Your worst nightmare is that a disaster strikes your community—a flood, a bridge collapse, an act of terror. They are all fears that keep you up at night. Are you prepared to act fast enough? Do you have the infrastructure, staff, and planning in place to ensure prompt, informative communications that will reach as many citizens as possible? Don’t wait for a disaster to occur to test your communication plan. Be prepared in advance so that if the worst-case scenario occurs, you can step into action without hesitation or fear. Read on to learn where to start when building a crisis communication plan.
Start by Identifying Your Audiences
Begin your crisis communication planning by first identifying all the audiences that will require communication in the event of a disaster, despite your primary concern being the safety of your citizens. This comprehensive list should encompass:
- Citizens –Think about triaging communication to residents based on their proximity to the incident. For example, you may not need to communicate with all citizens in your county about a water main break, but you should communicate to everyone in and traveling to the immediate area.
- Visitors – Don’t forget non-residents who happen to be in the area when a disaster strikes. They are just as much at risk of inclement weather and threatening situations.
- Local Businesses – Local disasters may have specific consequences for businesses in your community. As organizations that play an essential role in your municipality and that have critical interactions with citizens, they will need to understand what events are occurring, how events may impact their business, and the role they can play in helping to manage the crisis and recovery efforts.
- The Media – Your local and regional media outlets will want to know what events have occurred and what your administration plans to do to manage the situation through to the recovery process. The media will also be instrumental in helping you communicate potentially life-saving directions and instructions to citizens. Make sure contacts at all your local media outlets are part of your communication plan. You may also want to create a shortlist of members in your administration who can speak directly with the media. These individuals should receive advanced crisis communication training, be familiar with crucial communication messages, and be introduced to media contacts so that reporters know whom to contact with questions or for comments.
Plan Ahead
In order to cover all potential crisis situations and suitable actions, it is essential to develop a comprehensive contingency/scenario plan. Despite the demanding and meticulous nature of creating such plans, some organizations forgo them. Nevertheless, these plans prove invaluable in times of crisis by conserving crucial time and resources. It is prudent for businesses to possess an easily deployable action plan that can be promptly executed by all members of the executive, communications, and operations teams when confronted with a crisis.
Speed Is Key
Acknowledging crisis situations promptly is crucial. While you may not possess all of the details for a matter of days or even weeks, making a swift announcement to the media and your key publics will serve two purposes: (a) reducing speculation and unfounded rumors and (b) reassuring audiences of your ability to manage the situation.
Be Responsibly Transparent
The Enron, AIG, BP, and VW debacles are well-known to all of us; we have witnessed numerous times how dishonesty and deceit can lead to the downfall of companies. These incidents offer valuable insights for public relations: Be honest and transparent. Accept accountability. Speak the truth. Avoid any involvement in concealment, dishonesty, or unethical actions. Keep in mind that unethical conduct will inevitably be exposed in the media.
Build Contact Lists and Establish Communication Channels in Advance
When a disaster happens, it is already too late to gather contact information for all the mentioned audiences, especially citizens. To get ready for a potential emergency, it is advisable to encourage citizens to sign up to receive emergency alerts. A government emergency notification system allows you to gather citizen opt-ins and use the same tool to generate and send emergency alerts through various means like SMS/text messages, emails, and voice messages.
Make Sure You Have a Way to Reach Visitors
Ensure that your communication plan encompasses a strategy to effectively reach out to visitors in the area who have not subscribed to receive emergency alerts. Utilize local media outlets as a means to communicate with these non-residents. Additionally, devise a strategy to distribute messages to digital road signs within your community.
When choosing a solution for an emergency warning system, make sure it is compatible with the Integrated Public Alert Warning System (IPAWS) created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). IPAWS utilizes national emergency communication channels to send alerts to specific areas during emergencies. It can deliver notifications to all cell phones in a designated area without being delayed by network congestion. In addition, it has the capability to interrupt local TV and radio broadcasts to provide important announcements and can instantly post notifications to digital road signs and other locations.
Establish Infrastructure and Training for Communication Triage
Once you have identified your target audience and determined your communication channels, you can create a communication triage strategy that includes the following elements:
- Call center staffing– Expect your administration will receive a higher than average volume of calls from all your audiences. Create a plan to staff your call center accordingly, or even redirect incoming calls to a second call center if possible.
- Ensure key staff is trained in updating your local government website – Your municipal website will be one of the first places that citizens, visitors, and the media go to find the latest information regarding the current disaster. Make sure key members of your emergency communication team are trained on how and where to publish emergency alert information on your municipal website. When a disaster strikes, and every second counts, you can’t waste time trying to make updates to your municipal website using a cumbersome, complicated content management system (CMS). The ideal website management solution will allow you to publish emergency alerts from a mobile device since you never know where you’ll be when an emergency occurs.
- Ensure that you have an internal communication strategy. A plan for external communications is essential, but don’t overlook the importance of building a plan for internal stakeholders to communicate with one another as well. In a crisis, local government administrators need to be able to alert and convene key personnel instantly. Be sure your communication plan can be implemented even if the disaster has disrupted cell service. A valuable emergency notification system will include an integrated conference bridge that will allow you to connect decision-makers on a unified call within seconds to enable time-sensitive next step planning.
Include Social Media in Your Multi-Channel Communication Strategy
Social media has become a crucial platform for providing immediate and important news updates and emergency alerts. This is not only due to the fact that people spend a significant amount of time on social media every day but also because they now anticipate getting breaking news from social media sources. Insignia Communications states that social media is transforming the way consumers stay informed about breaking news by:
- Often breaks on social media first.
- Crosses geographic boundaries more quickly.
- Is informed by multiple firsthand, though often unofficial sources.
- Is commented upon by active social media users, which further shares and distributes the content.
According to Insignia Communications, journalists now utilize social media to discover and relay breaking news stories, with 77 percent acknowledging its significance in promptly obtaining information and reporting stories.
