Welcome to Crisis 422

Hello everyone!

Welcome to our journey into uncovering all things Crisis Communication! We are a team of students who have taken interest in this topic and seek to share the most important findings with you.

We understand that Crisis Communication is seen as a vital yet intimidating effort to develop for companies and individuals. Therefore, in the next few weeks each of our members is committed to gaining an understanding of the topic and sharing the information with you. We also seek to reduce the overwhelming effort of sorting through the clutter of information on this topic and presenting only the most important components.

Through this process we hope to alleviate the stress often correlated with Crisis Communication and inspire our readers to apply the concepts to their marketing plan. We invite you to join us in the process!

First, let's begin with defining what Crisis Communication is.

According to Business Dictionary, Crisis Communication is "The effort taken by a company to communicate with the public and stockholders when an unexpected event occurs that could have a negative impact on the company's reputation."

Next, we need to consider why this is a crucial effort to implement.

The incentive for us to understand what Crisis Communication is and how to implement it is influenced by our discovery that one of the unspoken fears of executives is the adequacy of their team's ability to address cyber-attacks, the toxic leak, and other threats to the integrity of their organization (Melissa Agnes).

Additionally, we have observed the real-life effects of a poorly thought out crisis strategy. Some recent cases displaying the negative consequences included the Target data breach, the Volkswagen emissions scandal, and the Southwest Airlines social media response (In Case Of Crisis).

We believe that these issues have the potential to be resolved and prevented through a better understanding of what Crisis Communication is and how to manage it.

Lastly, through finding what Crisis Communication is and why it is important, we then have permission to address the How to finding and implementing strategy.

A study of Crisis Communication leads us to the discovery and implementation of Crisis Management.

Expert Timothy Coombs addresses this topic thoroughly in his book Ongoing Crisis Communication: Planning, Managing, and Responding. He states that, "Crisis management represents a set of factors designed to combat crises and to lessen the actual damage inflicted."

These four factors include: Crisis Response, Crisis Recognition, Crisis Preparation, and Crisis Prevention.

In the next few weeks we will be taking a closer look at each of these factors and how they correlate to a Crisis Management plan.

We look forward to this process of gaining a deeper insight and would be delighted to hear your thoughts and experiences in this field! Please write to us and let us know what your thoughts are on this topic as we seek this knowledge and implementation together.

#crisiscommunication #crisismanagement #crisisprevention