Page 51 - Crisis Communication Practical PR Strategies

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3 32 Crisis Communication
crisis control quick and efficient, but only if there is true division and
you’re not falling over each other.

Communications point
One person has to be the centre for all communications. This person is
responsible for:

getting the committee mobilized;
communicating the needs of the committee to the mouth (spokes-
people) and the other hands;
approving all communication messages before they go live;
reporting the situation as it develops to the crisis committee;
reporting the total crisis once it’s all over.

The communications point is normally the lead in-house communica-
tions professional.

Media contact team
Reaching the media is often a time-consuming activity. Getting an e-
mail off to people on a list is one thing, but following up by phone or in
person is something else. If a press conference is going to be called,
then this will also be time-consuming.

NettResults, the firm of author Nick Leighton, operates throughout the
Middle East region – with a large expatriate community, and both
Arabic and English language publications. We must have a team from at
least three ethnic backgrounds to have the language skills, cultural
understanding and deep media contacts that will be necessary to get
news out quickly and efficiently.

The press contact team will need to:

have good press contacts;
have a clean and updated full media list at any given time;
understand how journalists and editors from different news media
work;
be practised at producing media tools;
have facilities to translate documents and provide simultaneous
translations at a press conference or media interview, if required;
have the ability to move very quickly.