Benefits of Incorporating a Crisis Communications Plan in Politics
As someone that is interested and involved in politics, seeing the vast differences between different events that call for crisis communications is interesting. There have been certain scandals such as the Flint Water Crisis, the Iran-Contra affair under the Reagan administration, the Teapot Dome scandal under the Harding administration, the Watergate scandal under the Nixon administration, just to name a few. Every politician has had some form of crisis that they have needed to manage, and seemingly each of these crises seems to have failed by not having a good crisis communication plan, whether that be at the fault of the politician or their communications team. Therefore, in order to combat this, I would like to offer some crisis communication tips from my CAP 320: Public Relations Management & Cases class, as well as tips from the Arthur W. Page crisis module. If you find yourself managing a campaign or being a part of a communications team, this blog is for you!
Arthur W. Page Crisis Module Tips
In the Page module, they separate crisis communication into three stages: pre-crisis, during the crisis, and post-crisis:
Pre-Crisis
You will want to monitor the crisis risks.
You will need to make decisions about how to manage potential crises.
It is key that you train people who will be involved in the crisis management process so they know how to handle it in a professional manner.
During Crisis
You will need to collect and process information for the crisis team to make a decision.
You will need to create and disseminate crisis messages.
Post Crisis
Assess how well (or poor) the crisis management effort was.
Expect some follow-up after the crisis, you will need to provide follow-up crisis messages for a bit.
Tips from CAP 320
If you have not taken CAP 320 yet, here are some tips from the class to get you ahead of the game in crisis communications:
Prove you have identified the situation and are actively doing something to solve it.
Be transparent: let your publics know about the crisis quickly while also sharing accurate information about it. Shift the story to be about your response, instead of the crisis at-hand.
Make sure to communicate constantly with your publics and updating them with accurate, up-to-date information.
Make sure you are only communicating the facts, not mere speculation.
Be confident and decisive in all of your decisions.
Have a single spokesperson to speak on the crisis, and make sure they are trained. You don’t want too many cooks in the kitchen telling conflicting stories.
No matter if you are running a business, helping a client, or running a political campaign, having knowledge in crisis communications will do wonders. While the damage may be done, you can certainly help a company rebuild their relationship with their publics post-crisis.
About Stephen
Stephen Szymanski is a senior this year pursuing a degree in Advertising & Public Relations with a minor in Philosophy. Stephen is currently interning for Farmhaus Cider Co. as a taproom intern, where he applies his community relations experience and works on their newsletter. This is his first year on the GrandPR staff where he serves as the Community Outreach Coordinator.