NACD Crisis Communications: Manage Your Messaging

I recently had the privilege to be interviewed by Roselle Foley for an article for the National Association of Chemical Distributors. Here is the article and my message about communicating effectively in a crisis:

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Hurricane Ian Crisis Communications: Manage Expectations AFTER the Storm

Last week, we talked about Hurricane Ian crisis communications and how companies and organizations should manage the expectations of their audience BEFORE a storm. This week we talk about how companies and organizations should manage the expectations of their audience AFTER the storm.

Yes, you still can, and still should manage expectations for AFTER the storm runs its course. So many people ask “Can I survive the storm?” when really they should be asking themselves “Can I endure the misery and trauma of being without power, water, and cell phone signal for weeks after the storm?”

Electric companies, utility companies, fire departments, police agencies and other first responders should be communicating to the public just how bad it can get and encouraging folks to evacuate if necessary. That means using scare tactics and painting the picture of being without these creature comforts for WEEKS, not days.

SituationHub is an app that can help you release a pristine, beautiful news release to help your company communicate the information you need to get across, FAST, as conditions and crises are unfolding. I’m featuring the news release that you would use in a situation like Hurricane Ian. Watch the video to see how it works.

 

 

 

To set goals, talk about your needs, and formulate a budget to communicate effectively in a crisis, schedule a complimentary, confidential call with me https://calendly.com/braud/15min

Crisis communications and media training expert Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC is based in New Orleans. Organizations on five continents have relied on him to write their crisis communications plans and to train their spokespeople. He is the author of “Don’t Talk to the Media Until…” and founder of SituationHub crisis communications software.

More crisis communications articles:

15 Questions to Ask Before You Use Facebook for Crisis Communications

Can You Handle a Crisis When it Hits by Winging It?

Where is Your Crisis Communications Funnel Clogged?

Hurricane Ian: Managing Expectations for Crisis Communications

As Hurricane Ian pummels Florida, I’m sharing some crisis communications strategies on managing the expectations of your audience, citizens, stakeholders, clients, and employees BEFORE your hurricane, tropical storm, or other natural disaster hits.

Yes, I said BEFORE.

Many companies and organizations I work with on media training, crisis communications, or those that use the SituationHub software ask me, “Well, why is there a news release in the SituationHub database that can be used BEFORE a tropical storm? Why are there documents for us to release regarding hurricane warnings and tropical storm warnings?”

The SituationHub software provides you with news releases that you can release to the media, your employees, your clients, and stakeholders before the crisis to manage their expectations. You customize the new release with your specifications. What would have taken your team hours to write DURING a crisis, can now be prepared before a crisis in just minutes.

Before a storm, you may be communicating information about evacuation plans, expectations for supply chain interruptions, how long your company expects to be closed for, who to contact, etc. This is far more effective than trying to play “clean up” after the storm and trying to get in contact with all of your audiences about these factors while you have destruction, power outages, and a lack of cell phone capabilities.

Managing expectations before a crisis makes all of the difference in managing expectations after a crisis.

For help with managing expectations, schedule a complimentary, confidential call with me https://calendly.com/braud/15min

Crisis communications and media training expert Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC is based in New Orleans. Organizations on five continents have relied on him to write their crisis communications plans and to train their spokespeople. He is the author of “Don’t Talk to the Media Until…” and founder of SituationHub crisis communications software.

More crisis communications articles:

15 Questions to Ask Before You Use Facebook for Crisis Communications

Can You Handle a Crisis When it Hits by Winging It?

Where is Your Crisis Communications Funnel Clogged?

ChemEdge 2022 Conference: Crisis Communications Presentation

Fast. Factual. No Fluff.

The National Association of Chemical Distributor’s (NACD) ChemEdge 2022 conference is just two weeks away and I am putting the final touches on my crisis communications presentation for the event.

