identify and Know Your Stakeholders
Who are the internal and external stakehol- 8. Assess the Crisis Situation
ders that matter to your organization? I con- Reacting without adequate information is
sider employees to be your most important a classic “shoot first and ask questions after-
audience, because every employee is a PR re- wards” situation in which you could be the pri-
presentative and crisis manager for your orga- mary victim. However, if you’ve done all of the
nization whether you want them to be or not! above first, it’s a “simple” matter of having the
But, ultimately, all stakeholders will be talking Crisis Communications Team on the receiving
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