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Before Disaster Strikes:

Creating an Effective Crisis Communications Plan

Sandra Fathi

President, Affect

Email: [email protected]

tweet: @sandrafathi

web: affect.com

blog: techaffect.com #RaganDisney

3rd Annual Ragan Social Media for PR & Corporate Communications Conference at

Disney World

PRESENTER BIO

SANDRA FATHI

• Founder and president of Affect, a public relations and

social media firm specializing in technology,

healthcare and professional services

o Immediate Past Tri-State District Chair, PRSA

o Past President, PRSA-NY Chapter

o Past President, PRSA Technology Section

[email protected] @sandrafathi

CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS

CORE CONCEPTS

4 Phases of Crisis Communications

• Readiness

• Response

• Reassurance

• Recovery


RECOGNIZING CRISES

Internal

• Employees

• Facilities

• Vendors/Suppliers

• Distributors/Resellers

• Product

External

• Acts of Nature

• Market

• Legal Restrictions/Law

• Customers

• Advocacy Groups

Anticipating & Understanding Threats to a Business

People, Products, Facilities, Environment


CRISIS SCENARIOS

1. Senior manager accused of inappropriate conduct including lewd photos

with employee – Now on Instagram

2. Employee arrested for hit and run accident – Now Appearing in Google

Search

3. Employee abusing drugs – Now Posted on his Facebook Profile

4. Customer credit card details leaked – Now On Twitter

5. Employee posts rant on company and exposes confidential information –

Now on YouTube

6. Company accused of making children’s toys with poisonous lead paint –

Now on a Mommy Blog


EXERCISE #1

Create A Chart:

Potential Threats to Your Business

People Products/Services

Facilities/Operations

Environment

Rank Order

High Alert

to

Low Alert


READINESS

Anticipating a Crisis

1. Crisis Mapping (SWOT Analysis)

2. Policies and Procedures (Prevention)

3. Crisis Monitoring

4. Crisis Communications Plan

5. Crisis Action Plan

6. Crisis Standard Communications Template


RESPONSE TIMES

How long before the $@!& hits the fan?


EXAMPLE: GENERAL MOTORS

1. Develop materials:

• Messages/FAQ

• Prepared statements

• Press release template

• Customer letters

2. Train employees

• Awareness

• Anticipation

• Organizational Preparation

3. Prepare channels:

• Hotline

• Dark site

• Social Media


RESPONSE: CRISIS TOOLKIT


RESPONSE

Preparing a Response

1. Don’t delay

2. Acknowledge situation

3. Acknowledge impact and ‘victims’

4. Commit to investigate

5. Commit to sharing information and cooperation with relevant parties

6. Share corrective action plan if available

7. Respond in the format in which the crisis was received**


EXAMPLE: 1800 FLOWERS


EXERCISE #2

Prepare a Template Crisis Response:

1. What happened?

2. What do we know about it?

3. Who/what was impacted?

4. How do we feel about it? (How should we feel?)

5. What are we going to do about it?

6. When are we going to do it?

7. When/how will we communicate next?


REASSURANCE

Who to Reassure? How to Reassure?

1. Develop full response plan

2. Put plan into action: Immediate remedy

3. Communicate results of plan and impact

4. Reaffirm commitment to correction

5. Demonstrate results of program


RECOVERY

Preparing a Long-term Recovery Plan

1. Review need for operational, regulatory, environmental and

employee changes

2. Develop long-term plan including policies and prevention tactics

3. Reassess crisis plan

4. Regain customer/public trust


EXAMPLE: PAPER MAGAZINE


EXAMPLE: ConEd & MTA


Hurricane Sandy Social Media Facts: Con Edison

• 6,500 Twitter Followers to 23,000 within 2 Weeks

• 25 videos posted on pre-Sandy preparation

• 100,000+ views and multiple broadcast airings of videos

• 2500 Press Release RTs

• 140,000 Flickr restoration image views



Hurricane Sandy Social Media Facts: MTA

• Empower street crews

• Empower consumers

• Update MTA.info, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, FaceBook

• Utilize Urban Digital Panels

• Email/Text Alerts

MTA’s 4 Categories of Media Shared:

• Before: Preparation

• During: Storm Hits

• Aftermath 1: Damage

• Aftermath 2: Restoration



EXAMPLE: MICROSOFT


EXAMPLE: AMERICAN APPAREL


EXAMPLE: TIDE LAUNDRY PODS


EXAMPLE: SONY HACK

• Day 1: 11/24 – Computer screen takeover and threatening message to reveal all internal data

• Day 2: 11/25 – All Sony Computers shut down in NY, Hollywood and international. Sony

claims to be ‘Investigating an IT Matter”

• Day 3: 11/26 – Still no computers, email or voicemail

• Day 4: 11/27 – 5 Sony films (not yet releases) dumped online on file-sharing hubs

• Days 5, 6, 7 – Stories swirl about North Korean involvement

• Day 8: 12/1 - Sony hires a cyber security firm, FBI launches investigation

• Day 9: 12/2 – Sony chiefs Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal issue company-wide alert to

employees about the attack

• ......

• Day 22: 12/6th – Cyberterrorists threaten to attack movie theaters that show The Interview

• All hell breaks loose


EXAMPLE: SONY HACK

1. Men are paid more than women (stars and

executives)

2. Quid pro quo at play (with journalists)

3. Ugly side of business (Angelina Jolie ‘minimally

talented spoiled brat’ and racially charged jokes

about Obama’s taste in movies)

4. Tracking detailed medical costs and health

information about employees

5. Revealing celebrity aliases


EXERCISE #3

WWYD: What Would You Do?

At each stage of the crisis, SONY seems to have

made major mistakes. What would you have done

differently for each stage?

1. Readiness

2. Response

3. Reassurance

4. Recovery


10 THINGS TO KNOW

1. Implement Policies to Address Potential

Vulnerabilities

2. Use Social Media as a Tool for Crisis Monitoring

3. Understand the Response-ability of Social Media

4. Establish a Framework for Response

5. Build a Social Media Crisis Toolkit

6. Know Where to Respond

7. Prepare Your Employees in Advance

8. Establish the Proper Tone

9. Kill the Automation Switch

10. Be Honest, Be Transparent


10 THINGS TO KNOW


RESOURCES

White Paper:

Crisis Communications in the Social Media

Age

Download at: Affect.com

How to Create an Effective Crisis

Communications Plan Before Disaster Strikes

Sandra Fathi

President, Affect

Email: [email protected]

tweet: @sandrafathi

web: affect.com

blog: techaffect.com

Slides Available: Slideshare.net/sfathi

#RaganDisney

before disaster strikes - ragan communications › resources › pdf › disneyprecon › 11... ·...

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