Fast, factual and no fluff is the core message I’ll be delivering as we examine a specific case study in which a major company experienced a devastating event, but it took the company three hours to issue a 7-sentence statement to the media and the public.

How fast could your company get a statement written, approved and released if you had a major situation?

The new SituationHub software could have written a statement in under 3 minutes.
Let that soak in – Instead of three hours… an approved statement could have been ready in under 3 minutes. This means that your organization can be doing crisis communications at nearly the speed of social media. That’s why SituationHub is a game changer for public relations and companies of all types.

The lesson I’m sharing with the chemical distributors are lessons that apply to all industries. These lessons are true for electric companies and utilities; they are true for schools and universities; they are true for banks and credit unions; they are true for hospitals.

Below are ten questions I’ll be asking the attendees at the conference. How would you answer these same questions?

1. How do you gather initial information?
2. Who gets the information and how?
3. Who writes the news release?
4. How long does the writing/approval process last?
5. Who is involved in the approval?
6. What are you really editing and approving?
7. How much time from flashpoint to statement?
8. How is the statement distributed?
9. Who distributes the statement?
10. How much time does that take?

If you’d like to discuss your answers with me, schedule a call.

Your next crisis situation could be minutes away. The time to prepare is now.

 

Crisis communications and media training expert Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC is based in New Orleans. Organizations on five continents have relied on him to write their crisis communications plans and to train their spokespeople. He is the author of “Don’t Talk to the Media Until…”

More crisis communications articles:

15 Questions to Ask Before You Use Facebook for Crisis Communications

Can You Handle a Crisis When it Hits by Winging It?

Where is Your Crisis Communications Funnel Clogged?

 

St. Louis Flooding: Crisis Communications Response

The St. Louis flooding presents a crisis communications case study worthy of your consideration. Here’s why…

A flood demands you talk to your stakeholders to manage their expectations. Is all well? Then issue a statement that says, “All is well.” Are products, systems, or facilities compromised?

Then manage the community’s expectations with a crisis communications statement. What’s the fastest way to write and distribute a statement? The SituationHub app can write a news release in 3-5 minutes. If you are not subscribing to SituationHub, today is proof of why you should.

Many organizations look at their safety record as a reason not to use crisis communications tools like the SituationHub software. Many companies think a crisis communications plan only applies to fires and explosions.

The St. Louis flooding represents a crisis from mother nature and not from human failure. Flooding doesn’t care about your past safety record. A hurricane doesn’t care about your past safety record. A blizzard… yep… doesn’t care about your past safety record.

Crisis communications plans and planning are there in case your sunny day becomes your darkest day. As you can see in the featured image, I have a few dark days here on the Lake Ponchartrain lakefront. I am constantly reminded of how natural disasters impact so many businesses.

Remember what Winston Churchill said, “Never waste a good crisis.”

Crisis communications is tough. It can be overwhelming. It can take years to develop a plan on your own. If we can help you plan for your rainy day, schedule a complimentary, private, confidential call with me here.

Crisis communications and media training expert Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC is based in New Orleans. Organizations on five continents have relied on him to write their crisis communications plans and to train their spokespeople. He is the author of “Don’t Talk to the Media Until…”

More crisis communications articles:

15 Questions to Ask Before You Use Facebook for Crisis Communications

Can You Handle a Crisis When it Hits by Winging It?

Where is Your Crisis Communications Funnel Clogged?

How Do You Sleep at Night Without a Crisis Communication Plan?

Some professional communicators get it. They want to be prepared. They have statements ready for the public in a crisis. They are trained as spokespeople or have their team members ready to be on camera. They have a crisis communication plan on file that they can refer to quickly in a crisis. They have sought approval and funding from their executives on proper crisis communication planning.

In this video, we ask public relations professional for Coast Electric, Melissa Russo, “Should a PR person prepare for a crisis or should they wing it and rely on hope?” Of course, the answer sounds obvious, but you might be surprised to know that too many PR professionals still wing their response to a crisis.

