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What Is A Crisis Communication Plan And How To Create One?
by Purvi Dalvi Writer Every organisation and individual is vulnerable to crisis, even though multiple organisations have never faced a crisis and believe that preparing for one is a waste of time as it involves preparing for something that is likely never to happen. Though there is some truth to this idea, there is a reason we purchase insurance for not only ourselves and our family members, but our property, automobiles, etc. It is preparing for a crisis or a worst case scenario. Just like that, it is crucial to create a crisis communication plan for a worst possible situation that could hit a company so it will be easier to cope with disaster. This will also help in dealing with minor setbacks and problems once a plan is in place.The steps to creating an effective crisis communication plan are:
- Brainstorm and anticipate with the crisis communication planning committee, all the potential crises that could occur at the organisation. The situations might be preventable by modifying current methods of operation while thinking of the worst case scenario.
- To create the crisis communication planning committee, a small team of senior executives need to be brought together to form a team. In case a team cannot be created, agencies or independent consultants with the speciality can be hired to fill in the role.
- Each team should have people who are trained to lead or back up the team leader during times of a crisis. The leader could include online communication as it is easier to make a mistake on social media. The leader ought to be a good communicator as well as adept with all forms of communication – internal and external.
- The team leader of the crisis communication plan should have adequate professional training in knowing how to speak with and deal with the media. Stakeholders are capable of misunderstanding and misinterpreting information that the media portrays about the organisation. It is the team leader’s responsibility to minimise the chances of that happening by always being prepared and respond in a way that reforms the stakeholders' responses.
- An effective way of creating a crisis communication plan is via social media. This is the best and quickest way to reach stakeholders. It is crucial for the company to have social media profiles on all platforms with enough contacts/friends/followers, as through these platforms, there are higher chances of your message going through. Creating social media channels with followers is not something anything can build after a crisis occurs.
- Creating an effective crisis communication plan means developing holding statements that can be used in a variety of scenarios. Examples of holding statements are: “Our thoughts are with those who were in danger, and we hope they are well,” or, “We will deliver additional information on our website when it is available.”
Organisations are finally coming to terms that it is essential to have a crisis communication plan for when disaster strikes. Choose to be part of these organisations and your investors and customers will appreciate it!
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About Purvi Dalvi 
Writer
81 connections, 0 recommendations, 248 honor points.Joined APSense since, May 24th, 2017, From Mumbai, India.
Created on Oct 9th 2018 05:38. Viewed 423 times.
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