The interesting thing about Crisis Communications is that every situation is unique to the industry or geography in which it occurs, making every crisis distinct in itself and lending itself to creative ways of dealing with it from a communications perspective. It’s almost similar to when a person has a crisis – each individual has a different problem and a, therefore a different way of dealing with it! So then, why call in a specialist – or, how can there be a specialist for an event that is unique every time? Just as a person would visit a psychologist in times of an emotional crisis, a communications specialist is a person equipped with the tools to deal with a problem more effectively.

Here are some things you can do to help your communications professional do a great job:

• Give them all the information: More importantly, give them all the facts, even the most ‘secret’ and let them be the judge of what can be used to safeguard the company. After all, you have chosen them to build the image of your company. Rest assured that your confidential information will be safe with them. Also, they know the media and have relationships in place that can be leveraged to your benefit.
• Identify key messages: These the things that you will say to the media, on behalf of the company, over and over again, in all communication to ensure that they understand your perspective on the issue at hand. These messages need to be reiterated in while connecting with all target audiences so ensure that your communications specialist works with different parts of your organization while creating the messaging.
• Identify spokespersons: Work with your communications specialist to identify who will speak on behalf of the company. Ensure that spokespersons are erudite and have an understanding of the messages and the business. Most importantly, allow your specialist to sensitize the spokespersons in communicating with the media, even if the person has a lot of experience in dealing with the media. Remember, this is a crisis and requires special attention!!
• Communicate with your employees: During a time of crisis employees feel a sense of ‘nobody loves me’ and this is a source of speculation and rumour. Ensure that you constantly communicate with them so they know that someone is working to secure their future. Let your communications specialist help to incorporate the key messages into the communication.

The time of a crisis is not the best time to begin to build an image for your company in the media – this takes both time and effort. Ensure that you have a consistent communications programme in place that connects with the media and helps build credibility. This is probably the best line of defence during a crisis – after all if you already have established credibility, it would take a crisis of serious magnitude to question that!

Photo courtesy of Michal Marcol at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.