Melissa explains how she plans for effective crisis communications in the video here:

 

 

Visit this link to enjoy a full replay of this Master Class sponsored by SituationHub.com.

Use this link to schedule a free, private call https://calendly.com/braud/15min

To schedule a free, confidential demo for the crisis communications software SituationHub, visit: https://www.situationhub.com/

 

Crisis communications and media training expert Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC is based in New Orleans. Organizations on five continents have relied on him to write their crisis communications plans and to train their spokespeople. He is the author of “Don’t Talk to the Media Until…”

More crisis communications articles:

5 Steps to Effective Crisis Communications: Master Class #1

The Biggest Lie in Crisis Communications

4 Steps Every Company Needs to Take in Order to Avoid the Default Spokesperson

Crisis Communications Podcast: Be Prepared to Protect Your Revenue, Reputation, and Brand

In this crisis communications podcast, CEO of the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association Holly Alfano interviews me about the often overlooked piece of running a business: crisis communications and preparation.

How is a crisis defined? Ask, “Will this event affect our company’s revenue, reputation, and brand?” Stop thinking of only situations such as a fire, a pandemic, or a hurricane. Start thinking of the vulnerabilities of your specific business. Start thinking about your CEO taking a photo with the wrong person, at the wrong time. Start thinking about one of your employees saying the wrong thing on social media.

Start thinking about who should be your spokesperson in a crisis. It may not be who you would expect. Stop thinking a crisis won’t happen to you. Start thinking, if this happens to me, to our company, to our organization, do we have the crisis communication tools to respond and communicate quickly?

In case this sounds overwhelming or stressful, thankfully, there are five simple steps to manage a crisis effectively. Just five steps. And thankfully, there is an automated software that can help you communicate to your clients, customers, employees, and stakeholders in a crisis.

  1. Vulnerability Assessment
  2. Crisis Communications Plan
  3. Library of Pre-written news releases (Use SituationHub.com)
  4. Spokesperson media training
  5. Crisis communications drill

If these sound foreign to you, we take a deep dive into these five steps in the podcast.

Listen to the podcast here.

To set goals, talk about your needs, and formulate a budget, schedule a complimentary, confidential call with me https://calendly.com/braud/15min

Crisis communications and media training expert Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC is based in New Orleans. Organizations on five continents have relied on him to write their crisis communications plans and to train their spokespeople. He is the author of “Don’t Talk to the Media Until…”

More crisis communications articles:

15 Questions to Ask Before You Use Facebook for Crisis Communications

Can You Handle a Crisis When it Hits by Winging It?

Crisis Management Lessons from Hurricane Katrina vs. COVID19

3 Crisis Communications Master Class Recordings to Listen to Before the New Year

The year is almost over, and you may be asking yourself, what have I learned? What would I do differently? Have I prepared my organization for effective crisis communications?

Sure, it’s the busiest time of year. Thankfully, as you are wrapping presents, making Christmas cookies, and trimming the tree, you can pop in your Airpods and learn on the go. Although we hosted many crisis communications Master Classes this year, here are just three you can mark off your bucket list and not feel overwhelmed by the task or what you learned. Consider it our gift to you.

Crisis Communications Master Class: Change the Way You Write

The world has changed and so must you.

The world doesn’t have time to read what you wrote. Yet, you need the world to comprehend your message. So, what’s the secret?

Use this link to access the replay.

You’ll learn 10 reasons why you should change how you write a crisis communications statement.

Crisis Communications Master Class – The Crisis Communications Golden Hour

Minutes and seconds count in a crisis. Preparation is the key to fast crisis response. We dig deeper into the need for speed in your crisis communications and explore the tools you need to effectively communicate.

Use this link to access the content.

