How do you manage media relations and crisis communications in a fast-paced and dynamic environment?

In my experience on both sides of this dynamic, I often emphasize to individuals that 'Your Crisis is not Everyones Crisis.' As a professional, reclaim control, centralize the narrative, and maintain a flexible playbook to record your actions so you can improve to your capacity.

?? Moreover, conducting audience segmentation can help you better tailor your messages and communication approach to specific demographics or segments within your target audience. By understanding the unique needs, interests, and preferences of different audience segments, you can craft more relevant and compelling messages that resonate with each group. Additionally, leveraging audience feedback and insights from analytics tools can provide valuable data-driven insights into audience behavior and sentiment, allowing you to refine your communication strategy over time for maximum effectiveness.

By knowing your audience and the platforms or media outlets where they are likely to gather it helps you to narrow down who you reach out to. Sending releases or information to all the outlets is time consuming and by trying to speak to everyone you target no one. Knowing the places where the audience are likely on the same page allows you to stay truer to your message and it’s more likely to land well with your target audience.

Speak truth to power! Go back to journalism basics and only report on the facts as you know them at the time. It will likely be a fast moving situation that is changing by the minute so be honest about the fact that you are building the story piece by piece; possibly receiving conflicting information from different sources. Resist the temptation to fill in the gaps with opinions or conjecture—unless you clearly disclose them as such. Remember: you are a journalist, not a genie! You have authority (press credentials) and special access to information (sources). But, you are still human, just like your audience.

In my experience as a Communication Strategist, managing media relations and crisis communications in a fast-paced environment requires quick thinking and preparation. First, establish a crisis communication plan that outlines key messages and designated spokespeople. Build strong relationships with journalists to foster trust and open lines of communication. During a crisis, respond promptly and transparently, providing accurate information to prevent misinformation. Monitor media coverage to gauge public sentiment and adjust your strategy accordingly. Regularly review and update your plan to stay prepared for any situation.

?? Furthermore, regularly updating your stakeholders on key developments and initiatives can foster trust and credibility. Consider using various communication channels, such as press releases, social media updates, newsletters, and corporate blogs, to ensure widespread dissemination of information. Engaging in proactive storytelling can also humanize your brand and build emotional connections with your audience, enhancing their perception of your organization. Finally, establishing a crisis communication plan in advance can help you respond effectively to unexpected events or negative publicity, demonstrating your commitment to transparency and accountability even in challenging situations.

I think being proactive and transparent in a time of crisis is so important to helping maintain your brand. Monitoring external media outlets, giving a clear and accurate statement, and using developed relationships can help establish the message you want to send.

I like to think of a organisation’s own online channels as their own TV or digital channel. Which means youth can broadcast what you like when you like it. Especially in a crisis you can get ahead of narratives by being first to make a statement, put out a video and apologise or slow down the tide coming towards you. Too many organisations try to lay low and hope it will last. Your own spaces allow you get out there and have what you want to say front and centre.

In practicing proactive and transparent communication, I've learned the importance of being a step ahead. It's about building relationships and trust before any crisis arises. By consistently providing clear and honest information and addressing concerns head-on, I've been able to strengthen my brand's credibility. This proactive stance, combined with open and respectful engagement, has not only enhanced my brand's image but also fostered a loyal and informed audience base.

Corporate risk registers should have comms on there. It amazes me how many organisations think of lots of things but not the comms response to it. Who should respond and how. Video? Statement? Social media or own website. In the heat of a crisis people make quick and many times wrong calls. The comms team are often the people called in last to simply do what’s been decided. They should be your first port of call to look at it from all the angles and collaborate on decisions. If this is decided ahead of time then when it all hits the fan the right people are in on it from the start of the response. Not comms playing catch up to bad calls.

?? Furthermore, conducting regular crisis simulation exercises can help your team practice their response strategies and identify any gaps or weaknesses in your crisis communication plan. It's also essential to establish clear lines of communication both internally and externally, ensuring that accurate information is disseminated swiftly and consistently during a crisis. Additionally, appointing a designated spokesperson who is trained in crisis communication can help maintain control of the narrative and mitigate potential reputational damage. Finally, remember to review and update your crisis communication plan regularly to adapt to evolving threats and circumstances.

Crises often come in clusters. When you drill your team make sure you through in curve balls rather than just working through a selected scenario in a linear way. When I lead a drill I throw in some real life crises as well e.g. an unexpected urgent childcare demand for one of the team. Life happens while we are managing crises and your team need to know how to handle the unpredictable calmly and how to step up when a team member they would expect to be central to a response finds themself unavailable. Building second tier and third tier capacity will help you significantly when a crisis occurs and gives you the ability to call on multiple people and give key people time to rest if your crisis lasts for a longer period of time.

Having a good crisis communication plan, which includes media, is the insurance policy you hope you never need to use. When the crisis hits, you'll be so busy dealing with the fall out, it'll be harder to think smarter. Ask yourself, if a crisis hits tomorrow, who do you need to contact, in what order and how will you reach them? Lawyers, PR, the board, customers, stakeholders? Who's clearing your diary so you can deal with the mess? Do your front line staff know what they should say? (I've broken many a story by asking reception or security the right question). Have you had media and communication training so you know what to do? Get the insurance policy, keep it up to date, and hope you never need it!

In a perfect world, an executive team understands the value of role playing crises scenarios and runs a crisis drill at least once a year to make sure the entire team understands how to respond. Does this actually happen? Rarely... typically a giant crisis happens, and everyone scrambles to figure out what to do. If you are the lead communications person, insert yourself into this process immediately. If you get any push back for this, role play a couple of potential crises for your supervisor to illustrate how critical the planning process is. If you are an effective communicator, it shouldn't take you more than three or four steps before they are calling the meeting themselves to kick off the process.

Consider having a messaging document with various scenarios and placeholder responses that can be leveraged and customized during situations for messaging development. After each crisis situation, review the messaging document to validate the scenario placeholder responses and update or enhance them as appropriate. In addition, consider having leadership, legal and other partners review and approve these scenarios and responses in advance so you can efficiently and effectively support and respond during the crisis.

Be innovative in your approach to crises management. As you adapt, learn and collaborate, think outside the box. Some scenarios may demand the not so traditional ways of responding to a crisis. Consider 3rd parties, influencers or key personality who can also communicate on behalf of the brand during a crisis.

In crisis situations, empathy plays a major role. Not only in terms of being transparent and managing responses in a timely manner, but also being empathetic with the team that is dealing with the crisis within the company or institution. Acknowledging the human aspect, understanding real needs, and working collaboratively towards a resolution can contribute positively to managing and overcoming a crisis effectively.

This is a radical idea but one I've always tried to practice - be relentlessly transparent and embrace accountability. So many organizations and brands wait too long to comment, to apologize, or to simply say. "We messed up. We're sorry and we are figuring it out so it never happens again, and determining how to make it right." Imagine if all relationship conflicts began with that conversation!

As communications specialists we have an important role to play when it comes to ethics. We are in the privileged position to be creating/reporting on new developments, which in turn influences our audiences. The author/editor has an immense responsibility to ensure information is communicated fairly and honestly. The best communicators operate with transparency and integrity, and respect their readers enough to tell them the truth. This is more important today than ever before, with rampant disinformation seemingly presenting itself at every turn.

If you are a leader, and there is a crisis (even if it is not your fault) it is your job to respond. Your staff expect it, the public expect it. The crisis itself won't damage your personal reputation as much as the way you handle it. Come out quickly, come out strong. Be open and honest. Waiting until the media (and the public) are infuriated by your lack of communication - won't serve you well. In my experience, there is always SOMETHING you can say