Page 52 - Crisis Communication Practical PR Strategies

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Proactive Crisis Communication Planning 33
Note: there may be a need to post news on the company website, so the
press contact team also need to have contact with the webmaster for
the organization.
The job of press contact normally falls to a public relations agency
that has crisis communication experience, but can of course be
handled in house if the team members have the necessary strengths
and experience.

The plan

It’s all in the planning

Now that we have a crisis team ready, we need to do the groundwork.
This is the hard work that is needed to make crisis communication
successful.

Internal The planning
During a crisis:
communication: process:
When called upon
• Time • Attention to detail it’s as easy as
• Thought • Clear, concise
• Complexity writing colouring by numbers
Figure 2.1 Groundwork for the crisis team

Internal communication rules

The name of the game is control, and that can only happen if there is
open communication among the team members. In today’s business
environment this should not be too hard. Every member of the team
probably already has a mobile phone and individual e-mail address. If
they operate outside a mobile network range for long periods of time,
then they probably have a satellite phone. If they don’t – make it
happen. You can only control a crisis if you can all communicate.