We discuss:

  • How to organize communications so that crucial information gets out fast
  • Why some messages work better than others
  • How to choose the right words
  • Skills to be an effective spokesperson
  • What you need to know about special populations or other unique factors in your audience

Facebook Crisis Communication Lessons

The Facebook crisis communications lessons are many. The explosive interview on 60 Minutes and the testimony before Congress from whistleblower Frances Haugen confirms and reinforces the crisis communication lessons we discussed in the SituationHub Master Class that originally aired live on March 11, 2021. The Master Class is called The Social Media Conundrum. You’ll want to watch that program, in which we zeroed in on why Facebook’s algorithms are built against you in a crisis.  

Crisis communications and media training expert Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC is based in New Orleans. Organizations on five continents have relied on him to write their crisis communications plans and to train their spokespeople. He is the author of “Don’t Talk to the Media Until…”

Photo by Lore Schodts on Unsplash

Crisis Communications Master Class: Change the Way You Write

The world has changed and so must you.

The world doesn’t have time to read what you wrote. Yet, you need the world to comprehend your message. So, what’s the secret?

If you missed last week’s crisis communications master class use this link to access the replay.

You’ll learn 10 reasons why you should change how you write a crisis communications statement.

In the class, we challenged conventional writing and crisis management wisdom, we ruffled feathers, we insulted your English teacher, challenged your Public Relations professor, brushed off your legal team, and empowered you to change the way you write crisis communications statements.

We focused on ways to:

  • Increase comprehension by your stakeholders
  • Ensure greater accuracy by the media
  • Speed up the statement approval process
  • …and much more

As a bonus, schedule a confidential discovery call to privately discuss the crisis communications challenges that you want to conquer in 2021 by using this link https://calendly.com/braud/15min

Be well; be safe; be prepared,

The SituationHub Team

Crisis communications and media training expert Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC is based in New Orleans. Organizations on five continents have relied on him to write their crisis communications plans and to train their spokespeople. He is the author of “Don’t Talk to the Media Until…”

More crisis communications articles:

15 Questions to Ask Before You Use Facebook for Crisis Communications

Can You Handle a Crisis When it Hits by Winging It?

Crisis Management Lessons from Hurricane Katrina vs. COVID19

Photo by RetroSupply on Unsplash

Change the Way You Write Crisis Statements

It is time to change the way you write crisis statements and crisis communication news releases.

The world has changed and so must you.

The world doesn’t have time to read what you wrote. Yet, you need the world to comprehend your message. So, what’s the secret?

It begins with using short declarative sentences.

In crisis communications speed is critical.

If something is factually correct and fast it is better than overly word-smithed and slow.

If you tell the audience who, what, when, where, why, and how quickly, they will forgive the absence of writing in prose.

If you write the way people talk, your stakeholders will comprehend your message more quickly.

If you write your crisis statement like a TV news script, you greatly increase the likelihood that the media will copy and paste the bulk of your script into their script with minimal edits.

As a word nerd, I’m probably going to piss off a whole bunch of people with this blog. (Can we say “piss off”?) Ok… we don’t want to offend anyone, so let’s say we’re going to ruffle some feathers.

As word nerds, we were all taught proper writing styles by our English professors, our Public Relations professors, and even our Journalism instructors. If we wrote the way they wanted, we got an A. They were conditioning us.

But guess what? You are a grown-up. Your English teacher taught you something that worked great 20 years ago. Your Public Relations teacher is teaching you old-school techniques.

We’re going to give you permission to be a grown-up and carve your own path. We’re going to tell you to break the rules!

We’re going to dig deeper into this on our next Crisis Communications Master Class on Thursday, November 11, 2021 at 1 p.m. CST. Use this link to register for the class.

You’ll learn 10 reasons why you should change how you write a crisis communications statement.

You will learn how to:

  • Increase comprehension by your stakeholders
  • Ensure greater accuracy by the media
  • Speed up the statement approval process
  • …and much more

Sign up for the live class or sign up for the replay. Your free admission is courtesy of SituationHub.com