Crisis Communications
A crisis and how it is handled in the media can strengthen or ruin an organization’s reputation and standing. Handled incorrectly it can bring it to ruin. The wrong person, the wrong message, the wrong strategies can do irreparable harm. The advanced training, the proper strategies, and the right spokesperson and messaging can save the organization and even improve its reputation.
Compare the events and crisis communications during the 1982 Tylenol poisoning cases in Chicago and the BP Gulf Oil Spill of 2010. What is the public sentiment toward each company today? What did they do right and what was went horribly wrong in their communications programs? We examine these and other cases.
Our Crisis Communications Training teaches how to prepare the crisis action plan, what to do during a crisis situation, what you need to do in the first minutes and hours, how to ensure your message is delivered and reinforced, how to monitor what’s out there and correct wrong or misleading information, and how to save and even enhance your organization’s reputation in a crisis situation. Participants respond to reporters’ questions in a variety of scenarios and learn how to plan the event execute the plan, and control the situation and the message without incurring liability.
• Setting up and Running the Successful Media Center
• Media Releases that work
• Joint Information Center – Who does what
• Operating within the National Response Framework
• The Immediacy of Response
• The Right Person with the Right Message
• Preparing the Communications Agenda and Media Strategies
• Spokespersons: Who & When
• The News Conference: Information vs. Disaster
• Taking Responsibility without Assuming Liability
• The Remote / Satellite Interview – Talking to the Lens
• Assessments – Action and Follow-Up
• Employing Social Media
Video Taped Interviews
Crisis Communications workshops include instruction, class exercises, videotaped interviews and a videotaped press conference.
Instructional Methods/Materials
- Experienced-based instruction with video clips
- Interactive Class exercises
- Videotaped interviews and press conferences with follow-on critique
- Media Skills Workshop – Effective Crisis Communications
- A DVD of the interviews and press conference.
Instruction Based on Experience
Instruction is by Michael Drake and other experienced media professionals. Michael has developed crisis action plans for various organizations and has served as the key spokesperson during crisis events on local and national media.