Building Your Crisis Management Plan

In our last post, we discussed the creation of Crisis Management Teams and their role in crisis prevention through crisis preparation. In this post, we are going to take a look at the actual construction and implementation of Crisis Management Plans (CMPs), which are a crucial part of preparing for any type of crisis.

CMPs have important information in them which can often result in lengthy size that might seem unmanageable. However, "Long CMPs look nice on shelves as they collect dust but are not practical when a crisis hits." (Barton, 2001; Coombs, 2006a)

Put simply, CMPs are documents that should be user-friendly, identifying who to contact, when, and why. According to Patrick Whatman, the Content Marketer at Mention, to keep a CMP concise and easy to use, there are some simple steps to follow once you have built your Crisis Management Team, which can be found in his article on the Mention Blog.

To summarize, he discusses a need for the identification of a crisis, and what situation should dictate what action.

"You need to decide the kinds of events that will kick your new plan into action. Not every piece of bad news or negative headline should force you to go into 'code red'." (Whatman)

The next step is to identify your key message, so as to not lose sight of your core values as a company, and your goal in overcoming situations. Kelly Samuel from the Forbes Agency Council encourages separation of logic from emotion in finding this key message, so as to not let your initial reaction to a situation be motivated by a personal emotion, but rather a level headed and logical approach. From the start, your central message should be correct and made very clear, because when you find yourself in the fast-paced midst of a crisis,

"Things will be moving a mile a minute. Despite your best intentions, you can't monitor everything ever spokesperson or social media manager says and posts." (Whatman)

Creating guidelines for internal and external communications

is a necessary and wise way to assist in delivering the message, so that the actions of your spokespersons don't have to be monitored, only your standing in the situation. In order to monitor the situation for updates on where your company stands in the midst of crisis, utilize the many tools, such as Mention, available for analyzing data and tracking what is being said about you and where.

In preparing for crisis, it is important to be aware of the resources and tools available to you, and keeping track of new opportunities to keep your company healthy and up-to-date on this front. An easy way to do this is to follow Social Media Marketing on news sites, such as Flipboard to keep an eye on new tips and organizations who have the same mission in mind. As we transition into Crisis Recognition during this week, keep an eye out for articles on companies that you can learn from as we do!

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