Most managers have no trouble covering the basics for crisis planning. Managers are competent at creating the basic crisis management plans and crisis teams However, there are a few finer points managers often overlook when creating their crisis management plans and crisis teams. I would like to highlight three of these finer points in this blog entry.
Finer point 1: What risks do your neighbors pose? Managers know what risks their organizations present but what about your neighbors. Organizations near you have risks that could affect you. Neighbors can be the target of protests, terror attacks, or the source of a toxic gas release. It is easy for your neighbor’s crisis to creep over to your organization. Be prepared for the risks your neighbors might create.
Finer point 2: What about your social media policies and crises? Smart companies have social media policies. But, does the social media policy include crises? In addition, how is your social media policy intergrated into your crisis management plan? Are there any special provisions about employee social media use during a crisis? It is important to know who will control social media channels during a crisis and how they will be used to facilitate your crisis response. A simple example is a product recall. During a recall will there be recall information placed in your Twitter and Facebook posts? There should be. Have you suspended promotional messages? It is embarassing to be running a promotion for a product through your social media channels when that product has been recalled. Other promotional activities during a crisis can be viewed negatively as well. Ask the management at Carnival Crusie Lines about the criticisms they received while running promotional messages on the company’s Facebook page during the Carnival Triumph Crisis (i.e., the poop cruise).
Finer point 3: Is the social media manager included on the crisis management team? Public relations and legal are two areas that are included on most crisis teams. Each provide knowledge and skills critical to the proper functioning of a crisis team. The social media managers should be on that essential list of crisis teams members as well. It works perfect if the public relations and social media person are one and the same. But many organizations have separtate social media managers. Knowledge of social media in invaluable for monioring crises, reactions to crisis communication efforts, and delivering crisis communciation messages.
I would like to end by returning to the issue of employee use of social media during a crisis. The easy answer is to ban employee social media posts about the crisis. This is easy but shortsighted in many ways. First, social media is about freedom of expression. Policies that specifically curb communication are in contradiction to the use of social media. Second, employees are an extremely valuable communication channel during a crisis. Friends and family turn to employees for credible information about the places they work. Keep your employees informed about the crisis so that they can share accurate crisis information with their publics. Speaking with one voice does not mean only one person speaking. Nor does it mean forcing employees to repeat only approved talking points. Speaking with one voice is about people in an organization sharing the same information with publics. Be sure your social media policy provides guidance for crisis information such as only using information that has been verified by the organization. Trust your employees and allow them to help with crisis communication.
