How To Make A Crisis Communications Plan

There are times wherein a corporation would undergo a certain situation wherein their whole name could be spoiled. Scandals, rumors, and other types of bad situations involving the corporation could really destroy the sales of the corporation which is why when these things happen, they have to react quickly. The best thing for management to do in this situation would be to come up with a crisis communications plan.

When making these kinds of plans, it is very important to include what kind of medium one would be using in order to deliver the message. The mediums could range from internet channels, the media, or simple word of mouth communication. As long as one is able to get the message to be viral, then he should already be successful.

Now when making these plans, one must first start with an overview of what the crisis was and how it happened. There must be a detailed report of the crisis as well as what happened before the said event and the happenings that led to it. In other words, one should include the warning signals that the corporation experienced before the whole event took place.

Now the second part of this thing would be a list of some people that were included in the entire thing. Most likely, the communications team and the public relations team would make an appearance in this part because they are the front liners of this situation. Now other people who will play a big role in this situation are the media contacts.

So the next part is a complete assessment of the details of the situation and some solutions that were proposed in the process. Of course this part will now showcase the people who were included and what their specific roles were in the solution of this problem. One may actually use the action matrix to help when making the plan.

Now the next part would be involving the message of corporation to the target audience. This would include a whole sheet of facts that could be used in the message, some key messages that the corporation would want to get across, and the people who were involved in this whole situation. Most corporations would also use a five step model for message preparation.

Now the last part would be to now come up with the details on how exactly the management would want to present the message. Now when a corporation would want to target a specific audience, then they should show a list of people that are in that audience. From there, the media contacts, press contacts, and of course some third party contacts would be listed in this part and how they are going to be used to blast the message.

So basically, that is a simple template for making a crisis communications plan. Now one thing to take note when addressing this type of situation is that it should be addressed as soon as possible. Advisably within a week so that the bad image will not stick.