Image - Crisiscounseling.com

When valuing a PR team, many companies will look at the thickness of a clip book or the quality of releases and other written collateral. The one thing that they often neglect to measure, maybe because they are optimists, is the skill of a PR team when crisis strikes. Now no one wants to think of the worst, but every flack worth their weight in salt can tell you that the best laid plans may fall to waste and you need a plan Z to fall back on.

In the past (and we’re talking one-two years ago here) this often meant crafting out a crisis plan and having all of your ducks in a row before responding to a crisis. With the adoption of social channels by the masses, these plans (for the most part) are very outdated. A response may need to be given within minutes instead of the typical hours (or days) to avoid the maelstrom of negativity. This means getting your crap together and getting the message out there, take a deep breath, you are a flack and can handle it.

The one question is where to start. There are probably countless case studies of how X did this well or Y fell on their butts, but we won’t be discussing those today. I came across this presentation on Social Media Today from the WSJ in a partnership with John Bell and Jamie Moeller that was pretty extensive and gave a good road map of digital crisis management.

Does your company have a plan in place that covers digital crisis communications?

Image - Crisiscounseling.com

When valuing a PR team, many companies will look at the thickness of a clip book or the quality of releases and other written collateral. The one thing that they often neglect to measure, maybe because they are optimists, is the skill of a PR team when crisis strikes. Now no one wants to think of the worst, but every flack worth their weight in salt can tell you that the best laid plans may fall to waste and you need a plan Z to fall back on.

In the past (and we’re talking one-two years ago here) this often meant crafting out a crisis plan and having all of your ducks in a row before responding to a crisis. With the adoption of social channels by the masses, these plans (for the most part) are very outdated. A response may need to be given within minutes instead of the typical hours (or days) to avoid the maelstrom of negativity. This means getting your crap together and getting the message out there, take a deep breath, you are a flack and can handle it.

The one question is where to start. There are probably countless case studies of how X did this well or Y fell on their butts, but we won’t be discussing those today. I came across this presentation on Social Media Today from the WSJ in a partnership with John Bell and Jamie Moeller that was pretty extensive and gave a good road map of digital crisis management.

Does your company have a plan in place that covers digital crisis communications?

Image - Crisiscounseling.com

When valuing a PR team, many companies will look at the thickness of a clip book or the quality of releases and other written collateral. The one thing that they often neglect to measure, maybe because they are optimists, is the skill of a PR team when crisis strikes. Now no one wants to think of the worst, but every flack worth their weight in salt can tell you that the best laid plans may fall to waste and you need a plan Z to fall back on.

In the past (and we’re talking one-two years ago here) this often meant crafting out a crisis plan and having all of your ducks in a row before responding to a crisis. With the adoption of social channels by the masses, these plans (for the most part) are very outdated. A response may need to be given within minutes instead of the typical hours (or days) to avoid the maelstrom of negativity. This means getting your crap together and getting the message out there, take a deep breath, you are a flack and can handle it.

The one question is where to start. There are probably countless case studies of how X did this well or Y fell on their butts, but we won’t be discussing those today. I came across this presentation on Social Media Today from the WSJ in a partnership with John Bell and Jamie Moeller that was pretty extensive and gave a good road map of digital crisis management.

Does your company have a plan in place that covers digital crisis communications?

Image - Crisiscounseling.com

When valuing a PR team, many companies will look at the thickness of a clip book or the quality of releases and other written collateral. The one thing that they often neglect to measure, maybe because they are optimists, is the skill of a PR team when crisis strikes. Now no one wants to think of the worst, but every flack worth their weight in salt can tell you that the best laid plans may fall to waste and you need a plan Z to fall back on.

In the past (and we’re talking one-two years ago here) this often meant crafting out a crisis plan and having all of your ducks in a row before responding to a crisis. With the adoption of social channels by the masses, these plans (for the most part) are very outdated. A response may need to be given within minutes instead of the typical hours (or days) to avoid the maelstrom of negativity. This means getting your crap together and getting the message out there, take a deep breath, you are a flack and can handle it.

The one question is where to start. There are probably countless case studies of how X did this well or Y fell on their butts, but we won’t be discussing those today. I came across this presentation on Social Media Today from the WSJ in a partnership with John Bell and Jamie Moeller that was pretty extensive and gave a good road map of digital crisis management.

Does your company have a plan in place that covers digital crisis communications?